Competing in the Crossfit Asia Regionals in Seoul

I am not sure how I should start writing this blog post, because everything has happened in the past week was beyond overwhelming, with many highlights and special moments.

As some of you know, last week I went to Seoul South Korea to compete in the Reebok Crossfit Games Asia Regional 2012 with my team, Crossfit LifeSpark. Since there is SO much to say, I will break down this post into headlines/days (so you can always come back to read the rest =P). Also there is a link in the end to a photo album.

 

Preparation - Airport & Flight:

My teammates & I
Thanks for Adventure HQ for providing us
with UAE Flag buffs!

The last time and first time I ever traveled was 13 years ago. The simple action of packing, driving to the airport was an overwhelming experience. At 8:30pm, my mom dropped me and my sister to the airport and walked in with us to wish me and my team good luck. I almost cried, leaving what I've always known was scary. As we dealt with the procedures, it slowly started to hit me. I am really traveling for a competition.  

We still had about an hour before the flight aboard at 10:55pm, and it was a good time to catch one last meal before traveling.
As we reached the gates to the flight, there was a bit of a situation. One of our team members has been delayed at the airport due to visa issues. Therefore, one of our team members was left behind as we had to leave. Due to that, there were a few complications competition-wise due to the situation, which will be discussed below. 

As for the flight, it was a bit scary for me, the idea of being in the sky with no place to be "grounded" for 8 or so hours was just nerve wrecking, especially there was some turbulence. I couldn't catch on some sleep as I hoped I would, nor did I watch movies either. I would still NOT choose to travel unless necessary! 

DAY 1 - Landing, Hotel, Exploring Seoul: 

We landed in the Incheon International Airport at noon time. The day before we landed, I called the UAE Embassy in Korea just to inform them about what we're doing in Korea and ask them a few questions about Seoul. They were very friendly and immediately suggested they send us drivers. We had a driver waiting for us with my name tag (ow, I felt special!). They immediately welcomed us, and took our bags in a swift manner (I swear, they were like agents, swift and smooth and fast!). Three cars were waiting for us, we unloaded the bags in one car, the ladies left in one car, and the boys left in another car. 

Our driver was telling us about Seoul, the city, and out of no where he started playing Emirati music, and we couldn't help by smile/laugh. It was CUTE! 

Getting a mini workout at the Hangang park

After an hour drive, we reached our destination. We were staying at the Ritz Carlton hotel which was located in the business side of the city. As we went into the rooms to unload, one of our team members, Brian Sigafoos said he's going to explore the city. So myself, my sister, Tess, Yaseen went to explore Seoul on foot. We walked in the city, across the streets, down and uphill. People in Korea barely stared at us (even though we were very stare-able!), and the streets are usually busy with a lot of people walking on foot. There are plenty of hills and bridges, food stalls on the street that sell really greasy seafood stuff. One of the most interesting thing I found about Korea, is that in every corner, small park, there are exercise equipments (like the bench press, chest press, pull ups bars, and anything you could think of!).  In the end of the day, we went to a big park/river called the Hangang, a really huge and beautiful park. We spent about an hour there, playing around like in the picture above, before we walked back to the hotel as we reached around 7:30pm.

*PS: I will posting a video of us exploring Seoul soon....watch this space.

So, it was food time. Hm. 

Some people are aware that I am very picky with food, and I am intolerant to many others. Such combination didn't work to my advantage in Korea. Beyond that fact there is no halal meat/chicken in Seoul for the most part - eating food was a struggle for me the whole week.

So having not eaten all day (and walking for four hours), as you can imagine...got me starving. However, the team couldn't find food that is suitable for me and for everybody else at the same time. Brian was nice enough walk me through the city and find me some prawns. I had two plates of that, each cooked differently. All I knew at that point, I needed to eat!

 

DAY 2 - Unfortunate News & Registration: 

On the 2nd day of my stay in Korea, I got a couple of unfortunate news.

Before I went to Korea, I have spoken to the management of Ritz Carlton to explain to them the situation of requiring halal meat. Luckily, they were very helpful and friendly and said they will provide the food as I request in advance. 

