Anyone can do a pullup, right?
It isn’t a complicated physical exercise by any stretch of the imagination. You hang from a bar and use your core strength to pull yourself up, clear the bar with your chin and boom, one pull up down and the process is repeated.
So 10 years ago when Kristi Pruett, then in her 50s, was told to do a pullup prior to a workout, she figured it would be a piece of cake.
“I’m like ‘Oh, I’ve done this before,’” Pruett recalled thinking. “I couldn’t do a pull up. It was (like) ‘What the hell?’ My first goal was to (do) a pull up.”
She’s done more than that.
Pruett, who currently resides in Winlock but has bounced around the Lewis County area, finished fourth place in the 60-64 age division in the CrossFit semifinals to claim her spot in the CrossFit Master Games on August 21-24 in Columbus, Ohio.
Training out of Sentry in Centralia, Pruett becomes the second athlete from the gym to qualify. Stephen Angove, a Rochester native, placed second in the 60-plus male division in 2014 and placed top-eight every year from 2015-18.
“It is unbelievable,” Pruett said.
Back in 2015, the journey for Pruett to do CrossFit came unexpectedly.
Herself and her two daughters — Tara Snelson and Nicholle Wheeler — were in a group fitness class at Thorbeckes. Once that was completed, Snelson and Wheeler headed over for an intro to CrossFit class. They invited Pruett to tag along.
She passed, but after hearing about it afterwards, decided to give it a shot.
“I loved the people there,” Pruett said. “Coach-led, had weightlifting and a Workout of the Day. That’s what kept me going. You got better and better.”
At first, it wasn’t for competition.
Her high school days at Napavine was where the competition initially ceased. Pruett ran track and cross country, played basketball and softball, then post-grad, dabbled in slowpitch softball.
CrossFit was a way for her to stay active and healthy.
“Live life better,” Pruett stated.
There was plenty of uncertainty for Pruett to even do the opens, the first part of the qualification process for the Master Games. She had the support crew of “a village” from her family and coaches.
She had done a handful of partner competitions in Vancouver and Olympia, but never a solo one. There were 4,500 participants in her age group and the top-200 were invited to the semis. Pruett did three workouts, one per week, and they were watched by a judge to make sure the athletes adhered to the guidelines.
She placed 15th. Yet was still unsure if she’d continue.
“I don’t know if I wanna do it,” Pruett said. “It wasn’t something I trained for. (Kind of) fell into my lap. Why should I do it if I’m not gonna go?”
Pruett did end up doing the workouts for the semis. It was upped to five in four days and all had to be uploaded to YouTube.
Her top-five finish solidified her spot in Columbus. Through fundraisers and even some of her fellow Sentry athletes travelling with her, Pruett is making the trip to the Midwest. It took her about a month to decide.
“This is something I just do; I do it because I enjoy it,” Pruett said.
In order to prepare for her Master Games debut, Pruett is doing last year’s workouts. It will be eight workouts over four days.
She kept her feelings about it straightforward.
“I’m excited, but very nervous,” Pruett said. “I made it this far. It is like ‘Holy shit.’”
