Latest / Clydesdale Media Podcast / Hayley Queller | The Athletes of the 2024 Legends Masters CrossFit Games

Transcript

Hayley Queller | The Athletes of the 2024 Legends Masters CrossFit Games · Clydesdale Media Podcast

• 0:12
  I was born to kill it.
• 0:15
  I was meant to win.
• 0:16
  I am down and willing,
• 0:17
  so I will find a way.
• 0:19
  It took a minute,
• 0:20
  now it didn't have to ride away.
• 0:21
  When it get hot in the kitchen,
• 0:23
  you decide to stay.
• 0:24
  That's how a winner's made.
• 0:34
  What is going on, everybody?
• 0:36
  Welcome to the Clydesdale Media Podcast,
• 0:39
  where we are featuring the
• 0:40
  athletes of the 2024 Masters, wait,
• 0:45
  Legends Masters CrossFit Games.
• 0:48
  I don't know what the official title is.
• 0:49
  That's what I'm calling it.
• 0:51
  My name is Scott Soich from the Clydesdale,
• 0:53
  and I am so honored and
• 0:54
  privileged to have with me Haley Queller.
• 0:56
  That's right.
• 0:58
  Got it.
• 0:59
  And Haley has qualified in
• 1:01
  the 45 to 49-year-old division.
• 1:05
  Congratulations.
• 1:07
  Thank you.
• 1:08
  So let's talk about your
• 1:10
  background a little bit.
• 1:11
  What got you to here?
• 1:12
  And I read somewhere you
• 1:14
  were an All-American soccer
• 1:16
  player in college.
• 1:18
  So I was an academic All-American,
• 1:20
  which is a little bit
• 1:20
  different than an All-American.
• 1:24
  Thank you.
• 1:24
  I went to a small Division
• 1:25
  III college and I did play soccer and my
• 1:31
  final year as a soccer player,
• 1:33
  I was an academic All-American first team,
• 1:35
  which was pretty awesome.
• 1:37
  Certainly it was a bit due
• 1:39
  to my soccer abilities,
• 1:41
  but also tied to my academic prowess.
• 1:43
  So that was a pretty cool honor to get.
• 1:48
  And it would have been very
• 1:50
  cool to be an All-American,
• 1:51
  but I wasn't the best soccer player.
• 1:55
  But I certainly, you know,
• 1:56
  I played well in
• 1:58
  In Division III,
• 1:58
  it's hard to become an All-American.
• 2:00
  So academic is good enough.
• 2:02
  Yeah.
• 2:04
  And probably does more for
• 2:06
  the rest of your life than
• 2:07
  just playing All-American.
• 2:09
  True.
• 2:10
  Yes.
• 2:11
  So did you always play
• 2:14
  soccer from a child forward
• 2:17
  or did you do other sports as well?
• 2:19
  I started playing soccer
• 2:20
  when I was four and I was elected to the
• 2:25
  traveling team by the time I was five.
• 2:28
  And I played with the same
• 2:30
  travel team from the time I
• 2:31
  was five until I graduated high school.
• 2:34
  And I did play college
• 2:36
  soccer as well and a little
• 2:37
  bit of adult league soccer.
• 2:39
  Throughout all of that, when I was younger,
• 2:42
  it wasn't that you played
• 2:44
  all year round like they do now.
• 2:45
  So I also picked up sports here and there.
• 2:48
  I played a little bit of
• 2:49
  basketball until I was the
• 2:50
  shortest kid on the team.
• 2:51
  And then I kind of quit that.
• 2:54
  But I did run track in high school,
• 2:58
  but didn't do any further
• 3:00
  track in college.
• 3:01
  Interestingly, in college,
• 3:02
  I did pick up a little bit of lacrosse,
• 3:05
  which we didn't have where I grew up.
• 3:08
  The lacrosse coach saw me
• 3:10
  play soccer and asked me to
• 3:11
  play a little bit.
• 3:13
  It wasn't my favorite sport,
• 3:14
  but I gave it a go.
• 3:16
  And then my senior year of college,
• 3:18
  I actually joined the women's golf team.
• 3:22
  It was a
• 3:23
  five soccer players and four
• 3:24
  basketball players made up the golf team,
• 3:27
  mainly because of title nine,
• 3:28
  we needed another women's
• 3:29
  sport and we figured we
• 3:31
  would try that out.
• 3:32
  Um,
• 3:33
  so I've picked up a couple of things
• 3:34
  here and there.
• 3:34
  Um, but soccer was my main passion,
• 3:38
  my main sport.
• 3:41
  Isn't it fascinating that
• 3:42
  when you were in college,
• 3:44
  that you had to pick up
• 3:45
  another sport for title nine,
• 3:47
  just to like be compliant
• 3:49
  and where women's sports are today.
• 3:51
  Right.
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  Seriously.
• 3:53
  Isn't that mind blowing?
• 3:55
  Yep.
• 3:57
  Thank you,
• 3:57
  Caitlin Clark and all the other
• 4:00
  women that came before her.
• 4:01
  Holy cow.
• 4:02
  For sure.
• 4:04
  So did soccer give you a
• 4:07
  good groundwork base to go into CrossFit?
