Chris Anderson | The Athletes of the 2024 Legends Masters CrossFit Games

We meet Chris Anderson, Podium athlete from the CrossFit Games, now experiencing a new format and location.  What are his goals and what does he see as the future of the sport?

What is Clydesdale Media Podcast?

We cover the sport of CrossFit from all angles. We talk with athletes, coaches and celebrities that compete and surround in the sport of CrossFit at all levels. We also bring you Breaking News, Human Interest Stories and report on the Methodology of CrossFit. We also use the methodology to make ourselves the fittest we can be.

I was born to kill it.

I was meant to win.

I am down and willing so I

will find a way.

It took a minute and I

didn't have to ride away.

When it get hot in the kitchen,

you decide to stay.

That's how a winner's made.

Yeah.

What's going on, everybody?

Welcome to the Clydesdale Media Podcast.

My name is Scott Swich.

I'm the Clydesdale.

And we are here to highlight

the athletes of the 2024

Legends Masters CrossFit Games.

And I have with me Chris Anderson.

What's going on, Chris?

Scott, great to be here, man.

Appreciate it.

Yeah, I've been a big fan of yours,

watching you on the floor.

That 45 to 49-year-old

division has been awesome

to watch for the last few years.

there are a lot of, uh,

amazing athletes in that

group and every year it

gets tougher and tougher as

people age into it.

So yeah, it's a,

it's a really good group of

athletes and really good

group of guys too.

Yeah.

Do you all like,

do you all plot out how you're going to,

um, take out a kneecap of Jason grub or,

um, so what if somebody else gets a shot?

Hey, listen, if you want to, you know,

be the best, you got to beat the best.

And that guy has proved it, you know,

year after year,

just how consistent he is and, you know,

how much he respects the sport.

He's a, he's an unbelievable competitor.

And, you know, I look,

I look forward to taking a

floor with him again, you know,

coming up in just about a month.

Yeah.

It's,

and what's cool is like you and him

are completely different

styles of athletes.

Yet you're competing on the

same floor and going head to head in,

in event after event.

Yeah,

I'm definitely probably the smallest

guy out of everybody.

But he's also so well balanced,

it kind of sizes and matters.

He's big,

but he's also very good at gymnastics.

But that's why he is where he is.

You know,

you have to be that well rounded

to be that good.

And he, you know,

he just is that well rounded.

So what is your athletic background?

What what brought you to this point?

Um, you know,

I was working out just doing

like conventional

bodybuilding kind of stuff.

Not that I was a bodybuilder,

but that's just how everybody worked out.

And then I was getting bored

of doing that.

And I was looking in

magazines to try to find

some different kinds of

exercises is back in like 2010 or 2011.

What's a magazine?

It was men's health.

Men's health used to have

these inserts of these

different like station type

activities and, you know,

exercise routines.

And I was like,

I want to do something else.

I started to do those.

And I was at a Y and this

woman who worked there was like, you know,

what you're doing kind of

looks like CrossFit.

You should do CrossFit.

And I was like, what in the world is that?

And then I found out there

was one in the area.

It was called Albany

CrossFit and it still exists actually.

It's one of the OG ones in the, you know,

I live in upstate New York.

And I went into there and I

fell in love back in 2011.

I've been doing basically

CrossFit ever since.

Was that one owned by?

Jason Ackerman.

Jason Ackerman, yeah.

So he's the one who kind of

grew me a little bit.

I wound up coaching there,

working underneath him

before he moved to Florida

and then he went to Colorado.

But yeah, so Jason Ackerman,

that was his gym for sure.

Yeah, I thought so.

I had him on, oh gosh,

a couple months ago after

seeing him speak at an

affiliate gathering.

And I think he told the

story of growing that and

then eventually selling that off.

Yeah, he built it from this,

it was inside of this other

health complex and it was

in this like little

racquetball or handball court.

And it just continued to

take over more courts and grow and grow.

