Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Member Spotlight - The Awesome Trio

Chuck, Suzanne & Jessica at CF ClevelandChuck, Suzanne and Jessica have been working out together since the beginning of 2008. Jessica and Chuck found us the year before while we were running the free workouts in the metroparks back in the summer of 2007. Here's a little scoop on each of them.

Jessica has been working out with us since our days in the park. Can you believe it's been 2 years now? Once the gym opened Jessica joined as a member to help achieve her goal of finishing her first half marathon. She also wanted to do it in under 2 hours. Her goal was accomplished May 2008 with a time of 1:57:28. Since then, she has run 2 more half marathon and attributes CrossFit to keeping her strong enough to get through those tough races. Many of you may recognize Jessica, as she works out with the morning crowd (Mondays and Wednesdays), the evening crowd (Thursdays) and the weekend crowd (.....Saturdays). Or by her 2 workout buddies Chuck and Suzanne.

When not at CrossFit (as she seems to be there quite often), she's at home in Rocky River with her husband , Marcus, and two kids, Caroline and Christian.

Suzanne has been working out with us since January of 2008 after Jessica guilted her in to working out after she was sore from bowling. Usually Suzanne can be found at the gym Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday mornings and Thursday evenings. She can also be found with her workout buddies: Jessica and Chuck. Since starting CrossFit, Suzanne also picked up the nasty habit of running and completed her first 5k in May. Even with the new running habit, her favorite workouts include rowing (and lots of it). While currently out of the running routine due to a minor hip injury, she hopes to be back on her feet and off the rowing machine soon.

Just marking his two-year anniversary with CrossFit, Chuck has been working out with the group since the early days in the park...and has been hooked ever since. In fact, the Deck of Cards workout was Chuck's first WOD and continues to be his favorite. Now up to five days a week, Chuck estimates he's commuted more than 10,000 miles back and forth from his southeast suburb home in Twinsburg to workout with the CrossFit family.
"Being able to exercise for a solid 20 minutes doing countless pushups, sit-ups and squats blows my mind" says Chuck. "I never thought I would be able to do this intense level of activity at 45 years old, and I owe it all to hard work, the support of my team mates Jessica and Suzanne, and the ongoing help received from Paul, Bill, Nancy and Staci." Since joining the group, Chuck has completed several half-marathon races and numerous 10 mile runs. Accomplishments he also credits to his CrossFit training.
Following a lengthy career in corporate marketing, Chuck has recently started his own consulting firm and is currently help launch a new magazine in Cleveland, along with helping several local companies manage their marketing, advertising and event planning.
Chuck is married to Karla, an Advertising Account Executive in Chagrin Falls, and they have a five year old Lhasa-Poo named Harley. In addition to CrossFit, Chuck enjoys everything related to cars, home improvement projects, and the occasional cigar on his patio with friends.