March Featured Athlete - Chris Crooker

1. Where are you from? I grew up and went to high school in Pittsford, NY, which is a suburb of Rochester, just up Route 96 from here.

2. What do you do for a living? I am a fundraiser at the business school at Syracuse University.

3. What brought you to Ithaca (if you aren’t from here)? I initially came here to go to college a LOOONG time ago, but came back with my family for a job at Cornell in 1997 after serving in the Navy in Southern California, Japan and Rhode Island.

4. How are you doing this trying time? To be honest, I am incredibly grateful every single day. So many have suffered so much over the past year. To date, my family and I still have our jobs, our home and our health, so I just not to complain.

5. You are truly a Pallas OG, what keeps you around? Ha! To be considered a Pallas OG is a very high honor. It is an interesting question to reflect on. I had been a member for about two years when I took a job at UMass Amherst. Carla and the kids stayed here, so I commuted each week. I couldn't wait to get home every Friday night to see my family....and hit the Saturday morning WOD at Pallas! A true case of you can take the boy out of the gym, but you can't take the gym out of the boy...or something like that. I love the workouts, but I love the people even more.

6. What’s your favorite CF movement? [sorry, I changed this to my favorite CF MOMENT] I would say the absolute best, most wonderful time starts when the clock hits 0:00 and the coach yells "TIME!" Immediately you get that personal win of surviving a grueling workout. But then as the endorphins start to kick in and the coach comes over to high five you (pre-COVID), you get to start congratulating your WOD-mates. "Hey great job today." "Wow, how many rounds did you get?" "You were flying!" I love that. And then, if you are really lucky and you have a few extra minutes (and there is no global pandemic going on) you get to grab a foam roller or a lacrosse ball and sit down next to someone and chat a little more. Ahhhhh!

7. What’s your least favorite CF movement? All the ones that I cannot do (fairly long list): tie for first. After that, it would probably be burpees. I mean, I get it: you fall down, you get back up. But they just humble me. Finally, I would say Turkish get-ups. What the hell is up with them??

8. What’s a goal you’ve crossed off your list? I vividly remember getting my first strict pull up (thank you Eamon), my first rope climb (thank you Jess Kennett) in CFP 1.0. Huge victories for me -- and both were thanks to great, and patient, coaches. Also, there is a wonderful photo of Jane Miller and me both getting our first kick-up to a handstand against the old garage doors. Woot!!

9. What’s a future goal you’re working towards? Just staying consistent and healthy. I want to keep coming as many days a week as I can. I firmly believe that just showing up is a win!

10. If you could write a WOD, what would it look like? Hmmm. I guess that I would say any WOD that I could do with our kids, Alex and Maddie. One of my great joys has been having both of them be members of Pallas at different points. They understand the value of fitness and living an active life, and having the chance to work out with them was over the moon fun for me. Last winter, a couple of times Alex, Joe Rogan and I hit an open gym session together: now that's next-level fun!

11. What brought you into CFP? I had been turned on to CrossFit when I was in the Navy Reserves. A shipmate showed me the old crossfit.com site and I was mesmerized by the videos and the message board posts about the workouts. I had my body armor and I made a "box" out of tree stump and filled an old basketball with sand to make a med ball. Then one of the guys I went running with asked me why didn't I just go down the CrossFit gym on Court Street and sign up. I had no idea CF had come to Ithaca!! That day I went down and I remember walking up the driveway on a warm June afternoon and the truck doors were open. The first person I saw was Marcus Williamee finishing up the previous session's WOD. Gulp. But I kept walking, and Tim let me jump into the next class, and I've never looked back.

12. What’s your go to meal during the week? Taco Tuesdays a la Carla

13. What’s your favorite local restaurant and what do you get from there? The Pines Burger at Glenwood Pines - no doubt! We love it there, and if we are lucky we get an Anderson (Lindsay and Chris) sighting while we are there!

14. What do you do for self care? Crossfit also got me hooked on yoga (it just keeps on giving!) when BrieLynn Hanna Sturm used to hold Sunday morning sessions at 1.0. I think that stretching and working on mobility is absolutely one of the most important things that you can do for yourself. This has been a casualty of the pandemic for me, as I have a very hard time doing this on my own. I miss the great instructors we have in our Pallas family like Sarah Gardner and Lex Santi!

15. Do you have a favorite author or book? I have always loved Kurt Vonnegut and Ernest Hemingway. Impossible for me to pick a favorite book, but if I could recommend one that I really enjoyed it would be Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. A must if you are in to nano-technology at all!

16. If you could rent 1 piece of equipment from the gym, what would it be? Rack-barbell-plate set. That's one piece, right?

17. What’s your favorite movie? Ohhh! Another tough one. I'll go with Twelve O'Clock High with Gregory Peck. As my daughter would point out, it definitely doesn't pass the Bechdel Test, but it is still a great story about leadership.

18. What would you tell someone hesitant about coming into Pallas? Easy: don't wait. Get down there and give it a try. In talking to folks and reflecting on my own journey, I think many people think that they "aren't ready" to try CrossFit. That you have to be some level of fit to be able to handle the challenging workouts. No way!! Every workout, every movement within every workout is almost infinitely scalable to whatever difficulty makes sense for you. I think that there is also an intimidation factor given what can be seen all across social media - that CrossFitters are so elite that there is a snobbishness. I have found our community so welcoming and supportive. All anyone in that gym wants if for you to be successful at whatever your challenge is today. Getting to the threshold is up to you. But once you cross it, you are in an amazing place full of awesome, supportive people.