The idea to create a new Hero WOD is not something I take lightly, and is something brought up in the gym last year, at this time. We had thought that doing Murph was fun, but it would be much better if we could do a workout each Remembrance day to memorialize one of Sudbury’s own heroes.
Derik knew Gaétan personally, and has told me about him, his personality, and a bit of what kind of man he was. I also searched the internet for articles about him to learn as much as I could before attempting to create a workout to memorialize someone I never personally knew.
From what I’ve read and heard, “Gates” was a quiet, strong, personable man who was a natural leader that had a knack for getting the best out of people. He had an ability to push trainees out of their comfort zone, into growth, but not so far as to “break” them. From my understanding, this meant training hard, and maintaining discipline.
Our workout can be completed with as little as your own body weight and a pair of shoes, or as much as a kit/weighted vest, and a sandbag. It is designed in a way to test you more and more over each of the 3 rounds, but not to cause anyone to be “crippled”. The more you are willing to push yourself, and get uncomfortable, the more quickly you will be able to complete this workout.
This Saturday (and Sunday) we will be programming the workout for everyone to do at our gym. For anyone from Sudbury’s battalion, they are welcome to join us on these days, for free of course.
We will be doing this every year, on Remembrance day. I look forward to seeing you all out, and watching you guys push yourselves in honour of one of Sudbury’s Finest.
Here are two good blogs/articles I found about Gaétan, online.
On the Sudbury Star website here: https://www.thesudburystar.com/2013/11/10/sudbury-couple-remembers-son-who-died-in-afghanistan/wcm/8913e5fa-40ea-f75a-93d0-850488de032f
And another good blog post I found about him (this is where the featured image comes from): https://steemit.com/teamcanada/@phelimint/i-want-to-leave-a-remembrance-day-tribute
And a nice video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARVXtIEaXbA&feature=youtu.be