• 4:14
  I mean,
• 4:15
  I think with the athleticism that I had,
• 4:17
  I think it was a good foundation,
• 4:20
  but there's,
• 4:23
  I still keep in touch with
• 4:24
  my soccer coach from college today.
• 4:26
  If I had known about
• 4:27
  CrossFit when I was in
• 4:28
  college or as a child,
• 4:31
  I would have been a much
• 4:32
  better soccer player.
• 4:34
  So I think CrossFit would
• 4:39
  help soccer more than
• 4:40
  soccer helps CrossFit.
• 4:43
  Gotcha, gotcha.
• 4:45
  What I've always lamented,
• 4:47
  and I've always thought of
• 4:48
  it in the reverse.
• 4:50
  So I was a swimmer,
• 4:51
  pretty high-end swimmer when I was a kid.
• 4:54
  I retired and there was
• 4:55
  nothing for me to go into.
• 4:57
  And so, like, I dabbled in powerlifting.
• 5:01
  I dabbled in some other things.
• 5:03
  And nothing ever stuck.
• 5:04
  If there was CrossFit when I retired,
• 5:07
  my body would be in much
• 5:08
  better shape today than it is.
• 5:11
  And so I always lament that aspect of it.
• 5:17
  But so you also are a doctor.
• 5:22
  Yes, yes.
• 5:24
  I think you might be an overachiever.
• 5:26
  I'm not sure about that,
• 5:29
  but when did you decide
• 5:31
  that that is the field you
• 5:32
  wanted to go into in life?
• 5:35
  When I was six years old, I was sick.
• 5:39
  I was in the hospital for about 10 days.
• 5:42
  And although I don't really
• 5:43
  remember the encounter,
• 5:45
  my mom tells me that every
• 5:46
  physician that walked in,
• 5:47
  I asked them a hundred
• 5:49
  questions about a hundred
• 5:50
  different things that I was
• 5:51
  super intrigued by what
• 5:53
  they were doing and how
• 5:55
  they were helping me.
• 5:58
  She also does tell me the
• 5:59
  story of how when I was
• 6:01
  going into the hospital,
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  I told her that I never
• 6:03
  want to go in a hospital
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  because that's where people die.
• 6:06
  And I learned a ton in retrospect about
• 6:11
  medical field and how they
• 6:14
  helped me a great deal.
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  And when I left the hospital,
• 6:16
  instead of saying,
• 6:17
  I never want to enter
• 6:18
  another hospital again,
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  I told my mom that I'm
• 6:19
  going to be a doctor one day.
• 6:21
  I didn't exactly know what that entailed.
• 6:23
  And I certainly didn't know
• 6:25
  what field of medicine I
• 6:26
  wanted to go into.
• 6:27
  But that was the kind of the
• 6:29
  moment where I said,
• 6:30
  that's what I'm going to do.
• 6:32
  And I really never looked back.
• 6:34
  Along the way, people said, oh,
• 6:35
  you would be a great blank or, you know,
• 6:38
  this or that.
• 6:39
  But I always said, well,
• 6:40
  that's not what I want to do.
• 6:41
  I want to be a doctor.
• 6:43
  I want to help people.
• 6:44
  And so from the time I was
• 6:46
  five until today,
• 6:48
  I've always said this is
• 6:49
  what I want to do.
• 6:50
  And, you know, I never really looked back.
• 6:54
  I just, that blows me away.
• 6:56
  I'm a guy who had 18
• 6:57
  different majors in college,
• 7:00
  but my daughter, she graduated,
• 7:02
  she knew what she wanted to
• 7:03
  be like you at like six years old,
• 7:05
  finished college in four years,
• 7:08
  became what she wanted to
• 7:09
  be and never looked back.
• 7:11
  It's always what she wanted.
• 7:13
  And that sounds like you had
• 7:14
  the very similar experience.
• 7:17
  So you're in sports medicine,
• 7:19
  but you're board certified
• 7:21
  in several areas.
• 7:23
  practices, internal medicine, pediatrics,
• 7:27
  and sports medicine.
• 7:28
  That's right.
• 7:30
  So I wanted to be a
• 7:32
  non-operative sports
• 7:33
  medicine provider as I
• 7:35
  didn't want to do surgery.
• 7:36
  So in order to do that,
• 7:37
  you have to do a primary
• 7:39
  residency in something.
• 7:41
  And you may have alluded to it before,
• 7:43
  I'm a little bit of an overachiever.
• 7:45
  So instead of picking one
• 7:46
  primary residency,
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  I decided to do a combined
• 7:49
  residency in both internal
• 7:50
  medicine and pediatrics to
• 7:52
  be able to get the full
• 7:53
  breadth of knowledge, medical knowledge,
• 7:55
  both in adults and pediatrics.
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  And then from there,
• 7:59
  I was able to do a
• 8:00
  fellowship in sports medicine,
• 8:02
  specifically non-operative
• 8:03
  sports medicine.
• 8:06
  So the non-operative aspect of it,
• 8:08
  I was digging into a little bit myself.
• 8:10
  Can you explain what that is
• 8:12
  for the audience and what
• 8:15
  you focus on mainly?
• 8:17
  Sure.
