Heat, large bugs, and poisonous snakes should make for some good stories later on!

Everyone,

I would like to thank all of you for the time and effort that each of you brings to the gym each and every day.  Over the years, it’s been a pleasure to watch each of you tackle new goals, overcome obstacles that were once in your way, and re-define yourselves through hard work, dicipline, and the great community that has become CrossFit Tri-Cities!  It’s always been a great experience guiding you guys towards greater health, fitness, and finding a passion in the stuff that we do every week!

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been incredibly busy the past few weeks, and have tapered my schedule accordingly to allow for my next adventure in life.  For those of you who have moved in the past, I’m sure you very well know that a lot of “wheels turn” when prepping for a move, and even more things come up in the final days before the transition.  For those of you who don’t know, or have been wondering about where I’ve been (and heading to), I’ll be moving to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina for an extensive training and qualification course on Friday.  Last November/December I passed the “selection” phase of this pipeline which granted me the opportunity to attend the next phases of training.  As of right now, I’m projecting to be gone about 1 year in this course.

Attending this course has been a VERY long term goal for myself, and the hard work has finally brought me to it’s door step.  I’m not getting any younger, and realized that I either have to be happy with never giving this a shot in the first place, or attack this thing and see what happens to experience what is on the “other side”.  I couldn’t have gotten where I am today without the help and support of my Wife, Family, and close friends.  I also couldn’t have done it without the great training partners (specifically the 11am class), who I have dragged mercilessly through over a year of preparation and conditioning which has proven to be successful thus far!  From the weekends at the bike path with a support crew making sure I didn’t pass out from heat exhaustion as the miles went on, to pushing myself amongst the participants of the ALT Classes, it has been quite a journey!

Not to worry though, I will return once I complete everything in North Carolina.  We’re very lucky to have such an Awesome team of Coaches who will undoubtedly, lead all of you towards all of your future goals and successes!   I look forward to hearing about how everyone is doing, and will promise to give you guys updates over the time I’m away.  If anyone needs anything, please don’t hesitate to shoot me a call or email (although there will be periods of time where I will not have access to the internet or my phone), I will get back to you!

Best of luck to all of you, and we will see you soon!

-Mark