And it really is the

epicenter of all the

CrossFit gyms that are

currently in our area.

So we owe a lot to Jason.

So did you play any sports

in school before or just?

No, I played,

I saw my favorite sport

growing up was basketball,

which you said you've seen me before.

It's probably not the best

choice of sport given my stature,

but that was really what I loved.

And I played freshman basketball.

I got caught from JV.

So I was more like in the,

like the band geek side of

things than I was in the athletic side.

And then that kind of took me through,

through most of my high

school experience.

I always loved sports,

but play sports with like my friends and,

in like our neighborhood,

but as far as like actual real sports,

you know, actually, you know,

not much of a career for me.

Marching band or?

Yes, for sure.

For sure.

I played in the pit orchestra.

I played in the concert band

and then the marching band as well.

So my daughter,

she was big in the marching

band and all the others as well.

But the amount of exercise

that those kids get in a fall season,

and they're called, oh gosh,

I don't know.

I always call it like

they're a party band.

So they like break down and

dance in the middle of like

their routines.

And she would get so fit

just marching day after day after day.

We would do like summer.

I mean,

I'm not saying it's the same thing

as like double sessions for football,

but we would do like

sessions all summer long to

get prepared for the upcoming season of,

of marching.

So like, I, I, I totally feel that it's,

it's more, yeah,

it's more physical than you

think it would be for sure.

Yeah.

And especially if you played

the tuba or one of the big drum kits.

Yeah, I was a trumpet player,

so I got off easy there, but yes,

you're right.

Those people are working

real hard for sure.

Yeah.

And my daughter's 23 now.

We miss those days so much

traveling the whole state

just watching her perform.

But yeah,

she's off doing her own thing now.

So it's cool, though,

that you found CrossFit

because really like stature

is not a key element in

being successful in the sport.

Right.

I mean, yeah,

you could either use it as an

excuse or you can work through it.

I just always have thought to myself,

like I am who I am.

I have some advantages when

certain types of workouts

come out and I just

continuously work out the

things that I'm not as strong in,

like overall strength.

But overall, you know,

I've been able to become

pretty fit just by doing CrossFit,

working on all the different modalities.

Right.

We're not great at anything,

but we are pretty good at everything.

Yeah,

when you look at some of the OGs like

Chris Spieler and Matt Fraser,

they're not tall in stature

by any stretch.

Josh Bridges,

and they had successful careers.

Yeah, Spieler was my boy.

So he was really in the

epicenter of things back

when I started in 2011.

He was who I wanted to be

because I knew he was

smaller than everybody else,

but he competed just as

hard and was just as successful.

And I really kind of modeled

myself after him.

Just a fun fact about this show.

He was the first full length

video guest we had on this show.

Really?

I'll have to go back and see

the archives and find that thing.

Yeah.

It's like episode 25 or

we're at like 900 and something now.

So yeah, really early on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He was like one of the – it

was during COVID.

He was one of the first

athletes to contract COVID,

and that's what the

discussion started about,

and then we got into his career.

That's how long ago it was.

But back to you.

So you find CrossFit.

You start training that way.

When did you think, man,

I want to compete at this?

So at my gym,

so I'm co-owner of a place

called Fraternity.

And we were a pretty

competitive gym back in the

days of regionals.

So in 2015,

our gym sent a team to the CrossFit Games,

which was very cool.

And then the next year,

I was able to qualify to be

on my gym's regional team.

And that was when it was a teams of six.

So it was three guys, three girls.

And

At that point, I was in my mid-30s,

so I knew that that was not

going to be forever because

I just wasn't going to be

able to hang with the – I

was the oldest person on my team by far,

and I wasn't going to be

able to do that forever.

And at that point,

the Masters started at 40,

so I just thought, keep getting fitter.

At some point,

I'll be able to potentially

compete as a 40-year-old.

And there were lots of

competitions locally that I

would be able to go in,

like partner competitions,

stuff like that.