• 8:17
  So
• 8:19
  So the general non-operative
• 8:21
  or primary care sports
• 8:22
  medicine field can take on
• 8:24
  a lot of different hats.
• 8:24
  There's a lot of us that
• 8:26
  would work in a primary care setting,
• 8:28
  seeing routine primary care
• 8:32
  conditions and also see
• 8:34
  musculoskeletal problems.
• 8:36
  There are a lot of primary
• 8:37
  care sports medicine
• 8:38
  doctors that are head team
• 8:40
  physicians in colleges.
• 8:42
  at the international and national levels.
• 8:45
  But for myself,
• 8:47
  I really wanted to just do
• 8:48
  sports medicine.
• 8:49
  I didn't want to deal with
• 8:50
  coughs and colds and
• 8:51
  routine health visits.
• 8:55
  I only see sports medicine.
• 8:57
  So in my practice,
• 8:58
  I actually work in an
• 9:00
  orthopedic practice and I do
• 9:02
  everything that the
• 9:03
  orthopedist does until they need surgery.
• 9:05
  So whether it be, you know,
• 9:07
  I evaluate patients, I do injections,
• 9:09
  I do regenerative medicine.
• 9:11
  I also have a fairly sizable
• 9:14
  concussion population.
• 9:16
  So that's kind of a little
• 9:18
  niche that I have.
• 9:19
  It's about a third of my
• 9:21
  practice could be more than
• 9:23
  that during football season,
• 9:24
  but in general,
• 9:26
  about a third of my
• 9:26
  practice is concussion management,
• 9:28
  which has been,
• 9:30
  you know,
• 9:30
  in the media has been a very
• 9:32
  large topic and in medicine,
• 9:35
  a very underserved population.
• 9:38
  Nobody really wants to tag
• 9:39
  themselves with that diagnosis.
• 9:42
  And it's something that I've
• 9:43
  kind of grown to really enjoy.
• 9:45
  And, you know,
• 9:47
  many people in my community
• 9:49
  will end up coming through
• 9:51
  our door, you know,
• 9:51
  there are others of us now in the, in my,
• 9:54
  uh, practice that also treat concussion,
• 9:56
  but you know,
• 9:57
  the neurologists don't want to treat it.
• 9:58
  The primary care doctors
• 9:59
  don't want to treat it.
• 10:00
  And it's something that I have a pretty,
• 10:02
  pretty good passion over.
• 10:03
  I have a follow-up to that, but, uh,
• 10:06
  you have some friends in the chat.
• 10:07
  So, uh, Kelly Krivit is saying hi HQ.
• 10:10
  What's up Cal?
• 10:12
  A G A G A J. Uh, Golick is saying HQ.
• 10:16
  So do you go by HQ?
• 10:18
  No.
• 10:19
  It's funny, everybody calls me HQ.
• 10:22
  It was never something that
• 10:24
  I introduced myself as,
• 10:26
  but in my practice, in my job,
• 10:30
  We all go by our initials.
• 10:32
  That's how our our templates
• 10:35
  are written for our schedules.
• 10:37
  So it always said HQ.
• 10:39
  And then when I went into
• 10:40
  the gym one day and somebody called me HQ,
• 10:42
  it kind of just stuck.
• 10:43
  So now both in my private
• 10:45
  practice as well as in the gym,
• 10:48
  it just seems it seemed to have stuck.
• 10:49
  So I don't mind it.
• 10:51
  It sounds cool.
• 10:53
  Yeah.
• 10:53
  Yeah.
• 10:55
  Way worse names out there to be called.
• 10:57
  For sure.
• 10:59
  So with the concussion thing,
• 11:00
  it has become such a hot topic.
• 11:03
  And there's so much more
• 11:05
  known about it today than
• 11:06
  like when I played football.
• 11:10
  That are you seeing an
• 11:14
  increase in patients
• 11:15
  because of the awareness we
• 11:18
  have today as opposed to 10,
• 11:20
  15 years ago?
• 11:22
  Definitely.
• 11:23
  People are definitely more
• 11:24
  knowledgeable about
• 11:25
  concussion and they're also
• 11:26
  knowledgeable of the
• 11:27
  repercussions of not treating concussion,
• 11:29
  which I think is super important.
• 11:31
  When I first started in 2009,
• 11:34
  when I got to Long Island
• 11:36
  where I'm practicing,
• 11:37
  there was nobody treating
• 11:38
  concussion and it was kind
• 11:41
  of like the wild west.
• 11:43
  People would go see their
• 11:44
  pediatrician and get
• 11:45
  clearance or not even see
• 11:46
  anybody and just end up
• 11:47
  back on the field.
• 11:49
  And people realized that
• 11:51
  once we started an
• 11:52
  education process and what
• 11:54
  the repercussions are and, you know,
• 11:56
  the whole NFL talking about
• 11:59
  CTE and all that stuff,
• 12:01
  it definitely became,
• 12:03
  people almost became
• 12:05
  Very far to the other side
• 12:06
  where they were terrified of it.
• 12:08
  And it was the boogeyman.
• 12:10
  So the first couple of years
• 12:12
  of my practice,
• 12:12
  I spent a lot of time educating,
• 12:14
  a lot of time going into
• 12:15
  schools and talking about
• 12:17
  concussion and things to
• 12:18
  look out for and certain
• 12:21
  preventive measures that we can take.
