Brandon Fontenot - The Athletes of the 2024 Legends Masters CrossFit Games

We meet Brandon as he get ready for the CrossFit Games, how has the Journey been? When did he find CrossFit? What are his Goals for this year?

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.

hey hey let's go I was born

to kill it yeah I was meant

to win I am down and

willing so I will find a

way it took a minute night

didn't have to ride away

when they get hot in the

kitchen you decide to stay

that's how it winters

what is going on everybody

welcome to the Clydesdale

media podcast my name is

Scott Switzer I'm the

Clydesdale and we are

highlighting the athletes

of the 2024 legends masters

crossfit games and I have

with me today none other

than Brandon Fontenot

Brandon what's going on not

that much not much he's

glad to be here so uh

I have to say that of all

the athletes I've researched,

you have the smallest

online footprint of anybody

that I've looked into.

Oh, for sure.

I was told I needed to start

doing a little more of that this season.

And one of the guy that does

all the video and that if

you if you look through my

Instagram or anything like that.

There's a guy that's done,

he's just taken over like

videoing and trying to

capture this moment for me.

And he was supposed to give

me a list of things that I

was supposed to start

posting on social media.

But I'm old school,

not really into all that.

Well,

I usually like I have a couple key

things that I always look

into to try to find like

the history of people.

And that's like LinkedIn

accounts and bios on websites.

And you own a gym and I went

to your bio and all it does

is have your three credentials.

Yeah, well, I don't know anything.

Maybe I need to get more

savvy on that there.

I don't know.

Or you can just stay private.

Yeah, well, I mean, it isn't really that.

I like to reach out to people,

but I'm not really into that yet.

Other people said I need to

get more involved in it.

Yeah.

I, you know, it is what it is.

I have to do it because of this job and,

and be on social media, but, but it is,

it's work.

It's a lot of work.

Yeah, see, I have two Facebook accounts.

There's one Facebook account

that's linked to my

Instagram that I can't get

into because it got hacked like seven,

eight months ago,

and I couldn't figure out

how to get back into it.

So we just created another

Facebook account.

So there's still stuff going

in that Facebook account

that's linked to my Instagram,

but I can't access it.

I can go in there.

If someone comments,

I can go in there and like it,

but I can't do anything else with it.

So let's learn about you

right here on this podcast.

Did you have any athletic

background before CrossFit?

Yeah, in high school I played baseball.

I went to a small...

uh, high school, uh,

it was like 361 students

from preschool to the 12th grade.

So there was just enough

people to make a baseball team.

Um, they call it a class C school.

So it was very small.

Uh, it was 21 kids in my graduating class.

I used to tell people I was

top 21 in my class.

so, but, uh,

Yeah,

so I played catcher four years of

high – well, actually six years.

I actually played high

school baseball for six

years because they let us

start in middle school just

to be able to make enough

people for the team.

Oh, wow.

I thought you were going to

say they held you back a couple.

No.

No,

so I played high school baseball for

six years, and that's basically it.

I didn't really start any

fitness until when I was 35, I believe.

Okay, so –

So I did see in your

Instagram that you have a

heck of a weight loss story.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Does that coincide with

finding CrossFit or did you

find it before CrossFit?

I actually, so I moved out when I was 16.

I went to work, started life,

had to get going a little early in life.

And so I started work.

And just life coming in.

I met my wife.

We had kids.

I was about 26 when we got married.

And if I got that wrong,

she'll correct me later.

But so and then we just kind

of both just got happy.

And next thing you know, we were we were,

you know, we put on a few pounds.

so uh I had never really you

know I farmed and had cows

and stuff like that so I

never really did anything

fitness wise and uh so I

just got tired of uh you

know having to hold my

breath to tie my boots so I

one day I was like uh and I

didn't really know what I

weighed and you know I

didn't really pay no much I

didn't really pay attention

to none of that and so one

day I went and bought me a

pair of shorts and I know

it's strange but I didn't have any shorts

And, uh,

and I went and I joined the gym

and I'd go before I went to

work every morning because

it was a 24 hour gym.

I didn't know.

I didn't want anybody to see me there.

