Christine Bald
Chrisine Bald discovered CrossFit in 2012 in Washington, DC, when she was working at a sports bar.
“I showed up for a shift one weekend in July and all 32 TVs were turned to the CrossFit Games because everyone that worked there was a CrossFitter,” she said.
Curious, she signed up for a free class the next weekend and did “a baby version” of Fight Gone Bad.
“It totally wrecked me. I loved it,” she said, adding that it was the energy of the gym that sold her. “It was the polar opposite of preppy DC culture. I was like, ‘These are my people. I found them.”
Eleven years later, Bald, the founder of Write Hand Media, is the author of Ben Bergeron’s book Chasing Excellence and Unlocking Potential (coming out later this fall) and also wrote Dave Castro’s Instagram posts during the last two CrossFit Games.
Q&A with Bald:
How do you take your coffee?
Bald: “I don’t drink coffee.”
Tell us a bit about how you ended up authoring Ben Bergeron’s books and writing Dave Castro’s Instagram posts at the last two CrossFit Games.
Bald: “Accidentally. Ben actually hired someone else to write Chasing Excellence, but they were having a hard time with it. He asked me to read the manuscript and wanted to know what I thought. My feedback was basically, ‘Uhhhhh…’. It was all his awesome mental toughness stuff, but no narrative, so it read like a textbook. I was like, ‘You need a story.’ My idea was to use the 2016 Games as the throughline, but it was too complicated to explain so I just wrote the first two chapters to show him what I was thinking. He was all about it when he read it and was like, ‘So…when can you write chapter three?’ I tried to tell him I was not a professional writer, had never written a book before, I have no idea what I’m doing. But he Ben Bergeron-ed me into doing it anyway.
We collaborate really well together so when he wanted to write a second book last year he asked me to co-author it. While I was working on it, it occurred to me that the 2020 Games season was unprecedented and kind of insane and that someone should be telling that story. I sent Dave (Castro) a letter and was basically like, ‘You don’t know me but if you don’t tell this story it’s gonna be a huge miss.’ He texted me a month or so later and invited me to come out to Aromas to run his Instagram during the Games. He didn’t give me any instructions beyond that, so I just started doing a photojournal and he liked it. He invited me back this year to do the same thing in Madison.”
What does a day in your life look like?
Bald: “In my head it looks like the Broadway performance of Nonstop from Hamilton, but in practice it’s just me writing and/or researching all day. I workout at CrossFit New England every night with the 5:30 p.m. class.”
What’s your advice for up-and-coming women looking to pursue a career in the fitness space?
Bald: “Ask for what you want. Over prepare. Over deliver.”