• 12:23
  And, you know,
• 12:23
  to try to instill in these kids, like,
• 12:25
  okay, this isn't the boogeyman, you know,
• 12:27
  it's an important thing to
• 12:29
  look for and it's an
• 12:30
  important thing to pay attention to,
• 12:32
  but we can recover from
• 12:33
  this and we can certainly
• 12:34
  get people back on the field.
• 12:35
  I think a lot of people in
• 12:36
  the past thought, oh,
• 12:37
  as soon as I get a
• 12:38
  diagnosis of concussion, that's it,
• 12:40
  it's over.
• 12:40
  I'm not going to be able to play anymore.
• 12:42
  But I think people have a
• 12:43
  better understanding of
• 12:44
  what the treatment entails
• 12:46
  and how to become
• 12:47
  appropriately cleared
• 12:48
  before you play in order to
• 12:50
  mitigate any of those risks.
• 12:54
  One interesting question I
• 12:54
  have for you is you're the
• 12:55
  mother of four.
• 12:57
  So you see on a day-to-day
• 12:59
  basis what the
• 13:00
  repercussions are from playing sport.
• 13:03
  Do you have any trepidation
• 13:05
  in allowing your children to play sports?
• 13:09
  So I have two girls and two boys.
• 13:11
  My girls have zero interest
• 13:13
  in sweating at all.
• 13:14
  They're not like me.
• 13:16
  They don't play any sports.
• 13:18
  They are both into theater and music,
• 13:20
  which is great as well.
• 13:22
  My boys play one of the
• 13:23
  highest risk sports around.
• 13:25
  They're both competitive gymnasts,
• 13:27
  which the risk of head
• 13:29
  injury in particular is pretty high.
• 13:33
  And they've had their fair
• 13:34
  shares of musculoskeletal injuries,
• 13:35
  broken bones, et cetera.
• 13:38
  But
• 13:39
  you got to let a kid be a kid.
• 13:40
  So neither of them,
• 13:42
  neither of my boys ever
• 13:43
  asked to play football.
• 13:45
  I don't know what the answer
• 13:46
  would have been if they did ask,
• 13:48
  but they have no interest.
• 13:50
  I feel collision sports are
• 13:52
  certainly would, would make me hesitant.
• 13:55
  So ice hockey and,
• 13:56
  and football would make me hesitate.
• 13:58
  But again, kids,
• 13:59
  kids need to learn and kids
• 14:00
  need to be kids.
• 14:02
  And they're going to get
• 14:03
  injured no matter what they do.
• 14:04
  You know, my, my older son is 14 and
• 14:07
  he's a very high level gymnast and,
• 14:10
  you know,
• 14:10
  some of his stupider injuries
• 14:12
  happened falling off his
• 14:13
  scooter outside my home.
• 14:14
  So it doesn't necessarily happen at the,
• 14:18
  you know,
• 14:18
  when they're being spotted by
• 14:20
  their coaches in a safe
• 14:21
  environment as safe as gymnastics can be.
• 14:25
  So, you know,
• 14:26
  you have to let them kind of
• 14:28
  sow their oats and figure it out.
• 14:31
  So two competitive gymnasts,
• 14:34
  two theater and music lovers,
• 14:38
  a mom that's competing in
• 14:39
  CrossFit at the highest
• 14:40
  level and as a doctor,
• 14:44
  how do you do it all?
• 14:47
  I am very, very organized as far as time.
• 14:53
  So I schedule things out
• 14:55
  that most people don't schedule.
• 14:57
  So if you looked at my
• 15:00
  appointment scheduling, my log book,
• 15:03
  everything is written out
• 15:05
  when I'm going to do this, that,
• 15:06
  and the other.
• 15:07
  My husband and I literally
• 15:08
  have a work meeting every
• 15:10
  Sunday and we look at the
• 15:11
  schedule together to see
• 15:13
  who's picking up which kid at what time.
• 15:15
  What time are you training?
• 15:17
  What time am I training?
• 15:20
  And my staff in my office
• 15:22
  also very fully understands
• 15:24
  that my schedule needs to be pristine,
• 15:28
  my office schedule,
• 15:29
  so that the moment that I'm
• 15:31
  supposed to be done,
• 15:32
  I'm out the door because my
• 15:34
  work schedule is pristine.
• 15:37
  scheduled according to when
• 15:38
  I need to be at the gym as well.
• 15:40
  So I don't have very many other hobbies.
• 15:44
  I don't watch TV.
• 15:45
  I don't have much time to read.
• 15:49
  because every moment is
• 15:51
  already accounted for.
• 15:52
  Like if a kid has a concert on, you know,
• 15:56
  school concert one night,
• 15:58
  I have to kind of know that
• 15:59
  ahead of time so that I can
• 16:00
  rearrange my schedule so
• 16:01
  that sometimes work gets a
• 16:04
  little bit cut short.
• 16:05
  And sometimes the gym gets a
• 16:06
  little cut short because
• 16:08
  those are my two big commitments.
• 16:10
  And, you know,
• 16:11
  I will have time to make it
• 16:13
  to the kids concert so that I,
• 16:16
  just by kind of cutting
• 16:17
  short 30 minutes here,
• 16:18
  30 minutes there from work
• 16:20
  and from the gym.
