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🔥 Mach983 CrossFit Burns — and Bounces Back Within 48 Hours

November 11th, 2025

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • 🔥 Halloween fire hits Mach983 CrossFit — Owner Fred Dayton woke up to every gym owner’s nightmare: a 2:15 a.m. call that his gym was on fire.

  • 🏋️‍♀️ You don’t have to sabotage your training to get lean. How to train intensely while staying fueled.

  • 🤝 Meet two athletes using CrossFit to raise awareness for kidney health.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
❝

It was truly inspirational. We only missed Friday and Saturday classes, and were back up with most of our classes by Monday.”

Mach983 CrossFit owner, Fred Dayton, on the community support his gym received following its Halloween fire.
COMMUNITY

Mach983 CrossFit Finds Refuge at Local Pickleball Facility After Halloween Fire Damages Their Gym

Courtesy of Fred Dayton

Early on Halloween morning, Fred Dayton got a call from his security system, informing him that his gym was on fire.

At 2:15 a.m., Dayton got into his car and headed straight to Mach983 CrossFit in Aurora, CO.

When he arrived, he saw firefighters cutting into his garage door while others were putting out the fire in the building next door. (He later learned the fire started in a nearby shed and then spread to both the neighboring building and his gym.)

  • “I had to stay pretty far back for safety reasons. We still had power in the gym, so I did keep checking the [security] cameras. I couldn’t see flames…[but] there was so much smoke in the gym,” Dayton told Morning Chalk Up. 

A few hours later, he managed to get into his gym and evaluate the damage.

  • “We have a ton of smoke damage on all equipment. It will take time and professional cleaning. We may need some new equipment. I’m just waiting for a specialist to come next week to check it out,” he said.

After the jump — how the Denver fitness community rallied overnight, and why a pickleball court became Mach983’s new home.

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SPEED READS

🎖️🪖 Inside the CHAD1000X Hero WOD: Created to honor Navy SEAL Chad Wilkinson, this deceptively simple workout — 1,000 weighted step-ups for time — has become a global tribute to veterans and a test of mental grit. “Chad” now unites thousands every Veterans Day to raise awareness for suicide prevention.

🎥🔥 James Sprague’s Rogue Redemption: Between coach-corner pep talks (feat. dad, Pat Sprague), pacing lessons, and confidence checks, the 2024 Games champ’s Rogue vlog tracks a healthier, sharper Sprague turning pain into momentum for Copenhagen and the WFP Finals.

🏃🤔  Is Everyone Switching to Hybrid? The Buttery Bros visit Austin’s run-scene and HYROX pits to ask a simple question with messy answers: what is a hybrid athlete? Cameos from Alec Blenis and Adam Klink make the case that hybrid = concurrent mastery, not just “runner who lifts.”

🏋️🥪 Lunchtime Is Like Recess: At 84 Lumber’s HQ, employees trade lunch breaks for lunges. With on-site CrossFit classes led by in-house coaches, the company has turned wellness into culture — improving morale, focus, and retention along the way. The result? Fitter teams, stronger communities, and a model that proves “movement at work” isn’t just good for health, it’s good for business.

ICYMI: 🏆 Connor Voltz and Jess Green top the 2025–2026 WZA Online Challenge and Qualifier, officially earning their tickets to Miami.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

How to Lose Fat Without Losing Performance

Credit: @ctpcam / Instagram

Most people who try to “lean out” while staying active hit the same wall: their energy drops, workouts feel heavy, recovery slows down, and motivation decreases. 

It’s not because fat loss and performance are incompatible; it’s because most people attempt to diet the way they believe they should, not the way their body actually needs.

The good news? You can shed fat without sacrificing performance. The trick is shifting your mindset from “eat less” to “fuel smarter.”

TRIVIA

🪜 At the 2024 CrossFit Games, Emily Rolfe won "Chad1000X" in the women’s division with a time of 47:01. How many of the 32 men who competed in the event did she also beat?

(H/T, as always, to Fran Lung Analytics.)

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Last week, we asked: 🇨🇦 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 In five trips to the Rogue Invitational, what is 2025 champ, Jeffrey Adler’s worst finish?

  • 10th

  • 7th

  • 3rd ✅

  • 2nd

  • 12th

Another tough one. Most people guessed 7th (38.30%), but the correct answer was 3rd, which 31.9% of you chose.

COMMUNITY

Purpose Over Podiums: Meet the Athletes Merging CrossFit and Kidney Health Awareness

In 2025, Andrés Falco took the competition floor at Wodapalooza in Miami Beach and amazed the crowd — not because of his experience, but because he had only three months of training under his belt.

  • That short prep time wasn’t because of a lack of dedication or a busy schedule. Just six months earlier, Falco underwent a kidney transplant.

He didn’t enter the event chasing medals. His main goal was straightforward: to raise awareness about kidney health and living donation. The second-place finish was an unexpected — but welcome — bonus.

Months later, in September, Falco returned to the Wodapalooza stage, this time in Southern California, alongside teammate Joe Tolles, a living kidney donor who gave his mother the gift of life in 2022. 

  • The duo finished fourth in their division, continuing to demonstrate that strength and purpose can coexist on the same platform.

Continue reading to learn how two athletes are using CrossFit competition to champion kidney health and the gift of life.

HIGHLIGHTS

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