Taxing workout for James nets $2K

Call them super men and women, or just plain crazy – 49 Mount CrossFit athletes are surprising even themselves at how quickly they're completing more than 2000 exercise repetitions this morning.

Mount CrossFit athletes are completing a gruelling workout for James Reid. Photos and video: Cameron Avery.

The athletes are pushing themselves to their absolute physical and mental limits at Newton St today to raise funds for Maketu five-year-old James Reid, who needs a $150,000 life-changing operation.

James has spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy, epilepsy and hydrocephalus, a blockage to the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. This means Sonja and Don Reid's little boy is unable to crawl or stand without support, and can only take assisted steps with great difficulty.

So event organiser and family friend Aaron Williams created what he believes is the perfect workout to reflect the mental and physical challenges that James is going through.

In the Workout of the Day (WOD) Challenge, teams of up to four are tackling more than 2000 repetitions of exercises, including slam balls, pull-ups and burpees, coupled with a 10km row, log carries, 1km lunge walk with gas masks and four tonne of lifts.

Envisaged to take between four and five hours, the taxing workout is going better than expected, says Aaron.

'Some thought it would be near on impossible, but actually there's a few teams that are nearly finishing after 2.5 hours. Basically there's a lot of determined people here today.

'I laid down the motivation that Turangi CrossFit did it yesterday in just under four hours. So that's inspired a few people.”

Mount CrossFit coach Luke McGruer was rumoured to do the full workout individually if club members could drum up $1000, while others completed the gruelling exercises in pairs.

But Luke has injured his back, so Aaron picked up the challenge. 'That's why I'm thankful for the phone call,” laughs Aaron about a quarter of the way through. 'It gives me a bit of a break.”

So is he alright? 'There's differing levels of alright,” says Aaron. 'But we're doing good.”

He knows it's nothing compared to what James' body is going through.

James and his father Don visited the athletes before they began their workout to deliver his ‘thank you' speech.

'It brought tears to the eyes of some of the females,” says Aaron. It was very cool.”

Aaron guesses the event has raised $1500-$2000, which he's very proud of.

'That's $1500 that they [Don and Sonja] don't have to fork out. We would have been proud if it was just $100.”

So far, more than $90,000 has been raised for the family, who is desperately hoping to reach their $150,000 target by September. For more information follow James' Facebook page Team James Whatever It Takes or http://givealittle.co.nz/cause/teamjames

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