• 16:22
  And it just kind of works for me.
• 16:23
  I've, you know,
• 16:24
  I've always been a very
• 16:26
  organized and some people
• 16:27
  might say OCD kind of person.
• 16:30
  And that kind of,
• 16:31
  it works in my extremely hectic life.
• 16:38
  So your husband,
• 16:40
  going back to your Instagram,
• 16:42
  looks like at one time he
• 16:43
  was a powerlifter,
• 16:45
  and he was doing it at a
• 16:46
  very high level because he
• 16:49
  was at the Arnold,
• 16:50
  which is very near and dear
• 16:51
  to my heart because it's here in Columbus,
• 16:53
  Ohio.
• 16:55
  And I used to work that as
• 16:57
  security for a while.
• 16:59
  So is he as busy as you are,
• 17:02
  or can he pick up some slack?
• 17:05
  So...
• 17:06
  My husband is ex-military,
• 17:08
  so he was in the Army National Guard for,
• 17:11
  I believe, 13 years.
• 17:15
  In 2008,
• 17:15
  he was in Iraq for a year when my
• 17:19
  oldest was just a wee pup.
• 17:21
  And when he came home from Iraq,
• 17:24
  he stayed home for a while.
• 17:26
  He did his drilling for the
• 17:28
  National Guard and what have you,
• 17:29
  but he did stay home.
• 17:30
  He did a little bit of
• 17:32
  academics and he got his
• 17:33
  master's in education.
• 17:36
  In 2014,
• 17:37
  he wasn't able to find a job on
• 17:39
  Long Island.
• 17:40
  Long Island,
• 17:41
  getting a teaching job is near
• 17:42
  impossible.
• 17:43
  So he decided because he had
• 17:46
  a strong passion for
• 17:47
  fitness and he had learned
• 17:49
  about CrossFit when he was in Iraq.
• 17:52
  When he came home,
• 17:53
  we started doing some
• 17:55
  CrossFitting and then he
• 17:56
  opened a gym or we opened a gym in 2014,
• 18:00
  which we owned for four years.
• 18:02
  And he was doing that full time.
• 18:05
  We did sell that gym and he
• 18:08
  thought he was going to go
• 18:09
  back to education, go back to teaching.
• 18:12
  And again,
• 18:12
  very difficult at that time to
• 18:14
  find a job.
• 18:16
  So like a bunch of suckers,
• 18:17
  we opened another gym,
• 18:18
  which we currently own.
• 18:21
  And he did that again
• 18:22
  full-time for quite some time.
• 18:24
  And last year,
• 18:25
  he really had that hankering.
• 18:26
  He really, really wants to teach.
• 18:29
  He's very, very smart.
• 18:30
  He's a history buff.
• 18:34
  That's his specialty.
• 18:36
  And as an ex-military,
• 18:37
  he has this passion for it.
• 18:39
  So he decided last year to
• 18:42
  enroll in Teach for America.
• 18:43
  And he just finished his
• 18:45
  first year of teaching in
• 18:47
  an underserved community in Queens.
• 18:51
  So he leaves the house at
• 18:52
  four 30 in the morning and
• 18:53
  he comes home at seven 30 at night.
• 18:56
  It used to be that he was
• 18:57
  able to pick up the
• 18:58
  afternoon stuff with the kids,
• 19:01
  but now a lot of it does,
• 19:03
  I say fall on me, but doesn't, you know,
• 19:06
  I'm the one who organizes
• 19:07
  the babysitter who has to
• 19:08
  pick up the kids in order
• 19:09
  to bring them to the places
• 19:10
  that they need to be.
• 19:11
  Um, and you know, if,
• 19:14
  if all heck race loose, then I do have to,
• 19:16
  you know,
• 19:16
  sometimes I'll have to leave the
• 19:17
  office and pick a kid up
• 19:18
  from school if they're sick
• 19:19
  or what have you,
• 19:20
  where he used to do that.
• 19:22
  So that's been a huge change this year.
• 19:24
  I thought it was going to be
• 19:27
  harder than it actually turned out to be.
• 19:29
  It actually was okay.
• 19:30
  I, you know,
• 19:31
  I was terrified that I wasn't
• 19:32
  going to be able to keep up,
• 19:33
  but we make it work.
• 19:35
  You know, he, he does his fair share.
• 19:38
  He busts his chops on the weekends,
• 19:40
  make sure, you know,
• 19:41
  helps with the cleaning and
• 19:42
  all that kind of stuff.
• 19:43
  Cause
• 19:44
  That's the kind of thing
• 19:45
  that has to be pushed to
• 19:45
  the wayside when both of us
• 19:48
  are out of the house for an
• 19:49
  ungodly number of hours every day.
• 19:53
  Okay.
• 19:54
  So you're a business owner.
• 19:55
  You're a doctor.
• 19:57
  You have four kids.
• 19:58
  Your husband is traveling
• 20:00
  into New York City to teach every day.
• 20:05
  How do you have time to
• 20:06
  volunteer at the fight for
• 20:07
  the fittest as head judge?
• 20:09
  Sure.
• 20:11
  So I know you know Sam and Kelly.