But it's cool.

I actually have a picture of my –

finishes over the open,

over the course of the time,

since I started through now.

And it's pretty cool to see,

like when I first started,

it was like the 80,000th place.

And then just to see how

just putting in time and being consistent,

how much I've been able to improve that,

you know, over time,

but I knew I loved it right away.

And then once I found out

there was a competition side,

I wanted to be in it.

It was all local competitions at first.

And then again,

when I got a taste of

regionals being on the floor,

And then I was aiming for Masters,

and then eventually I was

able to get that experience

as a Masters athlete at the

CrossFit Games.

So this is actually your

third qualification for the Games.

Yes, I made it in 2019 in the 40-44,

and then I made it last

year as a 45-49 year old,

and then again this year as

a now 46 year old.

And you made it this year

under the old rules.

Does that mean anything to

you that even if they would

have kept it at 10,

you still would have made it?

Or does that not even factor in?

It's just getting in the door that counts.

Well, I'll say two things.

I think that if it was top 10,

I'm sure people would have

redone more workouts and

the leaderboard would have

been different.

I think that once people

knew what the number was,

they kind of just knew

Some people in our division

were pretty confident they

were going to be able to be

in that top 40.

I did redo a workout,

not because I was worried

about potentially making it or not,

but because I just was

displeased by effort.

And one of the reasons why I

redid it is I really wanted

to be in the last heat at

the start of the

competition because it just

is so beneficial to be in that position.

And so that was kind of a

goal of mine to be able to be there.

And yeah,

it feels good to be in the top 10,

but there are,

the field is just so loaded with guys.

I don't think it's just

going to be the top 10 guys

that are going to be top 10.

There's just so many really

good athletes now that it's

been expanded to 40 and

There are just so many guys

that can come up in a workout,

so many well-rounded guys.

I'm not under any sort of

belief that just because I

finish in the top 10 that

I'll be a top 10 finisher

at the end of this.

That's for sure.

I think what's crazy is...

The change in how many

people go is changing the

dynamic of the CrossFit

games completely because

you're going to have more middlers.

You're going to have

specialists that are going

to mess up the leaderboard for others.

And it's going to be a

little more chaotic than

it's been in years past.

Yeah.

The two other times I made

it in 2019 and the last

year was both those years

happened to be 10 athletes only.

So there's definitely less fluctuation,

but when I've competed at

legends or at a MFC or even

other competitions like that,

and they're at the field is 40,

there's lots of fluctuation,

like you said, in certain ones, you know,

for me in particular,

I may take a hit on the

strength event or the machine event,

but usually if there's some

sort of gymnastics event or

a lighter barbell or a

longer piece that that's an

opportunity for me to be able to,

to get some more points

back and hopefully climb

back up the leaderboard for sure.

Yeah.

It's funny.

My co-host on my Sunday night show,

Jamie Latimer, she's a big fan of yours.

Loves the way you move and

you are very similar athletes.

where she is definitely

weaker in the strength

events and then stronger in

the other events.

And she's super excited

because you can make up

that difference then in your wheelhouse,

where the strong guy may

finish lower than 10th now.

Yeah, that's definitely true.

But she has touted you as

one of the best movers in the sport,

and she's been a big fan of

yours for quite some time.

Well,

I'll definitely have to be sure I see

her in Birmingham to thank her for that.

It's very, very nice to hear.

I appreciate that.

So I've had a lot of rookies on this week,

which is just blowing my mind.

And it's cool that more

people are getting the opportunity to go.

Absolutely.

What a piece of advice would

you give to a rookie going

to the games for the first time?

Hmm.

Well, some context here.

When I went back in 2019, I finished last.

So I was 10 out of the 10

people that made it.

And that was a very humbling experience.

I don't think I was quite

ready for that stage.

And I guess I have two things.

For one,

it's eat as much as you possibly can.

That's just a logistics one.

But the other thing I would

say is try to soak it in.