So I joined a gym and, uh,

I would go run a mile every

morning on a treadmill.

That was my thing.

I made myself run a mile

every morning and it would run walk.

So sometimes it was 10,

15 minutes to get through a mile,

but I did that.

And it got, you know, he, uh,

I reached out to me and said, Hey,

there's a 5k at our, in our hometown, um,

in not far from where I live.

Won't you sign up for it?

So I'm like, yeah, sure.

So I was probably the only

person that trained six

months for a 5k and it started,

I started enjoying running.

So I got into that and at,

at 35 or something, I believe at 35, no,

37.

And I, uh,

did another 5K,

then decided to do a marathon, no,

a half marathon.

So a guy reached out to me and said, hey,

why don't you go,

we're gonna do a trail run in Sealy,

Texas in Stephen F. Alston State Park.

So it was a half marathon.

It was four,

three mile loops at night with

a headland.

So I'm like, yeah, I'll do that.

So when I did my first half

marathon there in Texas,

Um, I said, well, I've already ran a half.

I might as well do a full.

So, uh,

it's trained for a full marathon in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana marathon.

And I got into some running

groups and got involved,

actually created a,

the little community I was from,

I created a running group,

the Reeves runners.

Um,

and we would just meet up and run every

evening and, uh, always, uh,

and then the following year

I was going to do two

marathons in one year.

And, uh,

it, I ended up,

I ran one marathon in Pensacola,

went to do my next one.

I did my last long distance

run and I did something to my knee.

I had went and got some orthotics,

some different, uh,

I went to a podiatrist in

Houston and got some

orthotics for my shoes.

And like a fool,

I went and ran a long

distance in those new shoes

and it inflamed my knee.

And I couldn't even run

three miles without, uh,

it flaring up.

So I kind of got a,

it was scary because I

didn't want to get back to where I was.

So running kept me from gaining weight.

I felt like,

and so I kind of almost on the

side of depression there because I,

you know, this guy was crazy.

You know,

you were depressed because you can't run,

but it was more that I

didn't want to gain that weight back.

And my wife said, Hey,

won't you try CrossFit?

And I'm like, nah, I ain't gonna do that.

I didn't really want to,

I didn't have no idea about that.

So I went to, I was like, well, all right,

well, I'll try it.

So I went to my first

CrossFit gym and one of my

friends now was actually

coaching that class.

Well, I couldn't even climb a rope.

That was pretty embarrassing.

And so, and it transpired from there.

So I actually started CrossFit in 2018.

2019, something like that.

So your first open was 2018.

Yeah.

So I actually started, I started,

funny story is I started a

week before Murph.

in 2017.

So it was after the open.

So I couldn't do the open.

I did Murph full and

couldn't extend my arms

because I didn't know you could,

I didn't know you could, uh,

partition Murph.

I mean, I didn't know you could, uh,

do a half Murph.

I, I, I partitioned it, but I, I just,

I was like, okay, they said, Hey,

we're doing Murph today.

I'm like, okay, what is that?

And they're like, you go run.

I'm like, well, I can run and it's pushups,

air squats and, uh, pull-ups.

I'm like, well, okay, let's do that.

And, uh, yeah,

well I did the whole thing and, you know,

it wasn't in a,

blazing time, but I still did it.

And, uh,

I didn't know what was going on

because for about a week, I couldn't,

my arm stayed like this.

And I thought I was like,

I've been screwed myself up.

So yeah.

Tying your boots was way harder then.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's, it's funny.

You had a week.

My first ever workout was Murph.

Oh, wow.

I was 450 pounds for my first workout.

oh wow very very very scaled

oh wow wow that is awesome

though um and so two years

after the fact I was able

to do it rx no vest but

still do it rx and like

last mile I'm bawling the

whole time yeah for sure

of, of just how far I had went.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

You know, that's,

that's what I did on my marathon.

Um, when I was,

I was had about a half a

mile left on my marathon

and I'd experienced that same thing.

I had had a,

life like you know on that

last home stretch of that

marathon you had everybody

on the side of you and

you're running and you see

the state capitol in baton

rouge and you just I just

relived my whole life in

that last half mile my

wife's like what are you

doing why are you upset I'm

like I have no idea but I'm

just boohooing here yeah I

was not upset I was just I

was so thrilled at how far

I'd come yeah but that's

what that's what that was

Oh, for sure.