• 20:12
  So I've known Sam and Kelly since 2016.
• 20:16
  They came to the first gym
• 20:17
  that I owned at Mount Sinai CrossFit.
• 20:21
  And we just became very friendly.
• 20:22
  Sam and I worked out together a ton.
• 20:24
  And he had this interest in 2020,
• 20:28
  I guess it was,
• 20:31
  to try to put together a
• 20:32
  community-based competition.
• 20:35
  And we actually did that in
• 20:37
  my gym at RX Fit in Rocky Point.
• 20:40
  And we had a really great, great time.
• 20:42
  I sort of became the head judge because,
• 20:47
  again,
• 20:47
  I'm very OCD and I see things and I
• 20:50
  like for people to move well and,
• 20:51
  you know, follow the rules.
• 20:54
  So I just kind of got stuck with that.
• 20:56
  I was also a lot of, I was,
• 20:58
  Kelly's probably still on.
• 21:00
  She gave me a lot of titles.
• 21:02
  One of them was like shirt
• 21:03
  bitch and everything.
• 21:04
  I've gotten all different
• 21:06
  titles from the fight for the fittest,
• 21:07
  but I've continued to judge for them,
• 21:10
  help with some of the programming,
• 21:13
  help with writing rule
• 21:14
  books and stuff like that.
• 21:17
  Do I have time for it?
• 21:19
  No,
• 21:19
  but a lot of this is done because I mean,
• 21:21
  we're good friends to this day.
• 21:23
  And if we ever do have the
• 21:25
  chance to hang out,
• 21:26
  that's kind of what we talk about.
• 21:27
  We have a group chat between
• 21:29
  the three of us and we
• 21:31
  bounce questions off each other
• 21:33
  pretty much all day long,
• 21:34
  especially when it starts
• 21:37
  getting closer and it's a ton of fun.
• 21:39
  It's something different
• 21:41
  rather than doing the activity,
• 21:43
  planning the activity.
• 21:44
  And again, when it comes to being OCD,
• 21:47
  that's fun for me and
• 21:51
  probably more OCD than me as Kelly.
• 21:53
  So we work really well
• 21:54
  together and Sam is just,
• 21:57
  he's just a flighty kind of
• 21:58
  guy and it's great.
• 22:00
  So I believe this is Sam.
• 22:01
  So I'm not saying this
• 22:02
  because HQ is one of my best friends,
• 22:05
  but she is one of the most
• 22:06
  kind and giving individuals
• 22:08
  I've ever known.
• 22:09
  I've watched her fitness
• 22:10
  journey since 2016,
• 22:11
  and we are so excited for her.
• 22:14
  Thanks, Sam.
• 22:16
  So with all of this,
• 22:19
  you have qualified for the
• 22:20
  CrossFit Games for the first time ever.
• 22:23
  Right.
• 22:25
  You are a rookie in the 45
• 22:28
  to 49-year-old division.
• 22:29
  That sounds weird to say,
• 22:31
  but you're heading to the
• 22:32
  games for the first time.
• 22:33
  What does that mean to you?
• 22:36
  It's insane.
• 22:37
  I mean,
• 22:37
  I've been trying to get to this
• 22:40
  point since I was 39.
• 22:42
  When I was 39 was the first
• 22:44
  year that they had the 35 to 39 division.
• 22:48
  So that was the first year
• 22:49
  that I really pushed to try
• 22:51
  to make it pretty high up there.
• 22:53
  Certainly I didn't achieve that,
• 22:55
  but as the years got on,
• 22:57
  I was getting closer and closer.
• 22:59
  In the last couple of years,
• 23:00
  I've been working with an
• 23:02
  individual coach and I've
• 23:04
  been really upping my
• 23:05
  training and really
• 23:06
  focusing on weaknesses.
• 23:08
  And just to see this come to
• 23:09
  fruition is just unbelievable.
• 23:12
  The amount of sacrifice,
• 23:13
  both between me and my family
• 23:15
  that we've put in to try to
• 23:17
  get to this point.
• 23:19
  I came incredibly close last
• 23:21
  year and it was almost, you know,
• 23:24
  fire under my butt to say like, you're,
• 23:26
  you're there.
• 23:27
  You just, you need,
• 23:28
  you just need a little extra push.
• 23:29
  And here we are.
• 23:32
  If I remember right, you,
• 23:34
  if it were this year's rules,
• 23:35
  you would have qualified last year.
• 23:37
  Correct.
• 23:38
  Correct.
• 23:39
  Yeah.
• 23:41
  How cool is it that they
• 23:42
  have expanded this?
• 23:45
  Are you,
• 23:46
  are you excited or disappointed
• 23:47
  that it's moved away from
• 23:49
  the main festival.
• 23:52
  I mean I always wanted to go
• 23:53
  to the main festival and I
• 23:55
  never did and probably will
• 23:56
  never go to the main
• 23:57
  festival unless I was somehow involved,
• 23:59
  just because again time, I don't have it.
• 24:01
  But.
• 24:03
  I think it's great.
• 24:04
  I've been to Legends in the past in 2022,
• 24:08
  and I love that we're all
• 24:11
  normal people who have jobs
• 24:14
  and have family and have kids.