At some point,

whether it's in one particular workout,

if you can, every time you take the floor,

just spend five or 10

seconds and just soak it in.

Because I know enough people

that are in this space and

that have been competing

that an injury happens,

their priorities change, life changes,

and they don't come back.

And so...

part of my quest when I made

it in 2019 was to get back.

So I had a better taste of

my amounts after that 10th place finish,

but also so that I could

really enjoy the experience.

Cause the first time I was

so stressed and nervous and

all those kinds of things that, you know,

I don't think I appreciated

it as much as I should have.

Yeah.

It's funny.

I was talking to Brandon

this morning and he's

bringing 50 people with him to the game.

That is awesome.

And can you imagine like

being on the floor and

forgetting to soak in that

there are 50 people out

there wearing your shirt,

cheering you on.

Like you need to soak in those moments.

You do.

And whether it's before the, you know,

the horn sounds or after, and, you know,

you're kind of picking up

your belt and stuff,

just looking into the crowd

and waving at those people

or looking at them.

I think that that stuff is

really important.

When I went last year,

I had a small group of

people that came and supported me,

but just to have them there

and to see them and have

them cheering for me, like it really made,

enriched the experience for me.

Yeah.

When he told me he's bringing 50,

it got me so excited

because I think that the

cost to get in is going to

be cheaper than it would be

at the big festival that

they've had in the past.

And maybe more fans show up

for the Masters because it

is the only show in town, right?

I hope so.

Yeah.

And it becomes something

really special for everybody.

I mean,

I'm very grateful that we even have

this opportunity.

I'm very thankful for Bob and Jill,

for all the Legends guys

and for CrossFit for

continuing to support the Masters.

And even, you know,

for you for having this

opportunity to talk about it.

I don't want to take it for granted.

Justin LaSalle always says, like,

we could be bowling right now.

And I'm not hating on bowling.

I'm just saying, like,

we have this really good

opportunity because people

support what we do and what we love.

And, you know,

that's another reason why

you should also appreciate

it because you don't know

if it's going to be forever.

So while you have it,

you just really have to

soak it in and have those

memories to come back to.

Yeah, I've been saying it a couple times.

My stats and info person did some research,

and she's still working on it.

The 35 to 49-year-olds going

to the games have a

combined 3 million

followers on Instagram.

I'm definitely not helping that number out,

but that's a pretty good

number for people that are

not necessarily in that

Instagram demographic, right?

Right,

and those are the people she could

find on Instagram.

right?

So, so that's not counting everybody,

but I think people downplay what,

what is possible with this

group of people when there

are eyes and fans out there of you all.

And,

and the people that are in this sport

are amazing people.

And I don't have no doubt

that they all do what they

can to help spread the

message about what we do in

terms of fitness,

but also the sport that we love.

So the more eyes we can get on it,

I think the more

The thing I think sometimes

HQ misses about the masters

athletes is that we're more

similar to most people in the world.

You know, the people that are elite,

they're unbelievable and

very inspiring in their own way.

But people like us are

normal people who just live

everyday lives and work

jobs and have families.

And that's more similar to

most people in the world.

So the more they can maybe

get us out there,

the more people they can

get into affiliates and

doing what it is that we do.

So just like my other

co-host on my Sunday night show,

Carolyn Prevost,

you work a full-time job as a teacher.

That is right.

I'm a seventh grade social

studies teacher.

And so did you,

is that always what you wanted to be?

Yes.

Pretty early on.

I remember like in fifth grade,

you do that project about

what you want to be when you grew up.

And I just always wanted to be a teacher.

I just love being around

other people and helping people and

I was pretty sure I wanted

to be a social studies teacher.

And then my sixth grade

social studies teacher was amazing.

And that kind of sealed the deal for me.

And I pretty much stayed

that course all the way through now.

I'm about to start my 2050

year as a teacher, actually.

Wow.

That's crazy.

