Offutt Tactical Fitness Program hosts inaugural TacFit Games

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Carly Costello
  • 55th Wing Public Affairs
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. --  Offutt Air Force Base's Tactical Fitness hosted its first ever CrossFit competition at the Offutt Field House, bringing together civilian and military CrossFitters and supporters from across Nebraska on Jan. 20.

CrossFit gyms from Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island and Offutt rallied their top competitors for the event to test their physical and mental limits with extreme fitness.

Competitors registered in teams consisting of two males and two females and were divided into two divisions, RX or scaled. RX means all participants must complete the workout as prescribed, doing the same amount of reps with the same amount of weight. Scaled allows competitors to modify their workouts based on their ability. Eleven teams competed in the RX division and 13 teams competed in the scaled division.

The competition consisted of five high intensity workouts of the day, commonly referred to as WODs. These workouts consisted of weightlifting, swimming, pull-ups and muscle ups, just to name a few. The TacFit coaches lead by Tech. Sgt. Sergio Factuar of the 55th Wing Intelligence Support Squadron and Master Sgt. Dave LeClaire of U.S. Strategic Command programmed the WODs to what they "felt would best exemplify skills of a tactical athlete and would cover a wide range of CrossFit skills," LeClaire said.

These workouts made a typical day at the gym look like a walk in the park and were not for your average gym-goer. Even Tim Collins, a certified personal trainer in Omaha and blogger for Live Well Nebraska, wrote that Sunday's competition proved challenging for him.

"I figured that since most of my personal workouts are similar to the programming of this type of event, the competition wouldn't be too brutal," Collins blogged. "Turns out I was wrong - every challenge that day humbled me to the extreme."

Each WOD was a race to see which team could finish first or who could do the most reps in the allotted time. Depending on their performance, teams were awarded a set number of points, which would be added up after the fourth WOD to determine their placement. The points awarded to each team were based off the 2012 CrossFit Games standard. Teams competed in heats depending on which division they were in, and after the fourth WOD, numbers were tallied and the top three teams from each division went on to the final WOD to determine first, second and third place.

The games ended with an award ceremony where Col. John Rauch, 55th Wing commander, presented the prizes to the top three teams in each division.

Team Black Shirt from Cornhusker CrossFit took home first place for the scaled division, and CrossFit Omaha's Team Alpha took first for the RX division beating Fit2Fight's Team Alpha by only 15 seconds.

Offutt's TacFit has wanted to host a CrossFit competition open to outside gyms since the Offutt CrossFit program started a little over a year ago, said TacFit Coach John Hendricks, a technical sergeant with the Air Force Weather Agency.

"All of our coaches have wanted to do this from the beginning, to show off our facility, program and athletes to the local affiliates, and to compete," said Hendricks.

Even though teams were competing, the event proved to be successful in bringing together the local CrossFit community.

"My favorite part of the event was seeing the CrossFit community and athletes from around the city come here to Offutt to help us have a great event," Hendricks said. "If you were at the event, you would have seen guys and girls cheering on complete strangers, athletes lifting personal records, teams pushing each other to complete exhaustion. That's exactly what our community is all about."

The event also proved that Offutt's TacFit is ready to compete with the other CrossFit programs, commonly referred to as boxes, in the area.

"This event, I think, really solidified TacFit in the local CrossFit scene," Hendricks said. "The local boxes now know what we have to offer and the great team that we have here on Offutt."

Team Offutt's TacFit raised $700 from Sunday's event, which will help to pay for a CrossFit level-one certification for a future TacFit coach.

"We appreciate all the support from both the wing and USSTRATCOM in helping all this come to fruition," LeClaire said. "It was not much more than a year ago that having a Tactical Fitness program at Offutt was just a dream a group of us had. Now, not only are we an established CrossFit military affiliate, but we held a successful competition with athletes from all over the area competing. The sky's the limit of where we're going to go."

Team Offutt plans to host its second TacFit Games in the near future.