When I woke up the next morning to go to the breakfast buffet, I found out that they didn't really understand what "halal food" meant, and thought it is a type of food, rather than "meat butchered in an Islamic way." All I can say, the hotel has been great in trying to accommodate us, but the language barrier (very common in Korea), resulted in miscommunication.

Luckily enough, I grabbed some cans of tuna, avocado and coconut milk from home and they kept me somewhat sane leading up to the competition day, as post-competition diet didn't really matter (I ended up living on bread the rest of the week!)

Also, as I mentioned earlier, one of our team members was delayed at the airport. We then later found out the only time the member can join us was the night of the first day of the competition is over. So, we had to double-check with the director of the Asia Region if that could possibly effect us to compete. 

We are originally six members, one of our team members was delayed, and the other member reached on Thursday afternoon as planned. We went for the early registration on Thursday afternoon to the venue, which was in the Peace Institute at the kyunghee University.

Due to the technicality our team member faced and couldn't make it on time for registration on the first day of the competition, Friday morning, the Asia director said we could compete, however, unfortunately we weren't "officially" competing.  In other words, we wouldn't given a score/rank. However, we got media coverage during the competition nonetheless.

There is nothing we could do about the situation, but the fact we were allowed to compete on its own had to be good enough. The whole situation from being qualified, to finding sponsors, to travel arrangements, and making it there had been a roller coaster, but thank God, despite all the lows, there was light in the end of the tunnel on each situation. That's all that mattered to me.

DAY 3 - Competition Day:

This was it. This day has been the day that I've been training the past 5 months for. The day I put my body through hell for. The day that, well, I cried many times, not knowing whether I will make it or not. 

But here it was. The 4th of May. Regionals day.

I woke up at 5am (12am UAE time) to get ready. As an organized freak, I prepared my clothes, gym bag, food, all the night before. I didn't want to worry about anything. It was then 6am and the whole team met in front of our rooms to walk to the Gangnam bus station, which was about 15 minutes walk from the hotel.  

It took us about an hour to reach the institute where the competition was taking place. So we went to the warm up area, and many crossfitters from all over the world where present. Some you'd recognize their faces as  they have been featured in the Crossfit Games website. I got to meet Feng Yi Chew, who came out first in the Crossfit Games Open in Asia (1st stage of the competition).

Some people approached me to take pictures, and the person behind the twitter handle @CFGAsiaRegion to tweet the news of me making it to regionals and being the first Emirati to do so.  

As we were warming up, they announced the plan for the day. The first heat of the day included us, among two other teams. The competition kicked off at 10am sharp (they were very specific on time!).

My whole being was nervous, excited, just want to jump out of happiness and I kept telling myself (somewhat in denial still), "This is real! Is this real?!" It was VERY real.

The team and I spent about 2 weeks trying to learn the movements of the first event. The workout went like this: 

20 partner deadlift (455lbs)

20 handstand pushups

20 partner deadlift (315lbs)

20 handstand pushups

^ minimum requirement to move to the next workout.

20 handstand pushups

20 partner deadlift (455lbs)

20 handstand pushups

20 partner deadlift. (315lbs)

Here's a video of the competition that I put together:

Here's the summary video by the Crossfit Games website where they took a shot of me failing HSPU (haha!):

Handstand pushups seemed to pose a challenge to many athletes that day as the wall was set up too high, and our hips didn't have something to lean on. 

As for our team, I couldn't be any prouder of everyone's efforts. Before training for regionals, two of our members (myself too) never done a handstand push up before. Tess and I both had a new personal record which we achieved DURING the competition itself. It couldn't get any better than this. Although we didn't meet the minimum requirement to advance, we did an awesome job for ourselves, and we worked very hard. 

As for myself, five months ago I had a goal. My goal was simple. Make it to Regionals and be able to start a workout. Even if if I just get the chance to lift a bar once, I would've been happy. If anything, I have exceeded my expectations. I lifted the bar 20 TIMES & did a total of 5 HANDSTAND PUSH UPS, when I couldn't get one in a whole day! 

