January Featured Athlete - Sonya Rafferty

1. Where are you from?
Ithaca.

2. What do you do for a living?
I help kids and families improve their mental health. I am a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner.

3. If you aren’t from Ithaca, what brought you here?
I’m from here and every time I move away I end up back here. It’s home.

4. What brought you into CFP?
I’d been hesitating to join CFP for years. A few Christmases ago my CrossFitter brother-in-law gifted me the Foundations class. With no more excuses I finally got started.

5. What keeps you coming to CFP?
The community for sure. I love that feeling of being part of something bigger as we all work on fitness together. There’s something motivating about that moment after a workout when everyone is only mostly dead on the floor and recovering together.

6. What are some CrossFit goals you’ve crossed off of your list?
Showing up regularly. Being okay with where I am in my fitness journey.

7. What are some future goals you have here at Pallas?
TTB, knowing the answers to the questions the coaches ask during movement prep, double unders.

8. What’s your favorite movement?
Deadlift.

9. What’s your least favorite movement?
Burpees. Or maybe snatch.

10. Chipper, couplet, strength, burner, all/none?
Strength.

11. Where was your favorite vacation spot?
Probably Hawaii but also Iceland, Ireland, Italy… I love to travel.

12. Where’s your favorite place to eat in Ithaca?
Ithaca Beer Company, Saigon Kitchen, although Wegman’s has some kind of gravitational force so I am usually there.

13. What’s your favorite dish to cook at home?
Whatever fits the macros I have left. I’ve been working for years to become a better cook. Luckily my wife is a good sport and eats whatever I make no matter how it turns out. Most recently I made pan seared chicken with roasted broccoli and maple mustard wheat berries.

14. Winter/spring/summer or fall?
Spring. It feels like promise.

15. Do you have a favorite book or author?
My son is four so most of the books I’ve read lately are all about sleepy penguins or worried dogs or something.

16. What would you tell someone hesitant about starting CrossFit?
It might seem intimidating at first, especially if you’re on the introverted side, but everyone legitimately wants to support your fitness journey. People really do cheer each other on. No one cares if you scale the workout, they’re just glad you’re there.