A Heartfelt Tribute...

As you may or may not know, I hound internet message boards. The subject matter is mainly sports-based: triathlon, football, crossfit, NBA, topix.com, not to mention the small handful of blogs I check in on (after I hit my three cousins' blogs, of course). Anyways, I was on my CrossFit site, checking in on my Workout Of the Day, aka WOD, when I found a video tribute to a California Firefighter. He was a young man who had just returned after being deployed in the California wildfires, he had a brain hemmhorage the next day, and suddenly died.

One thing about CrossFit is that it is very popular among the military, and is gaining popularity with police and FFs (including yours truly). Anyways, there have been a couple of "WODs" named after Veterans that have died in Irag/Afghanistan, guys that were big into CrossFit, and they are exceptionally tough. Here is an example of one:

Murph In memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005. This workout was one of Mike's favorites and he'd named it 'Body Armor.' From here on it will be referred to as 'Murph' in honor of the focused warrior and great American who wanted nothing more in life than to serve this great country and the beautiful people who make it what it is.
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run
For time. Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run. If you've got a twenty pound vest or body armor, wear it.

This WOD took me 62 minutes to do. These workouts are really awesome, because when I started to get tired/wanting to quit, I just recall reading the story of "Murph" before I started. I envision how this guy I'll never meet literally made the ultamite sacrifice for his brothers, in one of the worst places on this Earth. It makes gutting out the last mile, or squeezing out those last 50 pushups, pale in comparison.

Here is the tale of Murph, direct from the US Navy site:
http://www.navy.mil/moh/mpmurphy/soa.html




But I digress....here is the video of a WOD that was dedicated to Kevin Patrick Prior, the CA FF that I alluded to earlier, before I tangented out.
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFitByOverload_KevinFirefighterTribute.wmv

If you made it through this video without feeling somethign, then I don't even know what to say...

The first time I saw this video, I was really moved. The second time I watched it, I realized how many similarities I had with this guy. We are both about the same age, both have about three years on the job, both have a beautiful wife and daughter, we both crossfit, and we both really have a passion about our job. That's what got me, this guy my age and in pretty good shape, died suddenly. Sometimes it takes something like that to snap me back into reality.

Anywas, thanks to this CrossFit stuff, which is basically intense cross-training on steroids, I have gotten to touch base and communicate with guys all over the world. I truly understand the brotherhood that police, fire, and the military all have with each other, and there are Orange County FRD T-shirts in select parts of the SandBox because of it. I found this thread on an online tribute to Kevin Prior:

"To all of you who in risky jobs, military, law enforcement, firefighters, etc, you all have my deepest respect. Continue doing great things in this world. Your efforts show everywhere!!! Look around, we would not be staring at highrises if it were not for studs who challenge those heights to create them. We would not walk confidently within those walls if it were not for our military protecting the country they stand in, if it were not for the law enforcers doing just that, and the fire fighters ensuring the over-all safety of them, as well as the countless others who challenge danger on a regular basis!! You all kick ass!!!!!!"