It was very warm, in the 80’s and sunny. I immediately switched to a shirt with sleeves since I didn’t have sun tan lotion and I wanted to minimize how burnt I got. I signed in and I came in at 257lbs with my shoes on so. Seven competitors were in the heavyweight class including myself. I walked around and took photos of all the equipment. I was already itching to lift the 460lbs stone. Rules were at 10:30 and we started at 11:00. First event was the fire truck pull.
This had been an event I had been trying to simulate at Joe’s with a sled and a lot of weight. The truck was 37,000lbs and the course was originally 65’ but was shortened to 50’ when no one but two 231lbers had made it 50’. I had thought it would be light when John, the promoter, had said everyone would use it. I later found out on the drive there that it was really tough from Lou since he had been told that only two people in practice had finished it and one was Steve Macdonald, from America’s Strongest Man and the first person to load a +500lbs atlas stone in competition. It was well over and hour before it was close to get ready for the truck pull so I had to warm up again. Before I went, Andy Deck and Jeff Sweet had finished the course so I was hoping to do well. Not the case, I felt awful the whole time. I couldn’t get low and it got stuck at the dip at about 29’ (I made it 29’9”) which was the sticking point, you either got over it and finished or you didn’t. I was disappointed with this and started to have doubts. I got fourth out of seven here.
Up next was an axle press was clean and press for a max. Well that’s what we had thought but it turned out to be a 2.5” diameter fixed bar instead for the heavyweight competitors. In other words, tough as hell to clean and the lightweights were giving us a hard time. In fact, the heavyweight unanimously agreed to a blood pact that this event never happened. Everyone picked a low opener for this. My plan was 285lbs if it had been a 2” revolving bar but I dropped it to 245lbs when I had issues with it for a warm-up single. I dropped it down to 225lbs when I found out from Andy that my “245lbs single” was only 205lbs. My thoughts were “ugh, I don’t feel like a strongman” at this point. My opener went smoothly at 225lbs but I was still uncertain and went for conservative increase to 245lbs. As I stepped up the bar for this attempt, Don Pope, 3rd place at WSM 2006 who was judging asked me if I was from West Virginia (Phil Pfister’s home) and I said nope, no relation to Phil. He said “Good, otherwise I’d have to judge you real strict”. So I picked up 245lbs and that went up like butter too, I held it for a bit and then did the Marunde leg raise. I then went for a big jump of 275lbs, which would give me second place in the 265lbers. It was slightly tougher to clean but went up again easy. I did the Marunde leg raise again (I wanted to get the crowd involved and I always wanted to do it). I was kicking myself for not sticking with the plan of 245lbs as I believe 305lbs would have gone which would be huge on the kind of bar as my best is only 250lbs on a 2 3/8” bar for a clean. This is the best my clean and press has ever felt in a contest. A second out of seven here.
By now it was 2:00 PM and up next was the Conan’s wheel, my arch nemesis. I hate it so much. Hate is not strong enough. I dream of them being stacked in mound and burned. The point is, I wish for it’s destruction. Honestly, I don’t know what’s wrong with me on this. I did yoke zercher carries but it’s just not the same. It was fairly light this contest. Not sure of the weight as the weights were four girls and two 45lbs plates, which started the joke of all weights being measured in girls. So the Conan’s wheel will be listed as five girls for this write-up. We got to do some warm-ups, not a lot but some. I got to be weight for some laps and I will say that it is the worst ride I’ve been on, it’s slow and stops frequently. I went up and picked it up and I was already feeling dizzy so I moved as fast as I could to cover some distance before I dropped it. I didn’t want to black out so I dropped it at 69’9”. Not a bomb but awful when the next closet guy is 40’ ahead of me. It didn’t even feel heavy. I have got to fix this as the next two contest have it. Seventh out of seven.