• 24:15
  And it's super fun to meet these people.
• 24:18
  I mean,
• 24:19
  a lot of these people that I've
• 24:20
  quote unquote met over the
• 24:22
  past 14 years online that I
• 24:25
  would think they're very
• 24:26
  close friends of mine,
• 24:27
  but I've never literally
• 24:28
  met them in person.
• 24:30
  Um, so I think, you know,
• 24:31
  having it as a separate
• 24:32
  event where we're the,
• 24:34
  we're the main show.
• 24:34
  So, you know, everybody's watching us.
• 24:37
  I think it's great.
• 24:37
  Um, it, it's only selfish reasons.
• 24:41
  Like I would love to go to
• 24:42
  the games one day just to watch because,
• 24:44
  you know, I,
• 24:45
  I love CrossFit and I love the athletes,
• 24:48
  but I'm glad that our show is our show.
• 24:53
  I am too.
• 24:53
  I'm glad you guys get the
• 24:54
  opportunity to be
• 24:55
  highlighted because what
• 24:57
  you do is amazing.
• 24:59
  Um,
• 24:59
  and what most people probably don't
• 25:02
  even realize is this
• 25:04
  underserved community from
• 25:06
  35 to 50 collectively,
• 25:10
  you have almost 3 million
• 25:12
  followers on Instagram.
• 25:15
  That's crazy.
• 25:15
  Isn't that crazy?
• 25:16
  It's great.
• 25:18
  You know, and it, and, um,
• 25:21
  And I think the more you are
• 25:23
  highlighted and the more
• 25:24
  that you are shown to the world,
• 25:27
  the better that's going to
• 25:29
  get for all of you.
• 25:30
  Absolutely.
• 25:32
  So who are you taking with
• 25:33
  you to Birmingham?
• 25:35
  So one of my very close friends,
• 25:38
  Charlotte Moriarty,
• 25:39
  she's actually a sports
• 25:40
  medicine doctor up in Rhode Island.
• 25:42
  She was at Legends last year.
• 25:44
  She was at Legends last year.
• 25:46
  And actually,
• 25:47
  we are one of those sets of
• 25:48
  friends that we...
• 25:50
  kind of met online and we
• 25:51
  ended up never meeting
• 25:52
  before and ending ended up
• 25:53
  doing masters fitness
• 25:54
  collective together just
• 25:56
  through instagram and had a
• 25:58
  blast and we've been close
• 25:59
  friends since so she's
• 26:00
  coming down and then my
• 26:02
  husband pending getting off
• 26:05
  from work he his first week
• 26:07
  of school is that week so
• 26:08
  he's trying to see if he
• 26:09
  can get off that friday
• 26:11
  Um,
• 26:11
  unfortunately bringing all four kids is
• 26:13
  not going to work out.
• 26:14
  Um, my, my younger sister,
• 26:16
  thank goodness is able to
• 26:18
  come watch them.
• 26:19
  And I believe that my
• 26:21
  in-laws will be there.
• 26:22
  My in-laws actually moved to
• 26:23
  Georgia a few years ago.
• 26:25
  And so it's a couple hour drive for them.
• 26:27
  So I think they're going to be there.
• 26:28
  Um, but really just, you know, my husband,
• 26:31
  Charlotte, and probably my in-laws,
• 26:33
  and then tons of people
• 26:34
  will be following my Instagram feed.
• 26:37
  Cause I,
• 26:38
  I know a lot of people wanted to be there,
• 26:39
  Sam and Kelly included,
• 26:41
  but unfortunately it's, it's a schlep.
• 26:43
  It's a big, big job to get down there.
• 26:45
  Well,
• 26:46
  the good news is they're streaming it
• 26:47
  this year.
• 26:48
  Yep.
• 26:48
  So everybody can,
• 26:50
  they can have a watch party
• 26:51
  in New York and cheer you on from there.
• 26:55
  Cause we,
• 26:56
  we want eyes on this as much as
• 26:57
  possible through stream or
• 26:59
  through being there.
• 27:00
  So this keeps growing and growing.
• 27:03
  Absolutely.
• 27:04
  What are your realistic
• 27:05
  expectations at the games?
• 27:09
  Well,
• 27:09
  I just want to really go down there
• 27:10
  and have a blast.
• 27:11
  You know,
• 27:12
  I've been working really hard for
• 27:13
  this and the prize is that I made it.
• 27:16
  Everything past this is kind of gravy.
• 27:19
  Certainly, you know,
• 27:20
  finishing in the top 10 in
• 27:22
  the world in the semifinals
• 27:24
  was unbelievably great.
• 27:27
  And if I could
• 27:29
  stay in that, in that heat, in that,
• 27:31
  you know, elite heat,
• 27:33
  that would be amazing.
• 27:34
  Um, but you know, it is what,
• 27:36
  whatever shows up and as
• 27:38
  long as I have fun and
• 27:40
  hopefully stay healthy,
• 27:41
  that's really all I can ask for.
• 27:43
  How much did it mean to you
• 27:44
  that you would have
• 27:45
  qualified under the old rules this year?
• 27:49
  It,
• 27:50
  it's a little bittersweet because last
• 27:52
  year I finished in 18th and
• 27:54
  if the roles were reversed,
• 27:55
  I would go for two years in a row,
• 27:57
  but obviously they're not.
