Second Annual Capitol Classic Strongman Challenge Writeup
I headed down to Crossfit South Arlington in Virginia to the new home of The Edge 2.0 on Saturday morning for Barry's contest. After getting "GPSed" trying to get off of 395, I parked at a very nice new soccer complex in the middle of a terminatoresque war/construction zone just outside of Washington, DC. I headed in, found Chris "What's a Deadlift?" Peirce, and started warming up and shooting the bull. We were in a fairly small facility compared to the vastness of the convention center I was in a few weeks ago for the BSG competition, but everything was set up for maximum spectator viewing and things ran very efficiently. This contest featured some of my worst events, so my goal was to have fun and not completely embarrass myself competing with the big boys.
Viking Press
The weight was 290 and the setup looked to be of similar design and dimensions to the one I have, but the weight was manageable. I wasn't really sure about this event, as it seems to be the only press that I really suck at. I knocked out five reps, which tied me for fifth place. This was frustrating since I knew I set up too far back because I kept coming up on my toes when I dipped down for my leg drive. However, I didn't realize just how far back I really was and the small steps forward to correct my position were not enough. This was a rookie mistake.
Shield Carry
This was a hussafel-style carry using one of the old I.F.S.A. shields. The thing weighs 410 pounds, and despite having nice smooth edges, as soon as I picked it up, it felt like it was cutting through my arms down to the bone. I managed to stagger out 145 feet or so before total body failure. This was good for third place. I never carried a weight that heavy before, so PR!
Last Man Standing Hummer Tire Deadlift
I trained on this rig a couple of times last year when Mike Jenkins was down at Barry's training for the Arnold. It is a pretty weak starting height for me and deadlifting is not one of my stronger events, plus the double pull due to the bar and tires is something very different from a regular pull. I came in at the opening weight of 545 pounds just to make sure I didn't do something stupid and bomb it. I hit 545, 575, 605, 635, 665, and 695 before failing on 725 pounds. From the video, it looks like I set up a little too far away from the bar on the 725 pull, but it may have just been more than my back could handle after the shield carry. I tied for fourth place on this one.
Bigg Dogg Strong Frame Carry
The distance was 80 feet with a drop, turn, and repick at 40 feet. The weight was 700 pounds, which normally should be cake, but by this point, my whole back was about done with all the nonsense and both of my picks were pretty slow and awful-feeling. I also made a huge and stupid mistake by dropping the frame too early at the point of the turn, so I lost a few seconds sliding it over the 40-foot marker. Not one of my better performances, but still good enough for second place on the event.
Atlas Stone Series
I figured this would be fairly easy for me since the heaviest stone was only 370 pounds. I got the first four stones up pretty quickly even though my technique was a little off on the second stone due to fatigue. When I went for the last stone, I ran into two problems. First, it was actually stuck to the mat with tacky, which I didn't initially realize. I rocked it from side to side to unstick it and then discovered my second mistake – I did not put a big smear of extra tacky on the back of my hand or had someone standing by with more tacky. Mine was mostly gone after the first four stones. When I stopped and look over my shoulder, I was hoping someone was standing nearby with some tacky, but no luck. I gave it a couple more tries, but it just kept slipping off my forearms. I almost had it in my lap when I heard the judge call out "5 seconds left" and I knew that was not enough time based on how fatigued I was, so I let it drop. Fortunately for me, no one else got all five stones and I was the fastest time through four, so I received first place on this event. This allowed me to finish up in second place overall in the heavyweight division.
This contest was run in tight quarters with over 50 competitors in a very fast and efficient manner. The only hiccup came at the end when the scores were being added up. This added a little delay to the time frame of the contest. Because I ran competitions before and caught scoring errors, I know how important this is and how easy it is to screw up if you're not actually doing all the work yourself. People write down scores or times that are sometimes almost illegible, or different scorekeepers record things using different notations, which then throws everything off. Despite the delay and the fact that this was not a contest featuring my better events, I had a great time and I'm very glad I got to be part of this. Barry got the competition featured in both the Washington Post, as well as the local NBC affiliate and msnbc.com. This was national coverage for a strongman event, which is almost unheard of. Heavyweight pro strongman, WSM finalist, and winner of this years Arnold Classic, Mike Jenkins, and his soon-to-be wife Keri Ricker were in attendance with Mike helping people out and getting in a little bit of training for his upcoming competition in Australia. I also want to thank my friend Terry for coming down to support me and helping out with the video taping. I usually have no one with me at competitions besides my training partners, so when people actually come out to show their support in person, it really means a lot. Congratulations to my training partner, Chris Peirce, on his first place finish and dominance of the novice division. Time to bump up to the lightweight open in his next contest! And to all the athletes who gave an outstanding effort and every single person who helped with judging, scoring, setup, cleanup, spotting, sponsoring, planning, or anything else to do with helping things run so well I want to say a big thank you. And thanks are due again, as they always are, to Dave Tate and everyone at elitefts.com™ for sponsoring me and helping give me both the opportunity to do something that I love and to help others find some of same enjoyment from it that I do.