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[/caption] Things get weird at Regionals. Those calm sessions spent practicing the events in the friendly confines of the gym are quickly replaced by total fitness chaos. Dozens of athletes are grunting and smashing things around you while judges fire off no-reps and hundreds of fans are screaming. The soothing sounds of Iron Maiden are replaced by some awful techno mix, an announcer is thundering into the mic about how the clock is ticking down and someone is tripling your PR single, and some media jerk—often me—is thrusting cameras in faces. Competition at the Regional level is definitely some next-level shit. But the best part of it is standing next to the very best and getting pushed to new heights. Actually, that’s the second best part. The best part was having a Functional Fitness 204 team in the mix for the first time ever. Seeing the pirate flag hanging in the Richmond Oval makes good on a goal set years ago, and it’s a great moment for the gym. We also have an individual male competitor for the first time, and we’re fired up to watch Tyson go head-to-head with the Canada West heavyweights. Todd Widman is the head judge here in Canada West, and I remember talking to him at the Camp Pendleton O-course at the 2012 Functional Fitness Games. In between events, we chatted a little bit about the chaos of competition, and Todd said he loves it when the pressure gets heavy. I asked him why, and he said it’s because that’s when people show their true character and you know who’s for real and who’s not. [caption id="attachment_3708" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The next time you raid a village, take this guy along."][/caption] Todd’s right, and Regionals are a similarly great test of character, where you really get to see what people are made of. I already knew what our team was all about, and they didn’t disappoint. In Event 1, Jackie, we got to line up next to the awesome Angie Hay and the equally impressive Chelsea Miller, and we did a great job to finish fourth. Crystal had a great run at Jackie, coming off the rower first and setting the table for Junior to put up a time around 5:30 with 30 unbroken pull-ups. We were very happy with our 13:29, and it definitely helped to have some very fast teams pulling and pushing us to it. Angie’s 6:30-ish Jackie was amazing and would have ranked her first in the individual standings. It was great to get caught in that jet wash. We managed 1055 and ninth in the overhead squat event, and Junior came through big again by hitting a lift 10 lb. heavier than he had in training. Our Viking shows up on game day, and the picture above is an instant favorite. The look on his face lets you know he’s made a decision to be great. We bounced back with a fourth in the muscle-up event, which was a good one for us. Junior, Dave and Brett were very fast throughout, and Linz, Jenn and Crystal added in a bunch of reps for a total of 89. [caption id="attachment_3709" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Rock solid."][/caption] Overall, we sit sixth with 17 points, and we’re happy to be thick in the mix of strong gyms. Tyson had a great day, finishing second in two events and ninth in one other. He crushed Jackie in 5:15 to tie for second, and he lifted 305 for a single with more in the tank in the OHS event. After locking out the lift for second, he dumped the bar to rest up for a run at the tough burpee-muscle-up event, in which he took ninth with 6:34. He’s second overall, six points behind Lucas Parker and six points ahead of Joey Lutz. We’ve got our Takasaki T-shirts, and you’d better believe we’ll be wearing them in the next few days. It was also great to see Zack McMillan of Functional Fitness Rocked represent our province with honor. He sits 30th after three events, and we’ll be cheering him on tomorrow. Special thanks to Wanda, Plett, Sr., Sonya and Kayla, who are representing out here. And it was great to hear from all of you on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for your support. It means the world to us. Tomorrow, the team takes on the 30s and Tyson hits the 100s, and then Brett and Lindsey do the deadlift-box event. Tyson will wrap up Day 2 late on Saturday afternoon. And it was great to see all our friends out here. Thanks for pushing the limits of fitness and inspiring us. Here’s to a great day of competition on Saturday! Special thanks to Functional Fitness Sherwood Park for the moustaches. Those were very legit. Follow all the weekend action at Games.Functional Fitness.com and on the Leaderboard. I’ll be posting to Facebook and Twitter as much as possible: @MikeWarkentin and @Functional Fitness204. And I’ll try and update things here to at the end of each day.