• 27:58
  Um,
• 27:59
  But it's great.
• 28:01
  The top 40 people in our age group,
• 28:04
  they're all badasses.
• 28:06
  So anybody that finished in that top 40,
• 28:08
  I mean, it's unreal.
• 28:10
  And a slight of – a little
• 28:13
  change in this workout or that workout,
• 28:15
  I could have easily been 35th.
• 28:16
  But the cards just fell
• 28:18
  beautifully in my pocket,
• 28:19
  and I executed well.
• 28:22
  So 10th is great,
• 28:23
  and I'm glad that I would
• 28:24
  have made it last year too.
• 28:26
  But anything in the top 40 is –
• 28:28
  just amazing.
• 28:29
  So last question.
• 28:31
  Um, do you like to race?
• 28:34
  Like,
• 28:35
  are you excited to get out there on
• 28:36
  the floor head to head with
• 28:39
  other athletes after this
• 28:40
  long season of online competition?
• 28:43
  Yeah.
• 28:43
  You know,
• 28:44
  I don't have a ton of experience.
• 28:45
  I've only been to one
• 28:47
  individual competition before,
• 28:49
  and that was legends 2022.
• 28:50
  And I enjoyed the racing.
• 28:51
  Um,
• 28:54
  The only other time I
• 28:55
  competed on a big stage was
• 28:57
  Masters Fitness, and that was as a team.
• 28:58
  And I loved that as well.
• 29:00
  But I feel like it's going
• 29:02
  to give me a little bit
• 29:03
  extra fire just having
• 29:04
  people around me who are, you know,
• 29:07
  seriously fit, like crazy fit.
• 29:09
  And I think that'll help me
• 29:11
  and it'll light a fire.
• 29:12
  And I think, you know,
• 29:13
  in the Masters community, at least,
• 29:15
  we all walk off the big
• 29:17
  stage and we're hugging each other.
• 29:18
  So,
• 29:19
  whatever happens, I mean, it's,
• 29:20
  it's going to be a lot of
• 29:21
  fun with a lot of really cool people that,
• 29:25
  you know,
• 29:25
  all have similar interests and
• 29:26
  similar desires.
• 29:27
  And we all know what we're going through.
• 29:28
  We all, you know,
• 29:29
  can push each other equally.
• 29:30
  Um, you know, it's not super cutthroat.
• 29:33
  Like I think the individual
• 29:35
  process probably is we're,
• 29:36
  we're all trying to lift each other up.
• 29:38
  So I think that part of it
• 29:40
  itself is going to be just unbelievable.
• 29:43
  So I'm going to finish this
• 29:45
  with just a wacky question
• 29:46
  that came in in the chat.
• 29:48
  And it says that Haley
• 29:50
  sounds like such a hardworking badass,
• 29:54
  but I wonder if she's scared of spiders.
• 29:58
  I'm not scared of spiders.
• 30:00
  I'd prefer them not be there,
• 30:01
  but I'm usually the one
• 30:02
  who's killing them.
• 30:03
  So I'm not scared of spiders.
• 30:07
  There are other things I'm scared of,
• 30:08
  actually.
• 30:09
  Certain bugs that I am scared of.
• 30:12
  But you'll keep that to yourself.
• 30:14
  Those damn flying crickets, man.
• 30:17
  You never know.
• 30:18
  They might jump up and fly
• 30:20
  right into your mouth.
• 30:22
  Those things are crazy.
• 30:25
  When I lived in Florida,
• 30:26
  we had the big palmetto beetles.
• 30:29
  Oh, yeah.
• 30:29
  Or just mega cockroaches.
• 30:31
  No, thank you.
• 30:34
  I wasn't afraid of them.
• 30:35
  They just grossed me out.
• 30:37
  Yeah.
• 30:38
  Um, so can't wait to meet you in person.
• 30:41
  We're going to be in Birmingham.
• 30:43
  We got granted full access
• 30:45
  to do a behind the scenes.
• 30:47
  Um,
• 30:47
  so we're going to be Ellie Hiller and
• 30:48
  myself will be behind the
• 30:49
  scenes chatting with all the athletes,
• 30:52
  recording those
• 30:52
  conversations and making a
• 30:54
  highlight video of all of that.
• 30:56
  Um, it'll actually come out in episodes,
• 30:59
  uh, through afterwards.
• 31:01
  So you'll be able to relive
• 31:02
  the experience if you have
• 31:03
  time to sit down and watch
• 31:04
  YouTube for a couple of minutes.
• 31:07
  That's great.
• 31:07
  I appreciate that you're doing that.
• 31:08
  That's awesome.
• 31:10
  With that.
• 31:10
  Thank you to everybody in
• 31:11
  the chat and I'll leave it with this.
• 31:14
  A fight for the fist.
• 31:16
  We love you.
• 31:21
  With that.
• 31:21
  Thank you everybody in the chat.
• 31:23
  This was an awesome
• 31:24
  experience for me getting to know you.
• 31:27
  And we will see everybody
• 31:28
  next time on the Clydesdale
• 31:30
  media podcast.
• 31:31
  Bye guys.
• 31:32
  Thanks.