On Saturday we held our annual Saxon Christmas Party at the Queens Head in Wymondham. From the day we announced the party details we knew it was going to be a busy one from the amount of people who expressed their interest. This made it the ideal time for us to announce our Member of the Year Award. What better place to reveal the winner for 2018 than in front of about 70% of the box membership who would be all be a couple of drinks in!
Now our Member of the Year award, we like to think, is highly coveted. During the month of November we ask the membership to vote anonymously for the person they feel is their Member of the Year. The award is designed to help us recognise the person among us who is pure Saxon. The person who makes their fitness a priority and a part of their life. The person who is committed, consistent and hard working. The person who is friendly, inclusive and a team player. The person who is supportive, encouraging and motivational. Ultimately we want to know who the membership feels best represent everything Saxon is and stands for.
On Saturday I had the absolute pleasure of announcing our 2018 winner as Heidi Mills!!!
During my announcement speech on Saturday I borrowed a quote from one of the votes Heidi received (a quote I now know came from Nina!). It read ‘they are not only a very dedicated, focused and committed member of the Saxon community, but also one of the most friendly, helpful and personable people I have ever met. From the moment I joined the box they have made me feel welcome, have been supportive and have given advice and encouragement both during and after workouts! It is clear that being part of Saxon is massively important to them, not just about physical strength and fitness, but about feeling part of something, and having a close and supportive group of friends.’
Now for me that summarises exactly what our member of the year should be and confirms exactly why Heidi won it.
Heidi is everything a coach could hope for in an athlete. She is hardworking, determined, positive and dedicated. She listens, asks the right questions and take all our advice on board. She pushes her comfort levels and isn’t afraid of risking failure in the pursuit of success.
Heidi is also everything I could ask for in a member of the Saxon community. She is motivational, friendly, supportive and generous. She always has a smile on her face and a kind word to say and is always willing to help other people where she can.
Heidi has been coming for Saxon for close to three years now and has been a constant in the community since day one. Her progress since those first few months has been staggering with her lifting dramatically heavier weights, completing more workouts RX and smashing through more advanced movements. Heidi has conquered pull ups, her fear of heavy barbells and the sometimes difficult challenge of sacrificing speed for increased load. Her progress speaks for itself and the results she has achieved only come from hard work, commitment and consistency. I regularly use Heidi as an example to other athletes of what we can achieve with time and energy applied correctly.
Now most of us are pleased when we can train 3 times a week and this is generally all you need if you want to maintain a fairly good level of fitness. Heidi however has other ideas! She is by far our top attender at Saxon regularly hitting over 20 sessions a month and accumulating 168 sessions in the last 6 months! That is a fucking insane amount of working out!
As well as being super nice and friendly Heidi is also pretty good at this CrossFit shit. Regularly putting in high scores on the board and racking up some challenging RX workouts Heidi has also pushed her comfort level this year by competing in CrossFit. In-house and external events have helped Heidi find focus, identify weaknesses and hopefully realise how far she has come this year. Heidi impressed everyone but particularly the coaching team with her outstanding performance at this years Suffolk Games pairs event. Heidi dug deep, worked hard and embraced the suck of some very challenging workouts – and all whilst smiling away!
It has been a fantastic year for Heidi and we really hope this award helps her to realise how amazing she is, how much she means to everyone at Saxon and how much we all notice her hard work and happiness.
Heidi, you have come so far but we know you are only just getting started. We can’t wait to see what you achieve in the next twelve months and have no doubt you will be in contention for the award next year. Keep being awesome, humble and happy – you don’t know how many people you inspire.