Beast of the East

Welcome to the Beast of the East Throwdown hosted by CrossFit New England in November 2010. CFNE owner Ben Bergeron says the event was a huge success.

“It grew super fast, super organically. I posted on our website, and within 24 hours it was sold out at 120 athletes,” he says. The demand was so high, he decided to expand the space and open the competition to 80 more athletes—and those spots sold out in two days too.

The event’s concept was simple: test work capacity, not elite skills.

“The programming in general was very, very CrossFit—‘CrossFit-biased,’” Bergeron says. But he did throw athletes for a loop with his Survival of the Fittest final workout.

“It’s kind of like two opposite ends of the spectrum: short and heavy, but let’s see how long you can go,” he says.

Bergeron gives advice to other organizers on holding their own competitions.

“Promote the event super early,” he says. But even more important is finding volunteers and judges. “The more volunteers, the more help you have, the better off you’re going to be. You just can’t do this thing alone.”

11min 05sec

Video by Again Faster.

Additional reading: Training with the Enemy by Kevin Daigle, published May 27, 2010.

Brittny Gastineau Ashley Tisdale Rachel Blanchard Sienna Guillory Tricia Vessey