That's no, no, that's exactly what I was.

That's,

that's what I'm getting at there too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

CrossFit's an amazing thing.

So you, you,

the first day you couldn't climb a rope,

you decide to do Murph a weekend,

something hooked you in

those first five days to

make you do that.

And honestly,

I don't know what it was like.

It was like my, and during the process,

I'm like, no, I don't like this.

I don't know why I'm doing this,

but afterwards I'm like, okay,

I'm coming back tomorrow.

And then I came back and

then it was I went to a 5 a.m.

class and every morning at 5 a.m.

I was there.

And then I wanted a little

more than I started competing.

And then it was just it was me.

I have to stay signed up for stuff.

I always have to be registered.

I always say that I registered for,

you know,

like the high rocks coming up in

November after the after the games.

Um,

I'll probably end up trying to do

legends again.

It just,

I have like a long-term goals and

short-term goals.

So.

Yeah, it makes sense.

You have to have a goal on

the horizon to shoot for.

Yes, that is correct.

My goal was actually to do an Ironman.

That's the only tattoo that I... I mean,

nothing against tattoos.

I have nothing against tattoos.

But I don't see one that I

would like except for an Ironman tattoo.

And I'm still... I don't know.

It's still a possibility.

So we'll see.

Yeah, I grew up as a swimmer,

and I always wanted the Olympic rings.

Oh, okay.

Because when you make it to the Olympics,

you get to get the Olympic rings texted.

Yes.

Yeah, I saw that.

I've been watching that.

I'm like, oh, that's pretty cool.

Yeah.

Well,

one of the friends I talked to before

this was Corey Leonard.

Okay.

He's in the chat, and he said, man,

I had no idea how similar our story is.

Oh, cool.

He also told me that he has

competed against you several times,

and you have whooped him

every one of them.

I don't know.

Corey's come a long way.

Corey's a good dude.

Yeah, I like Corey.

He is.

So is it safe to say,

as a CrossFit athlete,

you are an engine guy

because you did all this

running before you came in?

Is that what you're best at,

or have you evolved into

something that you have

other wheelhouses now?

Well, I don't know.

I'm, I would, I'm, I think,

I would think I'm pretty strong.

Uh, I'm just, uh, I can just tough it out.

That that's my thing is like, okay,

that pain will go away.

Like I can just kind of sit in and, uh,

It's going to hurt,

but this is just a temporary hurt.

Nothing I'm doing is not permanent.

I know the feeling afterwards.

It's that rush afterwards

that I'm going for.

So at what point in the

CrossFit journey did you realize,

you know what,

I might be good at this and

might need to really push?

Because at some point you

signed up for TFX, you signed up for MFC,

you signed up for some of

those bigger competitions.

What was it that triggered that?

Well, two years ago,

it was actually two – I was

always – like during the Open,

it was always you questioned yourself

um when you would come in

100 you know 100th in the

world or 130th and you're

like man that's a big gap

between there and and

making the top 30 or the

top 40 you know king am I

good enough for that and so

whenever you and when you

go to do tfx you know when

I did tfx and I won tfx but

that year two years ago I

had set a goal out I told a

friend of mine said hey

I want to,

there's a couple of big comps

I'd like to qualify for.

And then I would love to try

to qualify for the games.

My rookie,

my rookie year as a 45 year old.

I had heard somebody say the

other day that they don't

look forward to aging up.

I don't age me up.

Let's go.

And so I set a goal out, you know.

So last year, actually,

right before the quarterfinals a week,

I did beach brawl and ended

up doing something like

tricep and a cleaning jerk.

And so I was out for

quarterfinals last year,

which was fine because that

wasn't my goal to make the

games that year.

It was just to make Legends

Masters Fitness Collective

and then the games this year.

And whenever I made Masters

Fitness Collective, Roy,

Vijay and Rudy and a lot of

them reached out to me and said, see,

you do belong in this group.

And whenever they said that, it was like,

OK, you know,

these people are talking to me.

