John and Nancy Hazen
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Full of Faith - Encouraging Couple
8-29-2023
We’re so excited to announce our next member spotlight but this time instead of just one person, we chose two people to acknowledge, John and Nancy Hazen. John and Nancy joined CrossFit Chateau just shy of a year ago and we’ve seen them push personal and physical boundaries since joining. They are mostly in the morning but sometimes surprise us by attending other classes. Nancy is one of the sweetest people in our gym and is always a pleasure to talk to you. John is always driven to push himself to try new things and is always someone who is encouraging and positive when he is here.
John and Nancy’s Personal Testimony:
In our 35+ years of marriage Nancy and I have stared down many curveball’s life has thrown across our plate. We maintain hope and joy in the face of these curveballs because we know we are not alone in facing these challenges. We have stood with each other, side-by-side, for decades. We live in the comfort of knowing a God we believe is present and active in our circumstances. We treasure the communities we are part of: our family, our church, our neighborhood, and in the last year this wonderful community at CrossFit Chateau.
The last 12 months have been some of the hardest. Last July John came down with COVID which took months to recover from, while at the same time being diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. These health issues led John to the difficult decision to retire late last year from a long career in tech to focus on his health and prepare for major surgery in February. A big part of that focus was the decision to try out CrossFit. Neither of us were serious "fitness" people and knew that we would not be successful just joining a "big box gym" - we would not know what we were doing and likely would not stick with it. Hiring a personal trainer did not feel like a good fit for us either and is quite expensive. We knew people who loved CrossFit and thought more structured work outs and group coaching would be a great fit. We found Chateau on the web and sent a message asking if we could give it a try. Alex got back to us right away and invited us to join a 9:30am class he was coaching to give us an introduction. It was hard. It was confusing. And we loved it. We immediately knew this was for us, signed up and started coming together every morning. It is still hard (especially getting up early enough to make the 6am class!) and sometimes still confusing (AMRAP? EMOM? TABATA? Oh my!), but we still love it. It has become an essential part of our daily routine, and something we love doing together.
The coaches and the community have been amazing, and we feel so supported and cared for. With the help of the community, John lost over 60 pounds before surgery and has had a strong recovery post-surgery. Nancy has shed weight, gained strength, stability, and confidence. In the months since John’s surgery, we have celebrated highs like our son’s wedding, and more lows like Nancy’s mother passing away at 95. But through it all this community has become an important part of our lives, and we feel like we belong (even when we can’t do all the movements)!