August 2020 Athlete of the Month

Our Mischief Athlete of the Month for August 2020 is Sharon Colin, a kind and charismatic healthcare worker eager to maximize her fitness potential and live her life to the fullest. Coping with the occupational stresses of being a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit nurse (and educator)—something Sharon has been doing now for thirty-two years—is a relentlessly rigorous task. Recognizing the need to improve her daily quality of life (Sharon is also a wife and the mother of four adult children) by addressing her mental, spiritual, and physical development, Sharon began looking to functional fitness for answers. It was a Facebook ad directed towards participants aged fifty years and over that brought CrossFit Mischief to Sharon’s attention in the Fall of 2017, and it was the individualized coaching she received that convinced Sharon to become a Mischief Member upon completion of our six-week introductory course. More than mere instruction, though, Sharon also found community at CrossFit Mischief; and, through both, she found a loyal and effective accountability mechanism here to challenge and support her, through the good times and the bad.

If you met Sharon for the first time, you would never know she has been recovering from a broken metatarsal, foot surgery, and months of leg casts and boots/braces—the result of a September warmup misstep that has yet to discourage Sharon from getting back to the gym. In fact, even when forced to taxi around via a scooter-like walker, Sharon still came to the gym a couple days each week to do what training exercises she could. Finally, after nearly a year of restricted movement and painful plantar fasciitis flare ups, Sharon can get back to movements she loves, like back squats, American kettlebell swings, and situps. Because Sharon hates to be idle—preferring, instead, to remain active and productive—she enjoys investing her time and energy away from the gym in do-it-yourself home improvement projects. Sharon: Thank you for your cheerfulness, your hard work, and your pre-WOD dancing—no on keeps a beat like you! Congratulations.