Do the kids know what you do as a hobby?

Ah, yes.

You know,

they like to say that I'm jacked or,

you know, every once in a while,

if I need to persuade them

to do something,

they make me like walk on

my hands or do a handstand or something.

So I try to leverage it

every once in a while to to

encourage them to make good

choices and do good things.

And also just let them know that, you know,

a healthy lifestyle is kind

of a good lifestyle to lead.

How creative do you have to

be to be a teacher these

days with attention spans

shrinking and the social media world?

How creative do you have to be?

Incredibly.

To that end,

I've written like eight or

nine educational raps and I

have like rap videos that

go along with them about

the content that we learn

just to try to get them hooked in.

So we'll we'll do rap

rehearsals in class and things like that.

I think you have this break.

Like I have a 42 minute class.

If you try to talk for 42 minutes,

you lose.

There's no way that that works.

So you have to think about attention span.

So it's basically like.

eight to 10 minute windows.

You try to do three or four

different things over the

course of that class period.

Cause if you don't do small

kind of intense and don't

change things often, yeah, you'll,

you'll lose them for sure.

So these raps, I can get them where?

Uh, they're on my, my YouTube station.

Uh, it's Mr. A 100 ITZ MRA 100.

There, there's a playlist on there.

So, um, okay.

I wish I would've had those before this.

I would've played it.

Oh man.

Yeah.

Well,

you can listen to it after if you

want to brush up on your

early American history, Scott.

So it's there for you if you'd like.

I always, I always love that time.

Like I,

this country is so fascinating to me.

Like everybody's like,

where do you want to go in the world?

I want to keep exploring America.

It's just,

there's so many cool little things.

And I grew up in Western

Pennsylvania and so much happened there.

Like my parents took us to

Valley Forge and took us to

Gettysburg and to Philadelphia and like,

And most of that was through

my sports growing up.

I was a swimmer and we had

meets all along like that way.

And getting to see all that

stuff as a young child

really influenced me in that area.

I actually wrote my rap

about the battle of

Gettysburg in Gettysburg

when I was there on a,

on a social studies

conference for a week.

So I was actually sitting on

the battlefield,

writing lyrics about the

battle so that my kids

don't understand the importance of that.

And like in the civil war.

So I feel you Philadelphia

and just Pennsylvania in general,

you know,

steeped in history for sure.

One funny story is we back in, and I'm,

I'm older than you are.

My dad and my mom took us to

Gettysburg and they had a

tour self-guided that you

rented a cassette tape and

you played it in your car

and you had to drive a

certain miles per hour.

And it would like talk about

the stuff you saw.

My dad could not keep the speed.

My mom was getting

infuriated because the tour

guide was not anywhere near

where we were at.

We didn't know what we were looking at.

She was getting frustrated.

But thank goodness

technology has come a long

way since then.

Yeah, that's come a long way.

For sure.

We made a,

we used to take our kids to

Boston because there's a

lot of history that

obviously that happened in

that city as well.

And we recorded,

this was in the days of like iPods.

We recorded a digital audio

tour of my colleague and I,

who teaches seventh grade

and the kids listened to it

as they walked part of the freedom trail.

But yeah,

you had to walk at a certain pace

because if you were, you know,

if you weren't with it,

then you would be talking about,

I don't know,

Paul Revere's midnight ride

and not be in the right spot.

So it's just, it's fun.

Yeah, the whole tour.

My dad was going too fast,

and my mom's like, come on,

Mario Andretti, we got to slow down here.

So much fun.

So will the kids watch you when you're in?

And does school start before that weekend?

So for us, I get back on that Monday,

so what is it, the second,

and school starts Tuesday

the third for us,

and the kids start that Thursday.

So my old crop,

some of them follow our gym account,

so they'll probably be able

to watch there.

And the school's been

supportive too in the past,

so maybe they'll send out the link.

The two times I've gone,

when I went in 2019, there was no stream.

