Ok, so this is as much about being there as getting there, but come on – it’s a cool title right? If you don’t recognize the reference, take a look at the videos of similar name on Youtube – there are a ton.

Anyway, we finally got to the games this year. WAHOO!! We’re going to do another article about all the fun things we did while we were there (which we will link to when it is ready), but this one is the biggie – how to do it, what to do, and what to expect.

We had a number of frustrations leading up to the trip – when should we actually get there, is it worth it for Coliseum seats, how will we eat, particularly with Jo’s specific dietary restrictions, and when is it safe to leave (assuming we want to – you know – actually see the end)? 

Hopefully this will help someone for future years.

This is a long post so here’s a quick clickable table of contents:

Getting There

Obviously many people will have to fly, especially those coming from other countries. We looked seriously at driving though. That would have been about 14-15 hours so we ended up flying just to save the extra day or two of vacation time.

Lots of ways to get there – courtesy of Rome2Rio.com

While we did choose to fly this time there are some good reasons to drive or camp beyond the immediately obvious, and we’ll talk about them below.


Flying

We flew directly into Madison’s Dane County Regional Airport (DCRA), as small airport with only thirteen gates (yes 13 – I’m surprised someone didn’t add or remove one on principle but there it is) and limited flights. As always the earlier you get flights the more options you’ll have.

(NOTE: Sounds like DCRA may be getting an upgrade starting 2019. We aren’t sure what that means for sizing but it will probably be growing over the following few years.)

Dane County Regional Airport (DCRA) sports 13 gates.

We had to transfer in Detroit but there were a decent variety of times. We ended up flying out Tuesday after work. When we arrived at DCRA it was clear something was going on. The whole airport and the incoming travelers were all outfitted for the Games.

It’s nice to be in a small airport. Getting around was quick and easy; we got our bags and an Uber with no problems and were off to our AirBnB quickly with just a few stops to chat with other Games-goers.

The small airport was even more of a boon on the way home. We did leave early Monday morning after the games (a 6:35am flight) but we were in and through security within about 10 minutes.

Driving and Camping/RVing

We haven’t driven yet but I’ll say a few things based on what we saw.

First, even at the busiest traffic was never that bad. I had seen a Madison newspaper article about the Games bringing terrible traffic. Not so much, at least not compared to the Baltimore traffic we are used to.

On Wednesday the cops had blocked off an entrance so vehicles could only get to the Alliant Energy Center through one road and even then we only sat in traffic for about five minutes. More on getting around later.

Next, if we can get a spot and borrow or rent an RV, that might be an ideal way to experience this event. The campground (tents) and RV camping areas are right outside an entrance just a minute or two walk from the Coliseum and many are shaded. We also passed a number of people in various stages of workout with sandbags, ski and row-ergs, barbells, etc. I can see this being a fun after-hours crowd and a great place to both network and get a workout in. You might even encounter some well-known faces…

As a side note, RxBar was good enough to set up a tent nearby for a camper’s breakfast, complete with a video monitor of any events that were going on.

Finally, and this is pretty cool, after the games Rogue sells a lot of the equipment for a discounted price. If you are on-site and have room to carry stuff home you get first pick. Otherwise you can check the Rogue Fitness web site and try to get something there before it sells out.

Where to Stay

Madison is not a huge town but there are plenty of places to stay. Not only can you find a variety of hotels and motels of varying sophistication but there are AirBNB and VRBOs available as well. We were lucky enough to stay with an AirBNB within walking distance to the Games.

Our biggest concern was that traffic would make it difficult to get there so we wanted to stay close. There are definitely times when traffic is worse (leaving on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday for instance) but for the most part this didn’t turn out to be a problem. We could easily  have stayed in any number of places further away and been fine.

No hotel in this picture is further than 20 minutes from the Games venue

Downtown Madison sports a number of hotels and a lot of different places to eat. While it is over a bridge from the Games site, we never encountered a time when this was busy.

Thanks to being nearby at a friendly AirBNB, we did get to walk home a few times, which was nice, and the trip to and from by car was only about 5 minutes so it saved a bit of time, but dinners were occasionally tricky. More on food later but wherever you stay you’ll be pretty close and have access to food.

Getting Around Town

At a total population of 250,000, Madison is not an enormous city. If you have time on your hands walking is a perfectly viable mode of transportation.

That said, while we did not rent a car, and we did walk between the venue and our rental, we made heavy use of the local Ubers, who were friendly if a little quirky on occasion.

