Get to know our latest Daybreakers of the Month!

These Daybreakers represent commitment and dedication to their fitness, health and well-being. They work hard, stay positive and help form the key threads of our community fabric. Get to know the current Daybreakers of the Month!

About John E

1. Tell us about yourself outside of Daybreak Crossfit North
I live in Acton with my lovely wife Clare (Daybreak member) and kids. I am the proud father of my son Jake(17) and two beautiful daughters Amber (14) and Tilly (11).  I am not sure that I am ready for my daughters to grow up yet, and is something I struggle with daily :-). We originate form England and have been in the USA for 7 years. We have lived in Massachusetts for six of the seven years and spent one year down in the tropics of South Carolina. One day we may go back south; Clare hates the snow, don’t mention the snow!
For work, I am a Operations Director at a cyber security managed service provider – I enjoy my job immensely. I manage a global team of 20+ engineers and can often be found working day and night supporting them. I am always happy to talk tech if anyone wants to!
Believe it or not (for those of you that have seen me hanging off the rig like a chimpanzee), I have a long athletic career. I was a county cross country runner, semi pro football player (soccer for all you Americans), amateur boxer, triathlete and have tried to adopt CrossFit! Unfortunately 10 years ago I had a double hip replacement that put pay to many of my endeavors. A couple of my best achievements have been 1) Completing the Iron Man Lake Placid course even with my bionic hips 2) Fighting in front of several hundred people at the world famous York Hall in Bethnal Green (London). Those days are well behind me now, instead, I watch my son CrossFit in awe at how effortless all of the movements seem, whilst foolishly trying to keep up!
My real passion is still football, and I am an avid Everton FC fan. I can often be found shouting at the television when they are playing – sadly they are not the team I remember.
2. Tell us about your crossfit journey so far, what have you learned about yourself, and what keeps you coming back?
Started CrossFit back in 2012 at CrossFit Reach in Acton and fell instantly in love with it. Unfortunately my inability to scale things back and my ridiculous drive to compete meant that I kept injuring myself. In the end I got so fed up with being broken that I stopped going.
Fast forward to 2019 and I apprehensively walked through the door of CrossFit DayBreak. I was unfit, overweight and concerned that I would fall into the same traps as before. This time it felt different, coaches put my well-being ahead of the WOD and I keep hearing Erica’s voice in my ear “John, it’s only fitness!”. I am now 15lbs lighter, I feel more positive about the workouts and I am coming consistently. The community at daybreak is really positive and encouraging it is a nice place to be. I can’t thank Erica and Mel enough.
3. Tell us about one of your best adventures in life to date, or an adventure you are planning. 
I have been Fortunate enough to travel all over the world with my job, I think our best adventure was living in Australia for 4 years. We love that place and have so many great memories there. If you see me around the gym be sure to ask me about the snakes and spiders, all the rumors are true.
4. What goals do you have for yourself in 2020?
– keep myself in check
– lose another 15 lbs
– enter a SCALED CrossFit competition with my son Jake.
– watch as many euro2020 games as possible

About Paul

I live in Sudbury with my wife Susan, our two daughters – Grace who’ll be 16 in a few weeks, and Paige who is 13, and our two cats.  When I’m not at DCF or with my family, I work at Accenture as a Managing Director in our Strategy Practice working with Communications, Media and Technology clients.

I’ve been doing CrossFit for about five years.  I got to know Rap through Sudbury Soccer when our daughters played together.  During the 2014 Hope Sudbury Telethon, I saw DCF had a one-month membership and decided to support a friend and a local business.  I walked in for an evening class that November (Filthy 50), and the rest is history.

When not traveling for work, you’ll usually find me at the 8:30 AM, 7:00 AM on Saturday, and the occasional Rise-N-Grind.

1- What keeps you coming back to CrossFit each day?
It’s the community and challenge.  It’s a great group of people that come together at DCF.  I’ve had the opportunity to drop into a lot of Boxes in different cities and know we have something special here. From the top-notch coaches to the members who show up each day, it’s a supportive, friendly, hard-working, and fun group.  I also enjoy the daily challenge CrossFit provides.  I’ve improved my fitness so much but also have so much to keep working on.  I leave the gym humbled a few times a week, and that’s good motivation for me to keep showing up.

2- Who were you in high school and do you think you’ve changed a lot since then?
I grew up in the Pittsburgh suburbs and went to an all-boys catholic high-school in the city that brought kids together from all over (think BC High or Catholic Memorial).  I was an ok athlete, good student, state debate champion and hung out with a pretty good group of guys.  I don’t think I’ve changed much and if you got my high-school buddies together I think they’d say the same.

3- What’s it like being a Steelers fan in Patriots country?
I’ll put it in CrossFit terms, it’s like doing Murph Rx, painful and feeling like it will never end.  It’s been a long 20 years living here and watching Brady & the Pats, and I’m VERY excited that their run, like all good things is about to end.  That said, it’s hard not to appreciate greatness and part of what I like about living here is the passion people have for sports, it’s almost as good as Pittsburgh!  Just remember to ask me about the Penguins two Stanley Cups in the last five years and that unfortunate Bruins Game 7 loss the next time we do this.

4- What current TV shows are you hooked on?
I can’t say I’m hooked on anything right now.  My TV viewing is mostly sports or Netflix. Shows I’ve liked on Netflix include: GIRI/HAJI (a little hokey at times), The Spy (Unbelievable true story, done very well), The Witcher (entertaining, but no one will mistake it for GOT), Thieves of the Wood (Robinhood in 18th century Belgium) and Dogs of Berlin (German crime drama).

5- What’s your spirit animal?
Ah yes, this question.  I wasn’t sure where to go with it, so I started with some mascots from my schools and settled on the Wolverine, from my two years in graduate school at The University of Michigan.  Yes, I rooted for Tom Brady while this city was walking around in Bledsoe jerseys.  The all-knowing wikipedia describes them as stocky with short legs and I can’t argue with that comparison.  It’s also known as an animal that to borrow one of my Dad’s line “punches above its weight”, a quality I’ll take anytime.