We invite you to get to know our D10 Board Members. In our first installment, Emily Ruyle leaps into the breach in our inaugural D10 Colorado benefitting the Children's Hospital Colorado Foundation. An amazing woman with an amazing story. #Bring it, Emily.

Tears and sweat are not exactly the same, but for the story of Colorado native Emily Ruyle, they were shed in equal amounts these past few years.

Emily Ruyle grew up in a small town in Northeastern, Colorado. Like so many athletes involved in The D10, Emily’s own story would soon become a life touched by cancer.

Emily had left Colorado for Houston for work when she received her cancer diagnosis. Certainly, there are other hardships in the human experience, but cancer patients alone know what it’s like to hear the dreaded diagnosis from their doctor. Life gets very real, very quickly; as does life’s fragility.

For a healthy, vibrant, Crossfit-committed young woman to receive a cancer notice is like being hit by a bus. Not everybody gets up from that impact. Emily did.


Wonder Woman: Emily sees mountain; Emily climbs mountain

After her course of treatment, Emily returned to Colorado, to familiar surroundings, to heal in her beloved Rocky Mountains.

In the process of her cancer treatment in Houston throughout 2017, Emily endured 16 rounds of chemotherapy, two surgeries, and 33 sessions of radiation. Were it not for Emily’s commitment to fitness prior to her brutal tour of treatment it’s hard to predict her outcome. We often hear of keeping healthy to prevent cancer, but far less is spoken of the outcomes of patients related to their general health at the time of treatment. A fitness regimen puts the body in a better position to deal with future assaults.

“I was Crossfitting five to six times per week and competing in local team competitions. Through my treatment, I continued to Crossfit, but was down to twice a week and had to massively scale the workouts. I strongly believe that my level of fitness and health prior to diagnosis helped me get through chemo.”

Lifting is life: but what about when your body betrays you?

Emily signed up for a half-marathon in January of 2018. Emily’s friend created a start-from-scratch program to build her endurance to handle such an event.

Emily’s program began with merely walking, followed by bits of running (a real-life example of that age-old adage). Emily took to running two or three times a week while Crossfitting another two times a week. To hear Emily explain her return to training after what she experienced physically and emotionally is to hear somebody speak of the matter as if no big deal. It’s humbling.

In case you had any doubts, in January of 2018, Emily completed all 13.1 miles of the half-marathon. While the experience was that of personal pride, on the physical end, Emily admits, “It was not a pleasant experience.”


No hair no problem: Emily wore her bare dome as a badge of honor.

Emily returned to her beloved Crossfitting but found that her weights and times were never to again match her pre-cancer marks. That frustration led her to break from Crossfit.

During this Zen period, Emily came to realize her personal fitness wasn’t a competition for ever higher marks so much as the ownership of her own health and maintenance. Fitness was not a means to an end but the end itself. Emily returned to Crossfit at Front Range Crossfit in Denver where she found not a renewed passion for the training, this time training not as sport but as healthcare.

[Register to compete in The D10 Colorado 2019 alongside Emily this September]

Emily had competed in The D10 in Houston in both 2016 and 2017 despite already having begun cancer treatment. Emily thought about trying to make the 2018 event, but she knew a break was in order for her body. The elements of The D10 themselves are not inherently grueling, it’s the nature of the competitive D10 athlete to make them so. Emily was being honest with herself. She only knows one speed.

Feeling wistful, Emily pulled out her previous year’s D10 jersey tops and wore it to her gym in Colorado. That opened a conversation with a fellow gym member, both committed to be ready for The D10 Houston 2019, the closest D10 event to Denver. In the midst of their interstate planning, The D10 serendipitously announced its expansion to Denver and the inaugural D10 Colorado 2019. The D10 Colorado will support pediatric cancer research at the Children's Hospital Colorado Foundation.


As with most athletes, The D10 is far more than an event, it's a lifestyle filled with great friends.

Emily moved directly into team building mode, forming a Front Range Crossfit team to compete in The D10 Colorado on September 15th. 

I may not be the fastest on the field, but the cause and community of the D10 is reasoning enough for me to leave my ego at the gate and come out and compete with a smile and cheer on the D10 community.