You know, even Jason Grubb,

me and my son went to the

CrossFit Games to watch CrossFit.

The previous two years,

the first year we went,

I actually have a picture

where I saw Jason there, met him,

and we talked back and forth.

Actually,

he helped me out a lot in my

beginning of the journey.

And just that he started, he said,

you need to put in your

mind you're a CrossFit Games athlete.

You need to just everything you do,

say you're a CrossFit Games athlete.

And when you start living,

when you start putting that as your title,

I guess you could say,

I don't know if that's right.

But everything you start

looking at is in a totally different way.

The way you eat, the way you train,

the way you sleep,

everything you start looking at.

Would a CrossFit athlete do this?

And that's the way it just transpired.

Yeah, that's awesome.

And now you are.

Now you actually are in the title.

Yeah,

that sucked because I can remember I

went to Mayhem for semifinals.

So I'm driving home.

I drove to Mayhem.

It was about –

Seven, eight hour, nine hour drive.

And I'm driving back.

The weather's gotten bad.

And they released the

leaderboard unofficially.

And my wife and a friend of mine,

they text me or called.

They said, hey, you're 36.

You made it.

And I'm like, huh?

I said, it's not out yet.

And they're like, well, they said, well,

aren't you excited?

And I'm like,

I don't want to get excited

until this stuff's over with.

Roy texted me, he said, hey,

congratulations, you made it.

I had to ride on that for two weeks,

not knowing that I'd made it or not,

because it was, I mean,

I was on the cusp there.

I mean,

I was 36 spots and it was like 10

or 15 points.

And I'm thinking, you know,

I've started looking

through my videos and say, hey,

are they dinging me?

I got an email saying, hey, you're,

video for workout three or whatever,

whenever they is good.

And so I'm like, okay, well that's,

what does that mean?

So then I would text Rudy

and I text Jason and I would say, hey,

You know,

I'm wanting some clarification

with them saying, hey, you're okay.

But there's like, hey, just be patient.

You know, we all are.

This is the wait.

So we wait two weeks.

I believe it was about two weeks.

And, you know, everybody's like, well,

Brandon, did you qualify?

I'm like, not until that point.

Whenever I got that email saying, hey,

the leaderboard's finalized.

You're invited to the CrossFit Games.

Yeah, it was pretty sweet.

I was actually at my gym when I got that.

That lady videoed me getting that.

That's incredible.

A lot of my best friends in

the sport are Masters athletes.

My co-host on Sunday night,

she waited the two-plus weeks.

One of my dear friends is Dex Hopkins,

and he finished 41st.

Oh, I saw that because I met Dex at MFC,

and I was watching him.

I'm like, man, that sucks.

But then he got in.

He did.

He moved up to 40th with two days to go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it was good.

It bittersweet, kind of good, but bad.

You said somebody else got

knocked out for him to get back in.

So it kind of, yeah.

Or hopefully they just withdrew or,

or some, you know,

declined the invite or.

Yeah, but that was before the,

that was before the invites went out.

So.

So someone got penalized, I guess, but.

Yeah.

So I watched the leaderboard, you know,

not that I didn't, I mean, you know,

I may have looked at it

once or twice a day for two

or three weeks.

Refresh.

And every age group.

I wanted to see if there was movement,

where the movement was going on.

So I could actually follow

and see which age groups

were getting video submissions, you know,

who was getting reviewed there.

Cause I would see it like a,

I would even screenshot it

to see if the numbers would change.

You sound like Lynette

Berger because I've been with her like at,

at reveal time.

And she's just like, refresh, refresh.

Yeah.

Every 10 seconds.

Like just open.

Yeah.

Rudy's warming up.

Rudy's doing his thing.

But Lynette takes all that on and just,

you know.

Yeah, but I tell you what,

like we talked earlier,

but when I went to MSC, I had met her.

You know, like I said,

we met Rudy and Lynette.

And I was there,

and she actually took me in

under her wing.

Like,

I was competing against Rudy that year,

and she was sitting there telling me, hey,

this is Rudy's warm-up.

You can do this, this, and this.

There was one workout she

came to me and said, hey,

this is your workout.

And we're fixing to go on the floor.