So at this point I’m back to thinking “ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” with the pitiful Conan’s wheel performance. But up next was medley that could get me back in it. It was light farmer’s 50’ into tire flip for 50’ in 60 seconds. The farmer’s were 240lbs (supposedly, I didn’t check) and the tire was 822lbs (was listed as 900lbs). Got the farmer’s up easy and beat feet to the tire. I felt slow on the farmer’s but the video shows I was moving pretty fast. I knew the tire was going to suck as it had rain water in it and some spots had no good place to grip it. I was using my tacky towel between flips. I got two good flips in but the others were bad and that ate up time. I got five flips in the time limit (about a foot away from the finish) but I did a sixth flip just to finish it off even though it didn’t count. A bit peeved that the tire gave me so much of a problem. My run was good enough for third out of seven however.
There was a long lull in the action as the light weights/novice/masters/teens were taking a long time (the Conan’s wheel was still going and the medley had to be done one at a time due to lack of plat weight). Lots of down time which actually became a fun time as a bunch of the heavies were inside the fire house hall just talking, joking and what not for a while. It was late (may be 6:00) when the final event started. This event was what I was looking forward to all day. Max stone load to 46”. Really it was a last man standing but you could jump in at any time but then you had to do every stone after that point. I think the first stone was 170lbs so we had a bit of time waiting. I was using PR tacky that I had bought back in January for the first time and it seemed to work well in the 80 degree temperature. I shared it with a bunch of heavy weight lifters. The fun from inside carried on to outside too making this a really fun event, joking between lifts and all. I was contemplating going to 385lbs off the bat because I thought I’d have to do 370lbs and 380lbs if I went early on but when I found out it would be either or for the 380/385lbs I jumped in at 335lbs with most of the other heavies. I had a little trouble with getting it lapped but it went up easy. 350lbs went up even easier, I guess I was getting warmed up. I had no issues with 370lbs or 385lbs. The crazy thing was that there were still ten people going at this point. 404lbs wasn’t too bad to lap and it flew off my lap. After Andy Deck got this one, I told him if he got up to 460lbs, I’d quit the sport. 430lbs was the divider of men, leaving just me and Andy. 430lbs actually felt heavy to load. It was time for the 460lbs stone. I focused, dived down and put it on the platform no problem. Andy came after me and did much the same. We were joking afterward about going through the series again sans tacky to break the tie as they didn’t have any heavier stones. I told Andy I could still do strongman since I also loaded the 460lbs stone. He allowed this but told me I’m on borrowed time. I actually wouldn’t have minded if I had to go to a much higher platform than the other competitors as I was having a lot of fun with this. Tied for first place on the final event.
I ended up in third place in the under 265lbs class. Well that actual has a story to it too as I was given fourth place at the awards ceremony. I wanted to see the scores for my records and for my write-up and as I was looking over them I noticed that the scores for the tire/farmer’s medley were wrong. It had me in last place and the guy who had gotten last place had gotten first place points. After John and Willie sorted it out, I ended up getting third place but since third place had already left with the trophy, I got an extra trophy that was for third place women’s division. John told me to send him an e-mail so I can get a plaque to put on it that says 265lbs class. As I was walking to the car with Lou, I noticed that the figurine on top of the trophy was a female bodybuilder. Haha. It was after 8:00 by the time Lou and I hit the road. Ended up stopping at someplace on the PA Turnpike for “dinner” and drove home. I got home after 12:00AM and luckily my Dad was up so I was able to regale him with stories and videos of the day. Went to bed after 1:00AM and slept until 11:00 AM the next day.
As everyone else who was there has said, John was very generous and nice, just few first time hiccups for a promotion that can be smoothed out easy next time. I had great fun talking with my fellow competitors and I would like to thank Mary “Strongestmary” Jacobson for filming the stone loads for me. So I was sun-burnt, dehydrated with chapped lips and up for 18 hours straight. Up next is Battle of the Bad Ass May 22nd. Such is my life.
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