Eric Grode

I moved upstate in 2012 after almost two decades in New York City. During that time, I wrote two books about theater and worked for more than a dozen magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, where I still write as a freelancer. What I didn’t do there – or during my first 10 years in Rochester – was exercise. It wasn’t until my 50th birthday that I finally decided to listen to my doctor and do something about my overall health. I dove into the deep end and went straight from the couch to CrossFit.

The last four years have been equal parts humbling and exhilarating, with personal milestones alternating with regular mutterings of “Fine, but I’ll never be able to do that.” And along the way, several of those “thats” turned into some of those milestones. When I’m not sweating in the basement of the JCC (at Brickyard, of course), I teach journalism at Syracuse University.

My wife, Beth, gets to the gym more often than I do and does more impressive stuff than I can. The two of us partner on workouts when we can, our son is about to become a DIII athlete at Skidmore College, and our preteen daughter now spends considerable time on the pull-up bar in our garage. They are the reason I work hard and enjoy life as much as I do.