And she says, don't hold back.

I mean, I'm like, you know,

that was pretty legit.

Yeah, she's a pretty awesome coach.

Someone who's only been

doing it for two years.

Yeah.

Yeah,

it's awesome to see her development

as well.

And Corey Pipeson,

I can't express how good of

people Roy Veger and Rory

Vijay and Rudy Berger are.

Oh, for sure.

So you're a Mayhem athlete.

That's correct.

Why did you choose Mayhem?

Because of their beliefs,

they they're structured

everything in their faith,

family and fitness is is it

falls in the same kind of

beliefs that I have.

And then so it's kind of to be, you know,

you surround yourself with

like minded people.

And sometimes you question

yourself if it's, you know, you know,

like when I'm with the semifinals,

you you don't know, you know,

if you're welcome there or not,

like because you don't know

if you can compete at that level.

But when you get there and

they treat you like your family,

and I didn't really have

much family when I grew up.

So a lot of people take that

for granted whenever people

treat them good.

And with me, it goes a long ways.

And they've been behind me

for this whole time.

So the question I have is I've,

I've interviewed a lot of

the mayhem athletes.

You guys all went to Cookville for semis.

So there you are, you, Ryan Redkey,

you're in the same age group.

You're in the same division.

What's the dynamic like?

Is it still very supportive?

Oh, very much so.

Uh, they, um, there was times where, cause,

uh, we, we, we go toe to toe.

There was one workout we

were supposed to do together.

Me, him and Corey,

it would meet him and me.

It was me, Ryan and Corey.

And J-Web were in the same age group.

And, oh,

it was – it just gave you more of a push.

I mean,

we were sharing stuff back and forth.

Ryan is a brains whenever it

comes to numbers and stuff

like that because I would ask him, hey,

do you think I qualified?

Do you think I made it?

He said, man, it's going to be close.

He knew it was going to be

close whenever it was over with.

I mean,

the dudes – he already knew all that.

But, no,

everybody – there was no – we

would show up.

Throw down, and it was pretty legit.

Brett Owsley, Brandon is just a good dude,

one of the hardest workers I've met.

Yeah, him and Jonathan Varela.

I watched him do a workout,

that last toe-to-bar workout,

and that was my inspiration to go harder.

They were actually the younger,

the 40 to 44.

So, yeah, they're good guys.

It sounded like it was just

a really cool atmosphere to be in.

No, it was.

I was worried because my

buddy of mine that co-owns

the gym with me, him and his wife,

they were headed up there with me.

I follow Mayhem Athlete.

He sends me emails throughout the week.

He's going to be my coach

when I go to the games.

Between him and Jordan Webb,

they both kind of

transpire there.

But when we got there,

I was worried because you

go up there for semifinals,

you've you've prepared for

this for two or three years

to make the games.

And, you know,

the big excitement to go

train at Cookville or something like that,

you don't want to be caught

up just in the hype of

competing at Mayhem because

it wasn't to go visit Mayhem.

It was you're training to go to the games.

I mean,

you're you're you're fixing to do

this workout.

So I was so worried because

my training when I train

I train at the oddest hours.

I'm at the gym at 3 in the

morning and then when I get

off in the evening.

So I'm thinking, well,

I have that same ability to

do that there or whatever I want to do.

And whatever we wanted, we got.

You had all the elites helping load bars,

helping judge, rooting you on.

were in that in the back

room where all the athletes

you know where you see all

the games the other games

athletes competing and we

had full range to

everything I'm sitting in

there it was pretty cool

because I'm getting on in a

cold plunge and there is

there's a rich froning

getting dry needled on a

table and uh they make fun

of me but um it was just

yeah surreal so it was an

experience this whole year

has been a great experience

that's so cool that you've

you've got to experience that um

I wanted to ask,

who are you taking with you to the games?

This is probably the

emotional part for me

because words will never

express how much I

appreciate the people that

are at our gym and stuff.

We have like almost 50

people coming to the games.

That is awesome.

My wife, my daughter, her boyfriend,

and I've tried to count it before.

It's right at 50 people.

They're coming to support me.

