MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – While some of us woke up a bit later than usual on Monday’s Memorial Day holiday, went to the pool, the beach, or sparked up the grill at home, others showed up bright and early to a CrossFit gym in southwest Miami-Dade with one goal in mind:
Completing the Murph Challenge.
Participants packed the Team Soul Miami gym, located at 8354 SW 40th St., early Monday morning for the mental, physical, and emotional test in honor of fallen Navy Seal Lt. Michael Murphy, who was killed in Iraq in 2005 while saving others.
“The way to get through this workout is to think you have one more day to live, that those individuals right now do not have,” said participant Omar Figueroa.
“It’s going to suck, we are going to suffer, it’s going to be very difficult, but what matters is that we do it,” added participant Giorgio Rapicavoli.
For Figueroa, every breath was for his fallen friend.
“We have a fallen comrade named Victor Cologne,” he said.
For his second year completing the challenge, Rapicavoli is now testing his limits.
“This is my first year completing it with a weight vest,” he said.
Coach and gym owner Danny Soul said it is a day where their sweat means a lot more than just a good workout.
“Some other folks are more thinking about different personal struggles they’ve had within their life and how that relates to their families,” he said.
Some completed the challenge in as little as 45 minutes while others took 60 minutes, and some completed it in 90, but all of them, with some training, had the heart and the will to accomplish it.
“I don’t have to worry about getting home because I feel safe, and I know a lot of people put their lives at risk so I can get to have that luxury, so today I guess it’s a big thank you to everybody,” said Rapicavoli. “It was brutal, it was very hard -- probably one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life -- but it was amazing.”
It was the ultimate workout in honor of those who made the ultimate sacrifice.