Months ago, my wife and I planned another one of our 2-day mini-vacations to the Big Apple. We drive about 6 hours from NE Ohio and spend two complete days on foot in the concrete jungle seeing all of our favorite sites and trickling in some new places each time. This year, One World Trade Center was one of the few new places we visited on our Saturday/Sunday over Memorial Day weekend. We both logged 22,000-23,000 steps both days and over 22 miles on foot. In our opinion, 1 day isn't enough and 3 days is too much. This year was perfect. The logistics of where to stay and how to commute into the city is key and this year, we landed in an Airbnb across the Hudson in New Jersey and only a 5min walk to the NJ Transit bus stop that would take us in to Manhattan. Perfect. I also pulled up the CrossFit Affiliate Map as Memorial Day was our day to drive home and "Murph" has been a staple in my life since beginning CrossFit in 2014 and I had never missed one. This would be my 15th Murph. I found one gym but no plans to do Murph on Memorial Day and the second was Union City CrossFit. I sent a blind email to them inquiring one evening and by 7am the next morning, Nadine responded: "Thank you for reaching out, yes absolutely..we would love for you to join us. We will run two heats, heat one is usually for those unpartitioned and heat two is partitioned. We have not confirmed the exact times but usually 9-9:30am followed by a barbecue and everyone hanging out." On top of that, they don't charge for drop-ins for special events but I asked Nadine to hold me a Murph shirt so I could at least support them in that way. Over the next few weeks, we conversed and the plan was set for Murph.
We arrived plenty early just in case parking was an issue (which it was until we made a few laps around the neighborhood). We were definitely early but one of the three owners greeted us immediately and stopped what he was doing and gave us the tour of the gym. Everything is black and CLEAN. A full kitchen, very nice showers and top quality equipment around every corner. They are also a HYROX Affiliate so there is a space more dedicated to those training for HYROX which was coming to NYC a week after Murph. An all-black CrossFit gym is risky with how much chalk is flying around on many days but Union City CrossFit (UCC) was immaculate. Every first impression was top notch and I was really looking forward to being a part of their community, even if just for one day.
Outside the front of the gym, the grill was already fired up and the barbecue was queued up. Inside, members were trickling in for the first start at 8am. Times had been shifted forward but Nadine had let me know and that I could start at 8am even if partitioning the workout which I always do. I have never done Murph straight through non-partitioned. As 8am rolled by, Nadine gathered everyone up, briefed the course and what Murph was all about, then played the National Anthem. We all headed outside onto the sidewalk and we had two run options. One was best suited for the hometown athletes as it had a lot of turns on city streets but for me, I took the "one lap around the block is exactly 1/4 mile." So I did my 4 laps around the block and headed in and got to work. Murph is never easy. It is humbling every time. I brought my own weight vest and partitioned the workout 5/5/15/5. I find that my push-ups go away first so I break those up on opposite sides of the squats from the beginning just to keep myself moving vs. wasting time on my knees shaking out my arms. As I did the workout, I looked around as the 8:30am heat returned from their 1mi run and thought "Now THIS is the CrossFit community that I love. This is what it's all about." Here are a few of the photos Marjie captured. There is also a Murph album that UCC just released here.
May 2015: 48:19 no vest and w/band (All Heart CrossFit)
Sept 2015: 49:06 no vest (CrossFit 881)
5/30/2016: 53:26 Rx (Molon Labe CrossFit)
July 2016: 56:36 Rx
4/6/2017: 48:54 Rx
5/29/2017: 50:11 Rx (Molon Labe CrossFit)
5/28/2018: 47:01 Rx
5/27/2019: 44:59 Rx
10/23/2019: 41:45 Rx (current PR)
5/24/2020: 59:13 Rx
5/31/2021: 55:24 Rx
5/30/2022: 49:47 Rx
5/29/2023: 59:52 Rx
5/27/2024: 58:36 Rx
5/26/2025: 58:46 Rx (Union City CrossFit)
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