ALTON - Friends and family from all around the community came out to Iron House CrossFit in Alton Saturday morning to remember and hono
r Christopher Belchik at the Third Annual Belchik Memorial Workout.
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Brian Belchik, Christopher's brother, said this was the weekend his brother died while serving in Iraq in 2004.
"What do you do to honor your brother," Brian said. "You do something positive because it's not a very positive day."
The workout consisted of a 1974M row, 22 pull-ups, 24 overhead lunges, 30 bar facing burpees, 22 pull-ups, 25 thrusters and finally a 2004M run with each number being significant to Christopher and his service. Since Christopher would have been 43 some participants added an extra 43 push ups at the end of the run.
Brian said hero workouts are very common in the crossfit community but there's something special about the Belchik memorial workout.
"We do all kinds of hero workouts. I do one a month it seems like," Brian said. "But in my brother's you get to actually run by his grave. We're going to run right past his grave. So it brings it home. It's not a name on TV. It's not a name in a newspaper. This is a real person that lost his life and here is his grave and here is his family."
The event can get very emotional for everyone especially when passing the grave. Brain said in a lot of the hero workouts there's just a name on a white board. That doesn't stop anyone from working just as hard but it doesn't seem to quite have the same emotional impact.
"A lot of people get very emotional over it," Brian said. "Which is good because I get emotional. It's just kind of neat. It's a unique situation."
Brain said all the money raised goes to different charities each year. This year proceeds went to Vision Warriors Foundation which helps provides homes and housing for veterans.
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