How Outdoor CrossFit in San Francisco Helped Us Get Through The Pandemic

It’s all mostly in the rear view mirror now. The uncertainty, the closures, the restrictions, the fear, the vaccination cards, the tests, the notifications, the mask-on-again-off-again whiplash. We have moved on, but back in the spring of 2020, it seemed painfully unclear how long the world - and CrossFit - would be stuck in the COVID quagmire.

The CrossFit box, with its heavy breathing and profuse perspiration, was a dangerous place to be in 2020. When CrossFit Potrero Hill and every other indoor athletic facility in San Francisco were shuttered due to COVID mandates, many of us found ourselves athletically adrift, scrambling to cobble together home workouts, to maintain our fitness someway, somehow.

The CFPH management were quick to respond, implementing an equipment loan program, which allowed members to check out barbells, plates, medicine balls and other good stuff. Members arrived at the box, donned masks, slathered on the sanitizer, plucked some gear, and drove off with a mini-gym in the trunk of their cars. Within days, CFPH had loaned out literally thousands of pounds of training equipment. For weeks afterwards, members were able to follow along with Zoom classes at home, or to just craft their own workouts. Pre-COVID, CrossFit had been an integral part of our well being. And just when we needed well being more than ever, CFPH empowered us all to maintain our fitness and our sanity. Unlike many people who couldn’t afford - or simply couldn’t procure - scarce fitness gear, we had no excuses.

Then - May 2020. The CFPH crew managed to secure a lease at the soccer fields in Mission Bay. A storage container was brought in, and members filled it by returning their loaned equipment. One of the Potrero Hill rigs was disassembled, brought over to Mission Bay, and reassembled on the field. Mats were placed on the turf, the distances between them carefully measured to obey COVID guidelines. Within a few days, and thanks to a ton of hard work by the owners, coaches and volunteer members, we had a fully functioning, fully outdoors CrossFit location.

That time is a wistful memory. The chilly mornings, the daily pilgrimages to and from the storage container, the incessant sanitizing, the delicate dance of CrossFit under COVID rules. Those few months of outdoor CrossFit in San Francisco in 2020 were an incredible gift. We not only stayed fit and connected with one another, in a time of general regression and isolation. We also became more connected with our city, with its temperamental climate and light. There was that one unforgettable orange day in September of 2020, during the peak of wildfire season, when morning classes became night. That workout, in the strange and ethereal orange haze, under the stadium lights of the Mission Bay field, will stay with me forever. We tackled the 2021 CrossFit Open there, doing the 1,843,958 wall walks (or was it 55?) of Open Workout 21.1 using chain link fences. We did Memorial Day Murph, and I remember the wonderful feeling of being able to run the first and last miles on forgiving astroturf, instead of the joint-punishing concrete sidewalks. We even held a full-on Halloween competition in the October sunshine. Each time, the field made it feel like we were the stars of our own personal CrossFit Games. Despite the masks, and the fires, it was literally a breath of fresh air.

Eventually CrossFit Potrero Hill reopened its roll-up doors, and many members began to trickle back inside. But the seed of outdoor CrossFit in San Francisco took root, and the temporary outdoor COVID measure became the permanent outdoor location we now know as CrossFit Mission Bay. The storage container is still here, now full of brand new equipment. The fog still visits, the wind still blows, and the mornings are still chilly. The sunrises and sunsets are still rare, but often spectacular. And a loyal, dedicated crew of outdoor CrossFit enthusiasts show up daily to appreciate it all.