It was very nice outside and I’m sure Joe Farino, the promoter, was furious about that. Crappy weather is just as much a part of Viking Fest as heavy weights and cars getting stuck in the side yard. Way more competitors and spectators than usual at this show. Joe’s lawn was just covered in cars and every division had a healthy number of competitors. I was in the lardass division (six people including myself) so no need to weigh-in, just signed in, renewed my NAS carried and I walked around and took photos of all the equipment as per usual. Log press was up first.
The first event of the day was max log press. Three attempts with a 13.5” log. Overhead has been an enigma for me, especially on log. The last six weeks it had been getting a lot better. I felt like crap warming up so I went lighter than I had planned. The 13.5” log and I are not friends. The starting weight was 220lbs with 20lbs jumps in weight. I opened with 260lbs. I had hit it in warm-ups but it was a little rough. I guess the adrenaline was flowing as the pick was super easy and I almost strict pressed it, making for an ugly lockout. I fixed that on my attempt with 280lbs. Also not crisp on the lockout but better. This was good for a 10lbs contest PR and a 15lbs PR on this size log. 300lbs just wouldn’t go today. I gave it two solid attempts in the 60 second time limit but no good. My legs locked up and I just tried to muscle it up or something. Disappointed with that, especially since my best lift was less than the opener for just about everyone else in the HW class. So starting the day off with a sixth place finish.
Up next was a heavy side handle car deadlift. 60 seconds to complete as many reps as possible but no one needed that much time. It was heavy (PT Cruiser plus 180lbs of plates), even with the 18” pick height. We had to face the car so it was a bit odd. I tried the setup once and I thought I had done enough to prep for it. I was wrong. First two guys up bombed it so I was thinking bad thoughts. Then the next two guys manage to get 2 and 3 reps respectively. Hey, it can be moved! Turns out they were just really, really strong. I had no luck with it and gave it two shots and called it there. Got no points along with three other competitors for a last place finish. Today was just going awesome. Two events and I had 1 point.
Then came the medley. Flip a 750lbs tire for five flips then drag an 800lbs chain/sled for 50’. The tire weight had been dropped (was going to be 900lbs) and the time limit extended to 75 seconds. I’m pretty good at medleys but I really suck at drags. I’m not too bad with chain drags but sled drags are awful so this hybrid of half chain and half sled had me concerned. I had a lot of down time with this so I got to watch a lot of people struggling with the tire and then just dying on the drag. I’ve dealt with the tire before so I knew that despite the light weight, it was tricky and slick. I was up and I made quick work of the tire. I did have some form issues on the first two flips but I blame that on getting familiar with it. As soon as I touched the chain, my quads just cramped up. The amount of suck was incredible but I managed to get 30’1” which was good enough to be first on this event. Woo hoo!
Alright, so I have a chance now. The next two events were good for me but I had myself in a deep hole after the first two events. Next was the husafell stone carry. 400lbs with turns at 50’. I’ve been training for this event hard. Got lots of scars and bruises to show for it. Two things were different than how I had trained it. One was that we could pick it up from a pedestal and two was that no backwards walking was allowed. Apparently one of the training crew had blown out a calf muscle doing that. Oh well. This stone was made of pure concrete so it was very thick and the only rough spots on it were the edges. The sides were satin sheet smooth so the only way to really grip it was with just the wrists. Hands would not help here. Wrist holding it felt weird but I just kept moving. I was worried I wouldn’t get more than one length down but I managed to get 128’, good enough for second. First place went almost 170’ and that was impressive.
There was a lot of downtime before the last event to tally the scores. The main reason seemed to be that a lot of the help left because the contest was taking a lot longer than expected. I think even one competitor left after the husafell because he had to close up shop and had expected everything to be over hours ago. I appreciated the down time as it gave me a chance to try and get my hips and lower back to calm down. I was worried about not being able to bend over haha.
The final event was atlas stones. 60 seconds for five stones to 54” platforms. Stones were 330lbs, 350lbs, 370lbs, 405lbs and 410lbs. Lots of people were saying it was higher, like 56 or 58, but I brought out my trusty green tape measure and put that to rest. We had been going all day by order of entry form sent in but now it was by placings. I was in fourth going in to this. I knew I could pick up points on this event but I also knew that it could come down to who could load the first three stones the fastest. The 405lbs stone is infamous and is the stuff of nightmares because of how dusty it is. I really wanted to get all the stones but I knew that would be a tall order on a good day, let alone after beating myself up with tough events beforehand. I was up and I blitzed the first two stones. My hands slipped when I went down for the 370lbs stone. I’ve never touched this stone before (always been 350lbs then 405lbs). Regardless, I got it up easy. I noticed that my arms looked like they were covered in cement and literally no tacky left. I took a bit of rest and then tried my hand at the 405lbs stone. Actually came up easy into my lap but it slid when I tried to extend. If It had been 48”, it would have gone. I tried again but it wasn’t going to budge off the ground. Despite that, I was the fast enough on the first three stones to get the win.
To my surprise, I ended up in second out of six competitors. I really wasn’t expecting that after how poorly I did on the first two events of the day. I had written off qualifying for Nationals at that point. I was genuinely shocked when my name was called. Turns out I was only a half a point from first place and only a point ahead of third. Very close contest. Had fun, qualified for Nats, got a battle axle, ate steaks and a flat bread pizza at Outback Steakhouse and listened to Patton Oswalt CD’s on the way home in the car. So a good day. I need to rest though. Next stop is hopefully the Europa Pro-qualifier in Hartford, CT.
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