Battle Cry

We come to these places, these gyms, these “boxes” like moths drawn to the light, or a dog fixated on a bone buried deep in the backyard.

We are drawn to them in a way we can’t even explain to ourselves, or to our loved ones — who get a quick hug, a ruffle of the hair, and a breathless “Gotta go WOD” as we tumble out the door, panicked once again to get to the place before the warm-up starts, before the battle, before we miss anything, because you know we don’t like to miss anything.

The place: you’d think it was a castle, the way we describe our affiliates. Like the Knights of CrossFit gather there every night and slay dragons, bearing arms against the darkness and saving the village from all those evildoers who would ravage it.

In truth, it might be a dank warehouse, or a clean well-lit room, or somebody’s garage. Even a parking lot. There are no knights, no maidens, no dragons. Well, no dragons except those we carry within us already.

When things get bad, when the dark settles on us way before the daylight ends, we summon our inner firebreather and we fight. We rally, we rail, and we forge onward –  to finish a workout, to help a cause, to help each other. On this day, at least, we eat the darkness and the darkness does not eat us. We don’t know about tomorrow, but we most certainly hope it will be like today, and the village survives again.

In the Middle Ages, the Hungarian conquerors had a battle cry: “Huj, Huj, Hajrá!” It meant “Faster! Faster!”

Huj, Huj, Hajra indeed. See you at the castle.

(Image courtesy of Nicole Bedard Photography.)

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