Back to Belgium with Many New Friends

Thijs (middle) has become a wonderful part of the Sea of Green. Unfortunately, he has to head back to Belgium.

This week is my last week of a nine week internship. I wouldn’t even call it an internship, but rather a once in a lifetime experience.

I was excited and scared before leaving, a whole new country, language, people, habits and do’s and don’ts. Looking back on it, it was nothing to be afraid of. You all made my stay of nine weeks away from my home, family and friends easy. I created a new home, family and friends with all of you. They say the Sea of Green is unique in that sense, and now I can look back and say that is true.

I had the opportunity to work and train with the amazing Invictus coaches. As a member of Invictus you will already know this, but your coaching staff is AMAZING. They bring the sun inside the building with their personalities, energy, motivation, knowledge, determination and awesomeness. CJ, George, Nuno, Michele, Nichole, Cody, Calvin, Shane and Dave are Superstars.

It is not only the coaches who make Invictus complete. The staff is amazing as well. Jen, Pops and Jaimie do so much work behind the scenes that I didn’t even know existed. They gave me a good insight of what has to be done to make the gym run as smoothly as it does.

Now I include all of you members in this post. First of all, girls of the Weight Management group, I loved hanging out with you. You pampered me in a good way and I owe you for that. Each and every 5k we did was so much fun and it was great to see you shine outside the gym! Rowing Class, you guys are the smoothest sliding group I’ve ever met. You move with grace and smile through tough workouts. You all make part of the community I wanted to be part of.

All you Invicti are invited to contact me and look me up in Belgium if you are around. You gave me so much and that way I can give a little bit back, we will never be even though.

There is one other person I want to express my gratitude to in public. Jason Ng, he was my roommate and friend for the last five weeks of my stay. I cannot thank him enough for the things he did for me and is a big reason why I felt so much at home.

The second to last weekend of my stay was all Regionals. My first regionals experience couldn’t have been better. Having a house full of superstars may be unfair to the other teams. I saw the last weeks of preparation going in to the Regionals and I’m so happy that all their hard work paid off. They trained their asses off under CJ’s watchful eye. Words come short to describe the feeling I had that weekend. It was just phenomenal.

That weekend was such a good time for the community to hang out, eat, enjoy themselves and go to the venue as a whole. If you missed regionals, make sure you mark your calendars for Games in July. I will be looking for the biggest Sea of Green ever in the stands.

The best of luck to everyone at Invictus. I am blessed to have met you all! Thank you.

(CJ’s Note – It has been an absolute pleasure to have Thijs with us for the past 9 weeks. He was instantly comfortable as a member of the Invictus family. His contributions have well exceeded expectations. My only regret is that we could not have kept him for longer. Thijs, you’ll still be part of the Invictus family regardless of where you are living. We’ll all look forward to seeing your comments on the blog and keeping up with your progress.)
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Another Big Weekend for Honorary Invicti

Please send your best wishes to the following honorary Invictus athletes who will be competing this weekend in their respective CrossFit Games regional qualifiers.

Northern California
Elyse Umeda
Jenny LaBaw
Will Zerlang
Matt Morales (Team Cadence)

Australia
Darren Ellis