If you want to get around a little faster and get some exercise, there are a few bicycle rental options too! First, there are a few bike stores – notably Machinery Row Bicycles. Rentals are from $120 – $300/week so be aware it may not be wallet friendly to go this direction. Nevertheless if you really want to bike you can get around quite well this way. 

There’s also the BCycle who have set up Madison BCycle – a network of bikes and stations across the city. This includes one at Olin Park (southernmost on the map below) which is right in front of the venue.  

Madison B Cycle is a valid way to get around town

BCycle is a great concept I’d like to see in more cities – basically you walk up to racks of bikes. Those bikes can be taken out for short trips (30 or 60 minutes) and re-docked at another station within the allocated trip time. Prices are reasonable – $6 for 24 hours of 30 minute trips or $15 for 31 days of 60 minute trips! Next time there we plan to make good use of this to see more of the city. 

Food

How to Eat in the Area

There’s a variety of food in the city depending up on your diet type. We had sushi one day, Noodles & Company (with zucchini noodles) another, and we made eggs in the rental home’s kitchen a number of times. 

Everywhere but where we were

Meanwhile, there are a few delivery services active as well. While Uber Eats wasn’t “available in our area” (see map to the right), Eatstreet was able to take care of us and that sushi dinner was thanks to them!

At the end of the day, however, most of what we ate came from the Games – eaten there or taken home. 

What to Eat at the Games

We usually have to worry about what to eat. Jo can’t just have a hot dog at a baseball game for instance or she gets headaches, so we were very hopeful that there would be lots of good paleo options, but we weren’t expecting it. 

Thankfully, we were greeted right away upon entering with a slew of friendly food carts, in many cases from well out of state (a surprising number from Texas for instance). Sure, there were cheese curds (it is Wisconsin after all – and they were wonderful), and even Pizza Hut showed up to the party, but for the most part it was paleo/primal-friendly food everywhere. Wow! 

Most mornings we ate at Rosie Jo’s, and if we didn’t we got there for something every day. 


Rosie Jo’s from Texas kicked us off most mornings with eggs, paleo scones or pancakes, and a dose of coffee with MCT oil.

A burger, sweet potato and avocado made a wonderful lunch, and we came back for their BCAA drink repeatedly – particularly after the couple of workouts we got in.

Rosie Jo’s – Good food right at the entrance
Only tried it once but Ranch Hand’s bowl was tasty.

We also ate at a place called “Ranch Hand” out of Austin, Texas. They only had a few options but they were quite good and quite busy.

Finally, our repeat go-to to the point that they started calling us by name, was the Paleo Mamma Bakery. They provided us with daily paleo donuts and repeated pizzas. Wonderful food and friendly people!

Paleo Mama Bakery was our goto for lunch and dinner.

The Games

First, the basics. There are ‘festival’ tickets and ‘coliseum’ tickets. Festival allows access to anywhere on the grounds except the Coliseum indoor arena. A Coliseum ticket allows access to anywhere on the grounds plus the Coliseum. The Games web site was also very clear that they don’t decide whether to do single day (festival) tickets until last-minute, so you can only buy full-package tickets ahead of time. That said, we ran into a fair number of people who were single-day walk-ins, meaning they ended up selling those tickets after all. More on tickets below, but we did have to get ours aftermarket.

Next, there’s a long list of what’s not allowed into the venue including coolers, food, drinks (other than water) and large bags. We were pretty concerned about 

The Coliseum

Ok, one of the biggest questions we had was whether it was worth it to get the Coliseum ticket. The Coliseum is an indoor arena where you’ll get assigned seating (based on the ticket you purchased) and exclusive direct access to certain events. At the end of the day it was definitely a yes… but.

Huh?

The bulk of the events were at other locations around the venue (and the town). That means that if you are there to enjoy the overall experience including age groups, teams, and individuals, most of what you want to see will be available even if you only get a festival ticket. Dave had a bit to say about that before this year’s games. 

Most of the evening events, however, and thus a fair percentage of individual events, occurred in the Coliseum. We brought a number of meals in there and just sat eating dinner and watching the final events of the day. It was a great experience and especially since this was our first time there well worth it. Even better – this is also the one place where, if you can score a front row (particularly finish line side) seat you absolutely 100% will definitely have photo op and autograph opportunities, if you’re interested in that. 

It’s a small venue too. That means there aren’t any terrible seats. There may be seats that are less ideal for certain events, but nothing is too far away. We sat on the side and towards the finish line so got a great view of the events. 

All that said, there are a few caveats and you really need to weight this for the ‘worth it’.

