“Tim” ANZAC WOD

This was the first workout of the day.

Lt Tim O’Donnell, 28, was serving as part of the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team in the Bamyan Province, Afganistan, when his unit came under attack. Lt O’Donnell was killed.

Two other New Zealand defence personnel were seriously injured; Lance Corporal Matthew Ball, 24, who is a friend of CrossFit New Zealand member Nick’s from primary and secondary school, and Private Allistar Baker, 23. Lt O’Donnell is New Zealand’s first combat death in Afganistan, and New Zealand’s first combat death in over a decade. Lt O’Donnell is survived by his father Mark, a former police officer, his mother Mary-Anne, a nurse, his brother Andrew, and his sister Anna.

Nick asked CFNZ if he could create a workout to honour Tim in the traditional CrossFit fashion. He wrote a few words for them as well.

Tim O’Donnell, Matthew Ball and Allistar Baker are New Zealand’s heroes. It’s intrinsic to the nature of heroism, however, that a hero is the last person who is going to call himself a hero, because the chief characteristic of true heroism is selflessness. That is what distinguishes true heroism, like those fighting for our country and community, from false heroism such as sports idols and movie stars. Tim, Matt and Allistar gave selflessly of themselves to fight for our country and felt as if they were only doing their jobs, even though their jobs require them to do extraordinary things. The New Zealand Defence Force in Afganistan are not men and women who, once in a lifetime, rise to the occasion and go into the fray at great personal peril. They are people who train to do this, and more, on a daily basis. New Zealand is proud of their contribution to Afganistan.

This post is dedicated to all those who are in professions that involve keeping our community, and country, safe. Thank you for your sacrifices. – Nick Linton

“Tim”

400m Farmers Walk 2 x 24?s/16?s Kettlebells
28 Box Jumps 60/50cm
28m Bear Crawl
28 Double Unders
28 Ground to Overhead 40/30kg
28m Bear Crawl
28 Double Unders
28 Chest to bar Pull Ups
28m Bear Crawl
28 Double Unders
28 Burpees
28m Bear Crawl
28 Double Unders
28 Pistols
28m Bear Crawl
28 Double Unders
400m Farmers Walk with KBs

As it is a hero WOD I scaled as little as I could. My jump is bad, so I dropped the height and had to substitute ring rows after the first attempts at doing a chest to bar pullup did not work. (I am still struggling with them). And I cannot do double unders, so did very slow single skips — in groups of one to fifteen. I got to eight double unders before the burpees.

But I did not scale the ground to overhead, and did all 28 as cleans and jerks at 40 kg. This took the most time.

As usual, the slowest in the gym: got to the skips before the burpees at 50 minute timecap. It is about eight hours later and my shoulders and thighs are quite sore.