I met Rob Carr on March 22, 2012. He showed up at CrossFit South City, which I was part owner of back then, and performed Open Workout 12.5 with some other trainers. That day, I wrote in my diary, “Met this young kid named Rob. Decently fit. Super goofy.”

After that, Rob went on to train some awesome athletes out of his garage. They flipped tires and moved weight. And they sweated. A lot. This is how the whole CrossFit movement originated, and this was the beginning of Back Alley CrossFit. 

Eventually, Rob had more athletes than he could fit in his garage. He moved Back Alley Strength and Conditioning CrossFit to a storefront in Lemay. Occasionally, I stopped by to do a workout, and Rob always crushed me. I remember a particularly bad one that included a 400m walk with 135 OH as a CASHOUT! Ouch. 

Recognize any of these folks?

As we all got more interested in weightlifting, Rob, Tim, and I all competed in our first weightlifting meet. Here’s a pic from our meet in October of 2013.

We finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. I’ll let you guess where we each finished.

It became pretty clear to us that Rob was a great fit for CrossFit 314. We were all interested in getting strong and fit, but never losing sight of having a good time. In June of 2014, Rob closed BASC and became an owner of CrossFit 314.

He has compete at (in no particular order):

• 2015 G3 with Jesse, Nikki, and Cori
• 2016 Dynamic Duo with Carrie
• 2016 314 In-House Comp with Nikki, Niki, Kristin, Will, and Dan M
• 2014 Tag Team Throwdown with Jesse
• 2014 314 Invitational with ???
• 2013 Southside Throwdown with ???
• 2013 Tag Team Throwdown with Aladin?
• 2013 Fittest LEO of the Metro East – 2nd place
• 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 CrossFit Games Open

You’re probably wondering why we are talking about Rob so much. Well, today we celebrate Rob’s 33rd birthday!! The astute among you will remember that my birthday was just last week, and now Robs. That means that 33 years ago, Rob completed the daily workout of Be Born… 8 days after I finished. Boom.

Happy birthday, Rob!

Warmup
Spealler Warmup
CrossFit Warmup

Strength
5×5 Strict Press at 5RM Weight
– Push press to finish each set
OR
Find 5RM Strict Press
Then,
4×5 Strict Press at 5RM Weight
– Push press to finish each set

WOD
100 Thruster 75/45
run 400 every break

15 min time cap

Rob 10:05
Annie 10:40