First, tickets are extremely limited – the Coliseum holds just over 10,000 people and that’s it. Aftermarket tickets are available, which is the only way we got them. The original sale tickets were gone before we got access and yes, there was quite a markup. We received our wristbands (you wear a band with a chip rather than using a regular ticket) about a week before we flew out so while there were a few days of holding our breath it worked out fine.

Next, and this caused no end of complaints from those who had purchased Coliseum tickets, both Wednesday and Thursday were open seating in the Coliseum, meaning that you had to fight to get a seat! Ok, you didn’t actually have to fight Wednesday – barely anyone was there and frankly we got much better seats than we had. Thursday, there was a new intro ceremony celebrating all the athletes and their various countries. THAT was a wait and a fight. With all the complaining I’m not sure whether this will continue in coming years, but it was a frustration in 2018. 

Finally, while the events are live and in-person in the Coliseum, right outside is an enormous plaza with food courts, seats, room on the ground to picnic, and a truly monstrous screen overlooking the plaza. Guess what’s on that screen? Yes, sitting out there for evening events is a perfectly viable way to watch, particularly if you happen to be there with a large group of friends.

Madison Club

As long as we’re talking about premium options, we have to bring up the Madison Club. For $1,000 per ticket you get a host of benefits. But – it’s $1k right off the bat and does not include the actual festival or Coliseum ticket!

The Madison Club includes valet parking, two “premier hospitality lcoations”, a buffet all week, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and – this may be the most important in many ways – first access to Coliseum tickets. If you really want those front row finish line Coliseum tickets, this is the best way to secure them. 

There’s supposed to be a tent near the initial thoroughfare, but we didn’t see that. This tent has refreshments, A/C, and displays to watch all the action. 

The other location, however, you can’t miss. Situated at the finish line of the North Park Stadium (which also happens to be the main entrance to that area), and with the main screen behind it, this building contains an air conditioned internal area and rows of seating elevated above the field – the perfect viewing angle. The video below gives some idea of how it is situated.

The Madison Club pavilion at North Park

Vendor Hall

The vendor hall is what you’d expect – a ton of vendor booth, though in the center of this area was a penned-in rig and workout area where hourly samples of Crossfit Training classes occurred, which I’ll talk about more later.

There’s food samples, food to buy, equipment, contests, etc. Zevia and FitAid both had booths and were giving out samples (thank goodness – it was HOT). 

Workouts & Classes

Part of what they call the “Fan Experience”, Games-goers are able to work out in a dedicated Olympic lifting area and take part in set WODs. These were available to sign up for online in half-hour increments. There are only about 10-14 spots available in each half-hour so we were fortunate to get ours set up early. That said, there never seemed to be a time when the oly area was full, and even some of the WOD slots were light when people didn’t sign up. 

One tip though – definitely get there early for the WOD to check in and stretch out, and if you want to do both (WOD and oly) either sign up for the Olympic lifting after the WOD slot or give half an hour in between slots. Even though the two areas are right next to each other (literally no more than 30 feet), you really can’t do a half hour lifting and then go check in because they are prepping folks before the half hour mark. 

Regardless, it was fun and we got some workouts in while actually on the grounds. But those weren’t the only workouts!

Crossfit’s HQ’s training department was there taking center stage (literally, it was set up in the center of the vendor pavilion) and running one-hour workshops on the various specialty courses. Again, spots were limited but they didn’t start taking names until about 15 minutes prior to a session so if you really wanted to get in (like we did for the conjugate session below), you can hang out and wait. 

You’ll also note a small set of bleachers on one end of this area. While participation in the seminars depended on signing up it was all open-area, meaning that people came and went from the bleachers and found positions around the outside of the training section to watch and listen. We took away some nice tips from this session, and later we came upon Julie Foucher and Bob Harper here as well. 

Conclusion

Jo called the Games “Disney World for fitness enthusiasts”. Like minded-people, paleo-friendly food, amazing athletes and events, fan workouts, classes, vendors, a welcoming and pleasant city… it really was a fantastic vacation. 

We originally thought this would be a one-time trip, but it was SO good we’re seriously thinking of making this a regular event. We may try to stay on site in a camper but there are definitely several decent options.

How does this compare to something like the Arnold (which we also loved)? While the Arnold does have a wider variety of sports represented, and a dramatically larger vendor area, traffic was horrendous and eating was a constant difficulty. 

We hope this helps others set up their own trips in the future, and look for our (much shorter) trip review coming soon where we will talk about all the things we did, rather than just the things we learned. 

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