For non-CrossFitters, the “Murph” is a grueling workout that consists of completing a mile-long run, 100 pull-ups, 200 pushups, 300 air squats, and another mile-long run while donning a 20-pound vest.
The regimen was named after Lt. Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL who was killed while serving in Afghanistan in 2005. The annual Murph Challenge takes place on Memorial Day, and raises both awareness and money for the Lt. Michael P. Murphy Memorial Scholarship Foundation.
McIntyre completed the last mile at 34:13, which put him ahead of Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson (38:40, unpartitioned) at the 2015 CrossFit Games, and Mat Fraser (35:48, partitioned) and Josh Bridges (34.88, partitioned) at the 2016 CrossFit games. (Partitioned is where you do full runs of Murph but bust up the pushups, pullups, and squats into multiple sets and reps; unpartitioned is where you complete all of the work in each step before moving onto the next phase of the workout.)
Still, he wasn’t satisfied, since his goal was to knock it out in under 30 minutes.
“During the squats, I knew something was up” McIntyre said. “I even had to walk for a second on that last run, which is something I have never done in training. I am standing in front of you a humbled man, I shot for the stars, and I missed”.
McIntyre’s entire Murph workout was streamed live on Obstacle Racing Media, and spectators couldn’t help themselves from finding things to complain about, such as a missed pushup done during the first 20 reps.
In addition, some voiced concerns about Ryan Kempson, a friend of Hunter, who worked out alongside him. Although he finished Murph first, there was no judge assigned to Kempson so all his reps were in question.
In a later interview, McIntyre answered the critics, saying, “I don’t care that you didn’t like Kempson’s reps. This wasn’t heart surgery. We are just athletes having a good time. This was an event to kind of rise up the morale and attitudes of the people in a shitty time in the fitness community and give back to something bigger than me.”
McIntyre also added, “Anybody who is listening who is not happy about it and thinks I’m a world-class cheater or thinks Kempson just did this to get attention, go get a life. Go do something on your own and feel what it’s like to be under a microscope for once.”
