Tracy's Story

I was never an athletic person growing up. I had never competed or in any kind of sport in my entire life nor had any interests to do so. But in my early twenties, I discovered I had a passion for running and that passion led me to live a much healthier lifestyle. I was diagnosed with congenital hypothyroidism when I was 7 weeks old. As I grew older I realized living with this disease affected my whole body. I didn’t understand it when I was little, but by the time I was 21, I began focusing on what I ate and how it made me feel. Every chance I had I would run and found it very stress relieving. My 1 mile a day turned into 3 and from 3 to 6 miles, at times I almost felt obsessed of feeling like, I needed to get a run in. After I gave birth to my son in 2008 running 6 miles was almost impossible, with my husband deployed every two months and when my son turned a year old, I made the decision to go back to school, so I began to focus on speed and shortened my runs to 3-4 miles a day, doing inclined intervals in the gym, and incorporating squats, and circuit training, which still gave me a huge satisfaction and sense of relief, until I broke my foot summer of 2010. Something had to change, and I felt I needed something more than just going to the gym every day and getting on the same machine, or running the same route. I heard about CrossFit before, but in the past I never considered it was for me. My husband mentioned that maybe I should check it out. He is former Combat Control, and I knew he incorporated it into his workouts so it seemed like a great idea! I loved to work out and loved the intensity and stress relief that running gave me. So I stepped into CrossFit with a mind-set of using it as a good cross training tool only, I was definitely not looking to give up running. After completing my foundations course in October I have been doing CrossFit for almost 4 months, and I have experienced so many changes in my overall strength, and body tone. I have this new sense of accomplishment and complete content after doing a WOD. It is absolutely like nothing I have ever experienced from just running alone. I have never bothered with running in 5k’s or doing different races in the past, mostly because I just ran for stress relief purposes, but in November I signed up to run my 1st 5k. I placed 1st in my age group with a time of 24:25 not bad for my very 1st 5k. Crossfit has not only reconstructed my whole outlook on physical fitness, but it has also allowed me to discover one more thing I am crazy about, competing! Against the clock, against others, against myself! I will be 32 this year and I have never felt stronger and more focused in my entire life. CrossFit Fort Walton Beach is Amazing the motivation I receive not only from the trainers but also from other members have truly made me a dedicated member! I am so super excited to see how much more I can accomplish in the year ahead.

-Tracy Mckenna
Dedicated Wife, Mother, Fulltime Student,Crossfit member