By GWPC member Donna Ball
If you are familiar with CrossFit you know that there are a number of workouts (WODs) named for heroes who have died in the line of duty. Most of these are named for military members who have lost their lives, but there are also hero WODs for firemen and policeman and other heroes as well. Murph is named for Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, a Navy Seal who lost his life on June 28, 2005 in Afghanistan and it has become symbolic to do this workout at CrossFit boxes around the country on Memorial Day. Murph is a brutal workout but it’s fitting that it should be hard and require determination to finish:
1-mile run
100 pull-ups
200 push-ups
300 squats
1-mile run
Doing a hero WOD has special meaning if you have ever served or know someone who has. Both my son and my daughter served in Iraq and the worst days of my life were the days I said good-bye to them not knowing if I would ever see them again and the days and nights spent worrying whether they would come home. The best days were when they landed once again on American soil. Thousands of American military families with loved ones serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have not been so fortunate and I can’t even begin to compare my worst days with theirs. I will always carry sadness in my heart for those families and I will try to honor them for the rest of my life by remembering their sacrifice in any way that I can. CrossFit hero WODS give me one opportunity.
I have been doing Crossfit for less than two years and still can not do a pull-up and can only run-jog the mile but I came to the box today determined to do the best Murph I could and to finish even if it took me all day. I slogged my way through the mile runs thinking of Murph’s mother, I did jumping pull-ups in place of ‘real’ pull-ups, and when I thought I couldn’t do another squat I thought of Murph and those like him who didn’t give up even as they faced death. I managed to give it my best today not only for Lieutenant Murphy and all of those who have served and died, but also for Murph’s mother and father and the families of all of those who haven’t returned. And I finished.
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