And that's what I tell

people that whenever I was, well,

you know, Mayhem sent out,

sold these jerseys for us

to kind of help go to the games.

It's kind of, you hate to ask, hey,

will you buy a shirt to

help support me going to

the games when they're

going to the games as well.

And they're on their own dime, you know,

so it's kind of, it's,

you almost feel selfish in a way.

So what's it going to be

like when you're on the

floor and you look out at

the crowd and you see 50

people in your jersey?

And there's more.

There's these jerseys.

There's Let's Go Brandon with my face.

I don't know.

Every once in a while, whenever it hits me,

I get the chills.

Maybe get a little

teary-eyed a little bit.

But it's going to be pretty amazing.

You own a gym.

Is that your full-time gig?

No, I actually work for the railroad.

I'm an electronics

technician for the railroad.

It sounds super smart,

but sometimes I kind of

make it sound better than what it is.

Well,

I program crossings and stuff like that.

So I co-own a gym with another guy,

Ben Bynes.

He's super sharp when it

comes to programming and

working with a lot of people.

And I'm just kind of the

face and the energy behind the place.

so one year, uh, we were in CrossFit three,

three or four years.

And he's like,

how about we open our own place?

I'm like, yeah, sure.

So we opened up our own place.

We were looking just,

just enough people to, uh,

to pay the bill.

And, uh, it just grew and grew and grew.

We actually opened COVID year,

heck of a year to open.

And, um, now we're in,

we're in a bigger facility.

That's three times the size.

And we're probably running

about 150 members now, but, uh,

So we have six coaches that help out.

So they actually – ever

since the training for this started,

they've kind of just said, hey,

you sit back from coaching and stuff,

and you just don't worry about it.

We got this.

And it's been kind of nice to have that.

It'll be nice someday if I

get to be the eye candy of a gym.

I don't know about the candy.

It's the goofiness.

Yeah.

Well, that's awesome.

So what are your realistic

expectations this year?

See,

a guy asked me that he's going to get

mad at me if he's watching this YouTube.

So I've got to say this, that I'm going,

I'm not training.

I haven't been training for

the last two years just to go to show up.

So don't get me wrong,

but I've already won by

making the CrossFit games.

But when I qualified and

You have 50-something people

coming from your gym.

You have all that support behind you,

so there's no telling what

you'll be able to accomplish.

The other thing, too,

is you have a lot of race experience.

You've done TFX.

You've done MFC.

You've done Legends, right?

You've been on the floor

against other people.

A lot of people are good at

online competitions.

It doesn't mean that that

translates over to

head-to-head competition.

But that was and that's

where I'm pretty good with

a heavy stuff and the skill stuff.

And that's what I'd like.

And then in and like,

I'm not a good home run

hitter where I'm going to

knock something out of the park.

But if you get like,

if you give me eight or nine workouts,

and I'll start slowly

coming on down that leaderboard.

So so we'll see.

Well, Brandon,

this has been a blast

getting to know you.

We're going to be there in Birmingham.

We're going to be behind the

scenes recording a documentary,

just chatting with you guys

as you're warming up and in

the corrals and cooling

down and recovering and all

that so that you guys have

a cool documentary to look

back on after all this is done.

Oh, awesome.

Awesome.

Thank you.

And, uh,

thanks for the support you're

giving to this community.

Yeah, man, this has been a blast.

Um,

I think you're like my 13th interview

this week.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've watched them.

So I've been, and I've tried to,

I was like, okay,

I'm going to practice up,

but there's no practice for this.

You just got to jump straight in.

So thank you for making it.

Thank you for making it, uh, you know, uh,

thank you for making it where it hasn't,

I was nervous up to this point,

but it's kind of like

talking to another buddy of mine.

So, yeah.

And we just try to be conversational.

Nothing.

No hard news here.

Uh, David Johnson.

I see you soon, Brandon.

All right, man.

Um, well, thank you for doing this.

Thank you to everybody in

the chat for making this a

great interview today.

Um,

Support the channel.

Like, subscribe,

hit that notifier so we can

keep doing these things and

supporting the Masters community.

With that, thank you, everybody.

We'll see you next time on

the Clydesdale Media Podcast.

Bye, guys.