And then last year's,

if you want to call it a stream,

I didn't really –

I didn't really send it out to anybody.

Anybody that really wanted

to follow would follow the

gym's Instagram to be able

to watch me compete.

It's really exciting to know

that we have a stream.

Shout out to those guys that

supported that,

that we have a stream this year.

Even what you said,

you're going to be doing

some filming there and

behind-the-scenes stuff,

so that will be really,

really cool to see too.

You're saying that the

iPhone hanging from the

ceiling wasn't a good stream?

I just didn't even tell.

It was just so...

I don't mean to be disrespectful,

but it was so embarrassing.

I just didn't even post that

stream existed because I

just think it was a bad

look for CrossFit.

I think I was disrespectful

enough for both of us last

year when it was happening.

There was no point in even having it.

honestly, but they,

you are getting a full stream this year.

You're getting the best.

And you know,

the games didn't want Sean Woodland.

So he came to the masters,

which is awesome.

What a win for us.

Yeah.

I am legends.

A couple of years ago,

I had them for some of the workouts.

He was in 2022.

They had like Sean and Annie.

And I still have like that

bookmarked when he was saying my name.

Cause I have,

I happen to do well in one of

the workouts.

He was saying, my name is like, Oh,

Chris Anderson, blah, blah, blah.

So like,

The opportunity to have him

calling our workouts again

for us is really, really,

really cool and very happy

and very thankful that that

was able to be arranged.

Our win, for sure.

If that happened to me,

I think that would be my ringtone.

Sean Woodland calling my

event is my ringtone.

There we go.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you're getting him and

Chase and Tommy and Lauren for this.

It's going to be awesome.

What are your realistic

expectations this year?

Well, I mean, I think I had the, for me,

I think I had the perfect

year last year to finish third,

I think is,

unbelievable for me as an athlete.

You know,

I'm not the most well-rounded

person in spite of the fact

that I continue to work at it.

So I'm not putting any

pressure to say that I'm

going to be a podium

athlete or get second or win this year.

I just, I want to enjoy the experience.

I'd like to, you know, if I earn it,

be able to compete in that

top heat for most,

if not all the weekend.

But I know that there are

so many good athletes out there.

I don't take that for granted.

I'm not going to assume that

that's going to happen to me.

You know,

I'm going to have to earn it with, uh,

you know, continue to train hard,

staying healthy here for

the next three and a half weeks or so.

And then putting forth my

best effort while I'm there.

How crazy it is.

Is it you've competed in the

sport a long time.

You have this five-year window.

It's always moving.

So every year your competition changes.

It's almost like being in

college over and over and over again.

It is because this year now

is the same group, not exactly the same,

but of the first time I ever made it.

So like those names I saw on that,

that leaderboard are now

back on this leaderboard

this year in this group.

So it's just,

it's funny to watch it shift over time.

And, uh,

but just the depth of the field

that you just can't believe

how good people are,

but it just continued to

motivate you on the days

where you're feeling a

little tired or not at your best.

You just know you got to

keep putting in the work in.

Cause if you don't, you know,

you are going to get passed by.

There are too many good

people out there for that not to happen.

you mentioned that Ryan

Redkey was one of your good

friends and he, and he's your competitor.

Is that,

is that very common as a master's

athlete that your

competitors are your good friends?

Scott,

the coolest part about the masters

is that all of the

competitors are your good friends.

You know,

like that's the part I love that.

I think I have the hardest

parking bang to people that

don't understand.

They're like, you do competitive exercise.

It's like, yeah, that's what I do.

But the coolest part is how

cool the people are.

You know, like,

Ryan, David Johnson,

I can name a million people like for me,

Rudy, who's in the age group younger,

but like,

his he and his family have

become really great friends of mine.

And that's something that I

think that I'll have even

after my competitive days

of CrossFit are done.

It's just the guys,

the dudes are so great.

They want to kick your butt

when you're out on the floor.

