Uniting Two (seemingly) Disparate Worlds

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With Every career I’ve ever embarked upon (there have been two to date) my ultimate goal was not to be rich, but to leave the world a better place than I found it. As a computer/network technician, I generally failed. As a writer, I think I’m getting closer to that goal with pieces like this:

Hitting the Road, WOD Style

Here’s a deep insight into me: in third grade, I joined our small town’s fledgling soccer program. I loved it so much, that I stayed on until fourth grade. That was when an incident occurred involving my coach kicking a cooler and screaming “WHAT THE F*@K!” over what he saw as a bad call. From that, I gleaned that competition was more important to this group than fun. I loved kicking the ball, I loved winning and I loved being fit, but from that point on I couldn’t bring myself to waste the time on sports.

Which is unfortunate, because years later I discovered that I loved doing more work than is necessary to achieve the objective–the underlying philosophy to working out.

I was turned on to Crossfit as I was becoming a writer. It was fun–it made fitness something more than a competition to see who could have the largest biceps or who could go run for hours on end. Greg Glassman, founder of Crossfit (which, by the way, is free @ www.crossfit.com) says to imagine a bag full of random tasks–running, jumping, punching, sprinting, etc. Our ability to declare our fitness is only as good as our ability to do any of those random tasks.

I saw a huge parallel between that and travel. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever met a seasoned traveler who wasn’t–to some degree–very capable.

So I pitched to the editor. He bit. Now it’s published. As one one commenter put it:

“It’s an interesting article, but the author is either reaching a little too far about the fitness demands of traveling or he’s not a very organized or accomplished traveler.”

But yet another agreed with me:

“…I am a competitive distance
runner and CrossFitter. CrossFit has been by far the superior training
system in preparing me for my many travels. I can very closely relate
to Jacob’s experience. I have had to run with a forty pound pack on my
back to catch a plane. On a rafting trip had to fight a rivers current,
jump and catch a suspended bar on a causeway, and do a muscle up to
safety in order to avoid going over a waterfall…”

My goal was twofold–to make Crossfitter realized that they are primed to travel the world on a budget and to make budget travelers realize that you don’t have to be a sweaty jock (or spend a lot of money) to be fit.

This isn’t a call for people to read my article (after all, you’d need to pay $25 for a subscription to the journal). It’s my call to all traveler’s to try out Crossfit.