Not Competing

Bemore Training.
I helped out with the contest and my wife hung around the Bemore booth. It was warm but about 10 or 15 degrees cooler than the worst days this week. I’m pretty pale so I slapped on the sunscreen and played outside all day. Despite what you may hear, competing is definitly harder than helping. However, the guy that runs the event, runs it and competes and that would have to be the hardest. I got to watch a lot of people compete and tried to learn what I could from my different vantage point. I helped with the heavy weights all day.
First up was the log press. I was surprised by the number of guys that were truely stuck on this one. It was heavy but a lot of people were buried by it. I think that a lot of them didn’t get to train on a log which makes a huge difference. You can’t truly clean a log but a lot of people tried. I was also a little shocked at how little the light weights were working with across the way.
Next up was the conan’s wheel. We had some real champs on this one. I think Dan took it the furthest but may have been outwalked by one person. The obvious mistake people made was in the adjustable arm that you carry, it was adjustable for height. A lot of people would set it too high, as the event was on grass, when the got tired, it would catch on some lump in the ground, once that happened, you had at most two steps left before you went down.
Then we went for farmers walk and waddle walk. First, this is the first time I have seen someone rip all the calluses off their hands simultanteously, not good. Second, for some reason we had no medic. My wife and I ran to rite-aid and bought a box of gauze, bottle of hydrogen peroxide and two rolls of tape. It kinda became my spiel, after each guy dropped the handles and looked at his bleed hands saying he was done, “That bag on the table has tape and gauze”. At least 1/3 of the guys fell victim to this. I hope someone evaluates what happened so we can avoid it next time. The first aid supplies were gone by the end of the contest. I’m gonna restock and just put together a kit in my bag from now on.
Tire flip was like it always is, all guts. There is technique but I didn’t see anyone that had any technique that just made them dominate. You just have to train.
Last came the stones. First, new guys (me included) check the first stone before you lift it, there is a good chance it doesn’t need any more tacky. Seriously. There was so much tacky, it was slick. I wanted to make an annoucement or something but the judge said not to, so we didn’t. Unfortunatly Graham got it worse than anyone. He was the last guy to use the 245 stone, it was covered. I know graham can easily lift that stone. but I could hear it slipping away because of the tacky, each time he tried to pick it up. I really wanted to see him move on and load other stones, even for no points, just to prove it.
We also had a couple guys proved that you can load, even a tough stone in less than 15 seconds, so if you are competeing, don’t quit because you only have 20 seconds left.
In the end it was a really tough contest with some amazingly strong guys showing up, I certainly would not have placed, except by default. We had a lot of bloody hands, we had a torn bicep and a lot of other owwies. Fortunatly, everyone will heal, with severe medical interventions. Bud (I’m afraid I don’ know his last name) of Lindon Yard got the heart award and I have to say he was amazing. The guy is somewhere in the range of 40s and looking and lifting strong. A role model for us youngens.
Dan sold a lot of Tshirts and stickers, I think, for his company and I hope he made back his donation to the event. I was glad to see him sponsoring things, like a real company. Also I have a handful of shirts now with his companies name on them. I’m gonna be happy to wear those around. Eventually they will achieve workout shirt status too. Then I’ll have to get some more.]]>