The whole experience has been just amazing, rewarding, and humbling. Seeing all of these athletes neck and neck, their strength despite their sizes, their beautiful technique, and hard work, was just beyond inspiring.

For that, I plan to continue my training in Crossfit and hopefully make it to regionals next year as an individual. I may never earn the title "Fittest woman in Asia", and that's fine. For me, by just taking part on its own is something that makes me happy and satisfied. And maybe, just maybe, my calling is to encourage other women in a similar situation like myself to come out. I don't know what it is, but each day I am loving sport more and more - and know, in my heart, it's where I belong. 

& big thanks to my sister Sara, who came with me this week to show support and take pictures of the team and competition. She was great emotional support during the whole week.  I couldn't have kept it together without her.

DAY 4 & 5 - Spectating & Interview

During the last two days of the competition, we were spectating the event and cheering for our coach, Candice Howe, who was competing as an individual for the second year. The competition is definitely a lot of harder than it was last year, the workouts, the athletes are all top notch.

In the morning of the final day of the competition, I was approached by Mike Mogard, an athlete who was competing, who wanted to do a short interview with me and do a photo shoot to upload it on his website once it's up and running (will post when it's up!). The gist of the interview was to encourage women in Brunei to start a healthy lifestyle and exercise.

In the end of the day, I was also approached by a number of people, some from the US military, and other athletes who said they were happy to see me come all the way to Seoul to compete and take part. They really respect what I do, and hope to see me competing next year. I just couldn't help but have a big cheeky smile on my face. I was overwhelmed with the positive comments and support.

In the end of the day, all the winners were announced, and Candice ranked 2nd.

Lotte World

My sister and I in our last night in Seoul, decided to go Lotte World, an amusement park with games (indoors and outdoors) and a big ice rink and may other activities. I personally am not a FAN of playing scary games (none were really, but I am a scaredy cat, while my sister is very adventurous). We spent a good couple of hours walking around, playing some rides, and we had plenty of fun. We were both dead tired in the end of the night.

As we went back to the hotel, I started packing, as again, I didn't want to worry too much in the morning as we had a flight to catch!

DAY 6 - Heading back to the UAE! 

Waking up in the morning, I realized wow...a whole week of madness and fun has passed, and it has passed really fast. As we got ready to leave at 10:30am, we left the hotel by a taxi bus going back to the airport. By 1:55 pm our plane starting to aboard. The flight was really long, and very uncomfortable with a lot of turbulence. I couldn't really sleep, so I watched all kind of movies, shows, and listened to music to let the 8-9 hour flight pass by, but each minute felt like forever. 

I had some spicy noodles in the airplane as that's the only thing I could've eaten. A lot of the food they served was not halal/had alcohol in it. The smell of beer/alcohol really makes me feel sick, dizzy, and gives me a headache.  So that was very uncomfortable for me. 

As I stared at the time, it was finally close to landing on UAE ground. I couldn't be any happier to be back home. I literally shouted in the plane "Yeeey! I am back home!" This is how excited I was to finally be back to where everything is known to me.

FINAL WORDS

There is really a lot to say, a lot that I probably have forgotten to mention, but this week has been in one word, overwhelming. Everything from experiencing travel for the first time in 13 years, and staying in another country other than my home, and to take part in an international competition has just been an emotional time for me.

It feels like everything just happened too fast, flew in front of my eyes, and is already a distant memory, but it's a memory that I will never forget. It's just the beginning for something bigger, a bigger test, more failures and successes in the future. And you know what? I cannot wait for the challenge. Just BRING. IT. ON!

Before I conclude this very very very long post, I have to thank Sultan Al Darmaki and his business partner for being our main sponsor who helped facilitate for my team and I go to Seoul South Korea for the competition, without them we couldn't have gone, at all. Also thanks to Adventure HQ for giving us UAE flag buffs that came in very handy as we wore them throughout the city. Finally, thanks for Reebok Middle East who provided us with track suits, shirts, and the awesome new Reebok Crossfit shoes. 

 

To see more pictures of my time in Seoul, visit my Facebook page HERE.
Yours truly,