The result wasn’t quite what Dave Hardie envisioned, but the 61-year-old Beaufort man lived his dream this weekend.
As one of 10 qualifiers for the CrossFit Games in the men’s 60-plus age division, Hardie reached the pinnacle of the CrossFit world. Although he finished ninth among the 10 competitors in his age group, Hardie enjoyed a moment of glory by winning the 4.5-kilometer ruck run.
In the ruck run, competitors run three 1,500-meter laps while carrying a ruck sack with an increasing amount of weight. In the 60-plus division, competitors completed their first lap without the pack, picked up a 20-pound pack for the second lap, and increased the weight to 30 pounds for the final lap.
Hardie covered the distance in 20 minutes, 33.42 seconds, nearly two minutes ahead of the second finisher. Unfortunately for Hardie, he finished no better than seventh in the remaining five events, but the experience nonetheless served as a satisfying finish to his competitive career.
“It was amazing, absolutely amazing,” Hardie said. “I had high expectations and high hopes and it exceeded them all, not necessarily from a performance standpoint, but as an experience.”
