When my mother asked me what I wanted for my forty-second birthday this year, my answer was quick and decisive—a definite change from my usual, “Oh, I don’t know.” My answer was that I planned to participate in my first Olympic lifting competition: the 2007 Chris Dariotis Memorial meet in Sumner, Washington to be held three days after my birthday. I had participated in a practice meet a few weeks prior to this conversation, and was excited about the upcoming competition.

For some people, participating in an athletic event to celebrate their birthday would be natural. Much to my surprise, I find I am now one of those people. Why is this surprising? Well, some background on me is in order.

I have spent most of my life in academic and professional pursuits, not sports. In school, I was one of the smartest kids in class, but also the tallest and the fattest. The closest I came to being perceived as athletic is when an adult asked me if I was on the football team, since I was tall and “husky.”

In college my exercise and nutrition habits improved. I took up jogging and weight training, and I reveled in the powerfulness that came from lifting weights. Later, health issues, full-time field work in fisheries biology, and “boat food” triggered weight gain and made the exercise routine inconsistent.

Life changed in 1993, when my car was rear-ended twice within three months. Ligaments attached to four vertebrae in my neck were torn (and re-torn the second time), and the vertebrae were significantly misaligned, along with two vertebrae in my mid-back and one in my lower back. I entered into a world of daily intense pain and hypervigilance. Any wrong move could tweak my muscles into knots and spasms. I tried walking, yoga, aerobics, Pilates, and weight-training, but something always went awry, and I became resigned to never being able to do anything but very gentle exercise again.

I was rear-ended yet a third time in March of 2006 and taken back to hypervigilance, being careful with my body movements and always anticipating back-muscle spasms. I was intensely frustrated. Eventually, a friend suggested looking into Crossfit North, and it appealed to me. I felt that if CrossFit was not great for me and my rehabilitation, it would quickly become apparent. I loved CrossFit from the start, and I haven’t had any debilitating back spasms since. And CrossFit led me to Olympic lifting.

Lifting

One of the female Olympic lifters training at CrossFit North encouraged me to try Olympic lifting. I thought, “Who, me? You must be joking.” But I thought of my previous enjoyment of weightlifting. And I remembered a bodybuilder friend of mine who had broken her pelvis, leg and collar bones in a car accident, rehabilitated herself completely through weightlifting, and won an Alaska state bodybuilding championship nine months after her accident. After talking with CrossFit North trainers Dave Werner, Nick Nibler, and Scott Takenaga, I started Olympic lifting training with Nick as my coach on November 4, 2006.

My goals were to gain strength and improve my technique for the CrossFit workouts, but from my first session I enjoyed the concentration on technique and the pure power of lifting. Within a few sessions, I realized that the motions had a meditative quality. When I couldn’t fall asleep, I found myself going through the motions of the lifts in my mind and calmed my mind to sleep.

I started to get excited, and anxious, about the practice meet that I knew was coming up in a few weeks. I ordered weightlifting shoes.

The Practice Meet – December 9, 2006

Nick told me to think of it as just another practice, and to focus on the process. Everyone would do the snatch and then the clean and jerk. Nobody told me until that morning that she who lifts lowest weight lifts first. Okay, it was good nobody had told me. All these athletes were pouring into my gym. Thank goodness I was on familiar happy ground with many familiar faces. I warmed up with the other Hangar Weightlifting Club (WLC) ladies. Then, the meet started. Sam Maxwell, the announcer, called my name. It was my turn to go out on the platform for my first snatch attempt out of three.

Nick said something calm and encouraging—I have no recollection of what. I walked onto the platform. Just me and the bar. On of the lifters I practice with was sitting right in front of me. A familiar face—good. I didn’t think about all the other people and whether or not they were watching. Okay, girl, just like in practice… focus… just me and the bar. I made my lift! I walked off the platform, smiling. Nick was smiling. My fellow Hangar WLC lifters were smiling. By the end of the meet, I snatched 20, 22.5, and 25 kilos. I was “3 for 3”—three successful lifts in three attempts.

Now I got to be a spectator. Cheering the others on, hoping they’d make it, sighing when they didn’t. The other women went out next, then the men. Holy cow some of them could lift some weights! Not everyone made their lifts. There were some valiant attempts and amusing (somehow, in a good-natured way) failures. Everyone supported the others’ lifts with “Come on!” or “You’ve got it!”

Then it was time to warm up for the clean and jerk. Don’t think—just do. My name was called for my first attempt. I walked onto the platform and positioned myself… I made my lift. Twenty-five kilos. On my next two turns on the platform I lifted 30 and 35 kilos. Another 3 for 3. Crossfit North trainer Scott called me his hero. Shucks!

Everyone at the meet was so friendly and encouraging. I’m asked how long I’ve been lifting. “Just since the start of November.” “Really?! Good job!” Two women lifters congratulate me and tell me I have a good body for this. Again: me? A good body for an athletic venture? Whoa! In the days following the meet, two lifters ask me what sports I played when I was younger. I didn’t play any sports when I was younger… I was quite the couch potato. Now, in my forties, I've found the inner athlete that I didn’t know I had.

