by: Brendon Cullen
My route to Alchemy is a long one. I think it started back when I was a sophomore in high school. It was my first year playing varsity golf and I knew that I needed a new way to compete. If you know me, you know that I am not a big guy: about 6 ft, 155 lbs, and that’s up from what I used to be in high school. This meant getting into the gym. I started at a local gym in a program for high school and college athletes. I loved the atmosphere and getting to know different athletes that I didn’t compete with from the area. While I am much more fit now, there are still things that I did during this time but can’t do anymore (50+ inch box jumps, for example).
Fast-forward to college. I decided to go to University of St. Thomas after being recruited to play golf, and knowing that the dream of playing D-1 golf wasn’t an option after not performing in the big tournaments. I ended up coming up to the Twin Cities, and since I didn’t know anyone up here, playing golf was going to be the easy way to meet people at a new school in a different state…but I got cut. It destroyed me for a couple days. I didn’t know what was going to happen but knew that I would make the most out of it. This all turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise because after my freshman year at UST I started having a lot of wrist issues. I ended up needing wrist surgery which meant a full arm cast for a solid month and being back at my parents’ house in Iowa City for a month and a half to recover (10/10 would not recommend).
Fast-forward to my 5th year at UST (double major problems). I had a job lined up at a CPA firm and I wanted to do something I wouldn’t forget during my last year of college. I went on a VISION trip volunteering in the Virgin Islands – Ariene Willkom was the UST staff member on that trip and one of the reasons why I ended up at Alchemy (I’ll be getting to that soon). That trip is a whole other story (insert bird flying into a jet engine and having an emergency landing in Puerto Rico) but it was where Ariene and I became friends.
After graduation I moved home to study for the CPA exam for the summer before starting to work. I wanted a way to get back in shape and get rid of some stress so I started CrossFit. I loved it from the first workout. There was always something new to figure out and the strength gains at the start are always the biggest. The other aspect that was key for me is the community. (Not having the community factor was one of the many reasons why I hated going to the UST gym in college.) I ended up finding a gym up here conveniently located by my office when I started work, so I could hit a 3 or 4 pm workout to break up the long days during tax season.
After a year of CrossFit, I started to see that my body was breaking down. I was staring down another surgery in the future, and I knew that I needed to find another way to stay fit or be smarter. I reached out to Ariene and asked her about Alchemy. I didn’t really know what it was going to be like, but thought “What is the worst that could happen?” Well…burpees and box jumps can happen.
I went in during July when there was unlimited buddy passes and while it was a rough workout (a late night followed by an early morning didn’t help) I was hooked instantly. Coach Katy pretty much kicked my ass during that A20 and the rest is history.
Alchemy makes me feel alive every day and I can’t stress enough how different the atmosphere is around the gym. It is truly something special and I am blessed to have found it!
Keep being bad asses, and keep pursuing your legend.
-BC
Brendon is an Alchemy Highland Park Founding Member (#squad) and you can always find him living it up in an AStrong. If AGolf was a thing, BC would be there. Chances are, he could probably teach Coach JT a thing or two about his golf game.
