I remember my first road race like it was yesterday. By then I had been running for years, but I had no clue if I was actually fast or slow. Never looked at form, never cared about pace, I just ran.
My church was putting on a race to raise money, and since my friends were doing it (and I was one of the pastors there), I figured, why not? Race morning, the director yells, “Serious runners to the front!” I am hanging out in the back when a few people start yelling for me to move up. I was not trying to be humble, I just did not think I belonged up there. Yeah, I had run 13 to 16 miles before on my own, but still “serious runner” did not feel like me.
Gun goes off. I look at my watch, 7:30 pace. Huh… wonder if I can hold this? Next mile: 7:27. Still in the lead. Four miles in, it is just me and the guy in second. Then came the hill, the one everyone complains about. My legs are screaming, my brain is saying, “Quit now and fake an injury,” but at the water station I grab a drink, and something in me says, Nope, you are not done.
I take off. Sprint the last mile. Later I find out I ran it at a 6:24 pace. I had no idea I had that gear. That race completely flipped a switch for me. So when I ran my first half marathon later, I knew exactly how deep I could dig and I ended up finishing in the top 10 percent out of 10,000 runners at the Oklahoma City Half Marathon.
That is how confidence works. You do not just wake up with it. You build it. One run, one race, one finish line at a time.
And honestly, CrossFit works the exact same way.
When you first walk into RNFCrossFit, it can feel intimidating. People are moving fast, lifting heavy, and throwing around words like “thrusters” and “kipping pull-ups.” But every small win matters. Your first push-up without scaling. Learning the technique for a clean. Surviving a workout you thought would wreck you.
Each one of those victories is a building block for your CrossFit confidence. Over time, you stop focusing on what you cannot do and start celebrating how much more you can do compared to when you started.
The physical changes are easy to notice. Your lifts go up, your times come down, and your body gets stronger. But the real transformation happens in your mindset. The grit you find halfway through a brutal WOD stays with you long after you leave the gym.
That mental toughness starts showing up everywhere: in your work, your relationships, and the way you handle challenges. You no longer wonder if you can handle hard things, because you have proven to yourself that you can.
The more you show up at RNFCrossFit, the more your confidence grows. It is not about being the fastest or the strongest. It is about showing up, putting in the work, and getting better every single day.
CrossFit teaches you lessons that carry over into every part of life: resilience, consistency, and belief in your own ability. And when you feel strong, you feel unstoppable.
Keep stacking those wins and watch your confidence grow one workout at a time.