The Chris Dariotis Memorial Meet – January 7, 2007

After the practice meet, Nick had me focus on my squat range of motion with just a barbell. Low weight, many reps, focusing on technique. Sam kept telling me to put weight on the bar and that my squat was improving.

The week prior to the meet I had a few days off work, so I planned to spend the week going to lifting practice and CrossFit and relaxing. But the ways of the universe had other plans for me. Three days before the meet, on my birthday, I woke up with a sinus infection. Crap! I don’t want to be sick now! So I went to lifting practice, saw a doctor, and got a prescription for antibiotics.

At a CrossFit workout the next night, on my third set of this behind-the-head barbell thruster thing, I “thrustered” the bar right up into the back of my head. Internally I whined like Nancy Kerrigan screaming, “Why?! Why?!” after getting whacked in the knee. Dave escorted me into the office, got some ice on my head, and gave me some Ibuprofen. Later, doing some modified, light push-ups and pull-ups, plus a hot-tub soak, helped to keep my fragile neck and back muscles from tightening up. With this accident and my illness at the same time, I was not at all sure I would be able to compete at the meet. Fortunately, I felt better on Sunday, so I decided to go despite the bump on my head and the sinus infection.

By the time we started we started warming up, after doses of caffeine and decongestants, I felt good enough to compete. Nick and I agreed to keep the weights close to what I had done at the practice meet and to focus on the experience of the meet.

Again, I was one of the first up. For both the snatch and the clean and jerk, the ladies lifting close to or my same weight were teens, and probably about a third to half my body weight. If only I had started that young. But, here I am now, competing in an Olympic lifting meet, and that’s tremendous!

My name was called. Like last time, Nick said something encouraging. I walked out to the platform for the snatch. Okay, girl, focus on the bar. Get in position. Set your body. I looked at the judge in front of me. He had a calm demeanor. Nice. I looked past him to the wall. I made my lift! Twenty kilos. I walked off the platform. Nick and the gals from the Hangar WLC were smiling. Back to the warm-up area to wait for my name to be called again. Each time I did the same thing—look at the center judge, look past him to the wall, focus, lift. I snatched 20, 25, and 30 kilos. Three for three. It felt good and I felt sure I could have lifted more. Honestly, walking out there in front of everyone was the toughest part.

Soon it was time to warm up for the clean and jerk, and then my name was called again. I walked out to the platform. As I passed him, one of the judges said, “Go Allison!” It was Ronnie Ashlock with the Calpians WLC; I had met him at the practice meet. Again it was nice to have a familiar face in front on me. Okay, girl… Focus on the bar. Get in position. Set your body. Look past the judge in front of you and lift. Again, 3 for 3. Twenty-five, 30, and 35 kilos. Holy moly, I did it! I successfully competed in an Olympic lifting meet—my first athletic competition ever! If you had told me a year ago that I would compete in a sport, and would get so much support and caring from other athletes, I wouldn’t have believed it.

And as if that were not enough, I got a trophy—second (of two) for my class. I like it. I aim to give it companions soon.

My Current Training

I train on Saturday mornings, every other Friday, and whenever I can. I enjoy watching the lifters train in the evenings: learning to see nuances in their lifts, watching the determination of someone pushing to complete the lift.

On Saturday practices, we are going heavy. Nick said I haven’t been squatting to my potential and is ready to load me up. It feels both very strange and perfectly natural for me to think in those terms. The other day at Crossfit class, Dave said, “Your max isn’t your max yet, if that makes sense.” Yes, it does, oddly enough.

Outside of my practice with Nick, I work on technique. For several weeks, I worked on full range of motion in the squat. Recently, I have been concentrating on my overhead squat because it feels so insecure. It really helps to focus on one thing with PVC pipe, then with the practice bar, and then with the men’s bar, adding weight as I improve. In a recent CrossFit class (yes, I still do that) when we did overhead squats as a warm-up, it was no problem for me to grab the men’s bar and pop out five reps. My workout partner was impressed too.

A Changed Life

It’s hard for me to put into words the effect that CrossFit North and Olympic lifting has had on me. I think differently about myself and about life. I have a passion for exercise that I never imagined I could have. I am grateful to everyone in my CrossFit North and Olympic lifting family.

I am beginning to see myself as an athlete. This is a huge change from my old perception of myself. I am truly giddy at the concept that I did my first athletic competition at the age of 42. Along about this age some folks go out and buy a sports car. I bought weightlifting shoes and a T-shirt that says Lift Like A Girl. I am taking better care of my body. I see parallels from lifting into everyday life (“Your brain got in your way on that one”). Lifting is very meditative. I love the technique, the practice. I love getting stronger and better. I am more confident and happier with myself. How many 42-year-old women do you know that say they like the changes they see in their bodies?

One day soon after I started Olympic lifting, I was talking with Nick in the gym. In response to the sound of weights being dropped after a lift, Nick smiled like he had just eaten the most wonderful chocolate in the world and remarked that he loved that sound. I asked, “You do?” At that time, the sound of weights crashing down made me jump. Just a few weeks ago, I heard that beautiful sound of weights hitting the mat in the gym as I got out of my car. I’ve got to get in there! I love that sound!

Many thanks to Fran Mason for editing.