'Amazing Grace' - Special CrossFit workout staged by cancer survivor

Trina Vanorny had breast cancer.

The 41-year old heard those words from her doctor and was paralyzed with fright.

“It was just sheer terror,” she said. “The shock and I was just kind of numb. Then I’m like, ‘What do we need to do?’”

She was so active in her health care (and admittedly, very lucky) that the abnormality was caught as it had just started growing.

“I was very fortunate we caught it very early,” Vanorny said. “The prognosis for survival was 100 percent. It was gone in seven weeks.”

Vanorny had a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, but still knows she might have gotten off easily compared to other survivors — and those who didn’t make it.

That’s why she is putting on an event at CrossFit Flathead, where she works as a trainer, to raise money for breast cancer.

“Amazing Grace,” a special CrossFit workout on Oct. 12, will be open to the public for $15, and participants will get a little training in CrossFit. (“It specializes in not specializing in anything,” Vanorny said.) Participants will then go through the workout and be entered into a raffle to win member-donated prizes.

This will be the third running of the event, which started the year after Vanorny beat her cancer.

“I was diagnosed December 2010,” she said. “And just 10 months later we started it.”

All proceeds go to Save a Sister, a Flathead organization that provides free education and mammograms for uninsured and underinsured women and men.

Breast cancer is largely genetic, but can also be affected by lifestyle choices. A big theme with survivors is to keep active and healthy. That’s where CrossFit comes in.

“It’s an exercise methodology that is functional fitness,” Vanorny said. “It’s very efficient. We go hard and fast and get that anaerobic as well as aerobic workout.”

With moves such as box jumps, pull-ups and squats (among many more) CrossFit workouts can be intense but are adjusted for new adherents.

The event Oct. 12 will be open to everyone from former powerlifters (people such as CrossFit Flathead owner Buford Bennett) to people who aren’t even sure how to spell “gymnasium.”

“Everything is scaled,” Vanorny said. “We can modify reps, modify movements. Sometimes people have issues with knees or backs and we can work with those.”

Vanorny said while she was going through her treatment, her fellow gym-goers were a great source of support.

“It’s a community of people that all work together,” the Ronan native said. “In other gyms I just felt like cattle, following everybody else.”

The event begins at 9 a.m. but same-day registration starts at 8 a.m. and training for those new to CrossFit starts at 8:30 a.m.

For children 12 and under, the price drops to $10. Additional donations are welcome and go directly to Save a Sister. Several heats of people will be running through the gym at a time.

Same-day registration is at the CrossFit Flathead building at 220 Kelly Road, Kalispell.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4439 or at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.