But when you're not, you're just

you know,

talking to each other and bonding

over that shared experience

because not everybody gets what we do.

So it's cool to be around

people that understand how

hard you work and how much

you love just doing competitive exercise.

Are you more excited to go

compete or more excited to

go see your friends?

Yes.

I don't know.

That's probably the only answer.

I mean, the opportunity to compete, like,

is, is a gift, you know,

and I know that as an athlete in general,

and certainly as an older athlete,

that's not something you

can take for granted,

but the chance to see

people that I don't get a

chance to see all year long,

I get to see them certain, you know,

a couple of times if they

make water loser, if I make MFC or,

or even the legends championship,

like just being able to see

those guys and spend time

with them is really important too.

It's it's the experience is

not just the competition.

It's also the camaraderie

and both of them to me feel, you know,

equal parts of the experience.

So you own a gym.

Co-owner, yes.

Co-owner gym.

You're a school teacher.

You have a family.

You train.

How do you figure it all out?

Or did you just cram it all

into the summer when you're off teaching?

Time management.

I mean, you know how it is.

You have to, I don't do a hundred things,

but like the six or seven things I do,

I try to do a hundred percent.

That's kind of how I do it.

So there may be some things

I selectively omit from my

life because I don't have

the time for them.

But if I have,

if they're a part of my life,

then I really try to give

them the best of me when I'm doing them.

So when I'm at school,

I try to focus on my classroom.

And then when I get to the gym,

I focus on my training.

And then when my training is over,

if I coach a class that night,

then that's what my focus is.

And then when I come home,

spending time with people I love,

like those are the things

that you have to, what's important now,

right?

You have to do what's

important in the moment.

And it's not easy.

but I wouldn't give up any

one of those things.

And again,

sometimes I say no to going out

here or doing that thing

because I don't have time for it.

I have to focus on the things that,

that are most important.

How many people are you taking with you?

Whoa.

I think I lost you.

I think I got you back.

Can you see me?

Yep.

So how many people are you

taking with you?

On this trip, to be honest there, well,

There's a small group coming from my gym,

but they're coming from my

gym because another guy

made the CrossFit Games in

the 65 plus division for my

gym for the first time ever,

speaking of rookies.

So it's very,

very cool that we have two

athletes from fraternity

that are going to be there.

His name's Rick chop on the 65 plus.

It's the first time he's ever made it.

And he is really, really excited.

I'm probably more excited

for him than I am for myself.

Cause I have had this experience at least,

you know, a couple of times before,

but I'm really excited to

share that experience with him.

Cause he's worked incredibly hard and he,

you know, he's earned it.

So you have a small group

from the gym family.

My, my family will not, will not travel.

I'm I'm,

I'm not married.

I'm single.

Um, but my, uh,

my mom can't or doesn't fly.

So she'll, she'll be watching me.

She'll be cheering hard on the stream.

I'm sure.

But, um, I'm flying solo.

All right.

Yeah.

At least we have a good stream for that,

right?

Yes.

Yes.

It'll be the first time she can actually,

um, you know,

see it and watch it in a way

that I think gives it the,

the do it deserves.

And you can FaceTime in the evenings and,

uh, catch up for sure.

So awesome.

Well, Chris,

thank you very much for your time.

I appreciate you.

Yeah,

I really appreciate you carving out

time for the Masters and

really promoting us in the

sport and all that you do

to get our names out there.

And we really appreciate it.

Well, this is just the beginning.

Again, I've said it a million times.

We're going to be there.

Ellie Hiller and I are going

to be backstage doing behind the scenes.

We're going to have some

videographers out on the

floor capturing some of the

action and put it all

together as a pretty cool program.

I can't wait to see it.

Yeah,

and please come talk to us when we're

back there.

That's what will make it great.

I definitely will.

Awesome.

Thanks, Chris.

We will see everybody next

time on the Clydesdale Media Podcast.

Thank you so much.