An Interview With The Circle Of Awesomeness 2013 Winners

“Life-changing. Encouraging. Inspiring”

Athlete: Leah Alter
CrossFit Austin Member: Est. September 2011
Female Winner of COA 2013
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Circle of Awesomeness in 6 words or less?
“Life-changing, encouraging, inspiring”

Greatest struggle/obstacle with COA 2013
The workout “Kelly” (my shins got hit both times, still have scars!)

Greatest achievement with COA 2013
I won!

Basically, state the goals you set for yourself for COA 2013
To improve on all my initial tests, stay strict paleo/no drinking, lose weight/inches/body fat

Favorite part of COA 2013
The encouragement and time with my teammates. Coach Sharon was our team lead and did a great job keeping us all connected. We really pushed and supported each other.

Words of advice for those new to the CrossFit Austin Community
This is my 3rd COA challenge. The first one I did only after being a part of the gym a couple months.  It really was the thing that made me fall in love with CFA and CrossFit in general. It was so hard, so rewarding. There is no one that wouldn’t benefit from it.  Even if you can’t commit to everything 100%, pick one or two things you really need to work on and just focus on that.  It also really sets you up for a great year.

Anything to say to our CrossFit Austin veterans who’ve never done COA?
C’mon already.  What? You scared?

If anything, what would you change about the Circle if Awesomeness?
That we don’t do more of them. It’s a great CFA tradition. I’m super excited to take part for a 3rd year.  Bring it!

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“Challenge. Struggle. Uncomfortable. Exciting. Eye-opening”

Athlete: Bradley Anderson
CrossFit Austin Member: Est. July 2012
Male Winner of COA 2013
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Circle of Awesomeness in 6 words or less?
“Challenge. Struggle. Uncomfortable. Exciting. Eye-opening”

Greatest struggle/obstacle with COA 2013
My greatest struggle with the COA was trying to eat great ALL the time. I have always thought I ate well but I still enjoy caving into my sweet tooth from time to time.  I did cave during the COA 2013 and I felt I could feel it in my workouts and it was not positive lol

Greatest achievement with COA 2013
Doing a competition type event. Although this was not with a hundred people yelling at you all the time you had stuff to keep you on your toes and made sure you were on top of your game at all times.  It was stressful and exciting like a competition.

Basically, state the goals you set for yourself for COA 2013
My goals for the beginning were to lean down and get into the best shape of my life.  I feel like I achieved one of those two goals but remember I told ya I caved into my sweet tooth so one was not quite complete! Haha!!

Favorite part of COA 2013
My favorite part of COA were the workouts! I love to workout and it challenged me in aspects of my fitness that I was lacking. Areas that I never focused on before and while I improved it definitely showed me that I had some very large weaknesses. Weaknesses that today I am still working on mastering.

Words of advice for those new to the CrossFit Austin Community
Do it with everything you have in you! It is not that long tell all your friends and family about it and if they try to get you to do something that would hinder it, tell them to wait a few weeks and then you can see if you want to allow yourself to stray a little bit from your goals.

Anything to say to our CrossFit Austin veterans who’ve never done COA?
The same that I would a new CFA member, do it with everything you got in you, challenge yourself and see how far you can go in such a short period of time! You will be surprised that even though you think your good now you can always get way better!

If anything, what would you change about the Circle if Awesomeness?
Well of course make all the workouts something I was good at lol!! But to be real I think it was a lot of fun and really pushed me out of my comfort zone which at the time I would have changed but now I am glad for all that it taught me.  I would only change how I approached the challenge and what effort I put into completing it.

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