CrossFit Idol
HHH recently informed me that she is working with one of my CrossFit heroes Jason “Jayboy” Gach. Actually, scratch the CrossFit part. Jayboy is one of my life heroes. One of those people that I look up to. A committed husband and father, Jayboy embodies all the values I aspire to. When I imagine how I would like to conduct myself, I can think of no better role model than Jayboy. Usually I fail to live up to that ideal though I never stop trying. Let me tell you about my friend Jayboy:
Born 1971, Jayboy stands about 5’9” and with his lean but athletic build, probably weighs in around 150lbs. He is fit but you would never pick him out as an elite athlete. He is well groomed, well dressed, well spoken; a proper gentleman with nary a bad word to say about anyone even when he’s given just cause to do so. He isn’t shy but is quiet and unassuming.
When I arrived at CrossFit Vancouver in 2009 Jayboy had already been coaching and competing for some time. In a gym of over 500 members, on any given day, you could find Jayboy in the top ten of the men’s leaderboard for just about every workout. Maybe because he only trained in the quieter morning classes or maybe because he did not attend the CrossFit Vancouver parties or maybe because he never beat his chest and made a big deal about it, in a gym that glorified athletic dominance, he was never on anyone’s radar despite the fact that he regularly posted scores that rivalled or beat some of our gym’s biggest stars.
In fact, when CrossFit Vancouver held qualifiers to determine which three men and women would represent our team at the 2009 CrossFit Games, I was one of the few who believed Jayboy had a shot. He proved me right when he finished third place overall among all the male CrossFit Vancouver competitors. I was so excited to watch him represent us at the Games. Except that the ownership made an executive decision not to honour their initial qualifying process deciding to send the fourth place finisher - a gym favourite and part of the in crowd - in Jayboy’s place. I was furious. Jayboy shrugged it off without complaint. “I guess they made the best decision for the team,” is all he said without apparent rancour and declined to comment further.
Because some of the morning group classes were lightly attended, it was not uncommon for my coach to have just Jayboy and I in the class. I can’t count how many WODs we went head to head but I know exactly how many times I finished before him: zero! Didn’t matter what the workout was, Jayboy always crushed me. Not that it seemed important to him. I may have been chasing him, but Jayboy was running his own race.
He is the one who taught me how to create a workout strategy instead of throwing myself full blast at the WOD and praying I could hold my pace. For example, he taught me to break up the gym portion of Murph into 17 rounds of 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 17 squats, in round 18 you have 11 squats remaining and then in rounds 19 and 20 you just alternate between pull ups and push ups letting your legs recover before the final mile run. Jayboy was the best WOD strategist I knew.
Back in those early days it was rare that I made the top 20 on the men’s leaderboard. I once complained to Jayboy that it was unfair to compare since I was 10 years older than the majority of top athletes. “How old are you?” Jayboy asked. “Thirty-five.” “I’m thirty-six,” he replied. Boom! Excuses shattered. Jayboy was a year older than me and at least a decade older than the gym average but he didn’t let that hold him back from regularly posting top 10 scores. One summer I kept track and he had more top 10 finishes than any other CrossFit Vancouver male athlete. No one else noticed.
As I mentioned, Jayboy was coaching CrossFit before I started my apprenticeship at CrossFit Vancouver, he was a top tier athlete and had been part of the community longer than me so, when I took over coaching the CrossFit morning classes, I guess I deferred to him and our mutual friend, Jennifer Dober, also a CrossFit coach, professional gymnastics coach and multi-time CrossFit Games competitor. Who wouldn’t be intimidated?
A few weeks in, Jayboy and Jen took me aside after class and in a very respectful, supportive way asked me to stop deferring to them. “We are just here to workout,” they said, “We don’t mind helping to demo movements but please treat us the same as the other athletes, we are here to be coached.” It was very empowering to receive their blessings and after that, I just coached. Were they more qualified than me? For sure. But that wasn’t the point.
Years later, at Empower on Dunbar, in 2015 or 2016 I was at the peak of my CrossFit game and placed around 43rd in the CrossFit Open for Canadian men over 40, first page on the leaderboard. Shortly after the Open Sunghee and I were at the store and bumped into Jayboy. “Nice job in the Open,” he said. Wow! How did he know? We hadn’t seen each other in years. I was flattered that my long-time CrossFit hero paid any attention to my competitive efforts and said as much. “Sure, I noticed,” Jayboy said, “You kicked my ass!”
I downplayed it. After all he had never rubbed in my face the fact that he crushed me daily in our WODs. He’d always been a class act. I thanked him, wished him well, then rushed Sunghee out of the store so I could get back home to my laptop and check the leaderboard. I found Jayboy way down on page two ranked 81st in Canada. This was the absolute highlight accomplishment of my CrossFit career so far. Beating my hero on the leaderboard! And he was so gracious and genuinely complimentary about it. As ever, a real class act. I suspect Jayboy knew exactly how much that win meant to me and he served it to me generously, acknowledging how much I had progressed as an athlete. It meant the world to me - especially from him! Here was someone who had witnessed first hand my humble start, someone who knew the unproductive personal narratives that I had to overcome in order to reach my athletic potential.
CrossFit is filled with amazing people. Every event we go to we meet great friends new and old. Along the way I have had great coaches, inspiring training partners, fun competitors and a whole community of valued friends. It has been absolutely transformational to have so much support on my fitness journey!
Friday Make Up Day
1) 30 min Carry
Complete as many laps as possible of the 400m loop carrying a load of your choice
Score = number of laps x load carried
2) 150 double-unders
125 sit-ups
100 box step-ups
75 deadlifts
50 burpees
25 strict handstand push-ups
3) As many rounds and reps as possible in 14 minutes of:
7 hang power cleans
7 front squats
