The Early Days: First Contest - February 26, 2007

by Mike Gill

After a few months of training with Glen and the North Buffalo crew, I was hungry to get my feet wet. There were no local contests scheduled for 2006 so I decided to take a road trip to Pittsburgh, PA for a contest being promoted by two professional strongmen in conjunction with a martial arts exposition. In the back of my mind I expected to win, but I really had no idea what level of competitor I'd be facing.

To save some money on a hotel room, I decided to drive the four hours to Pittsburgh the morning of the contest. If you only take advice from me once in your lifetime, this tidbit should be the one: Don't ever do this! Stay overnight in your host city. If you drive day-of, you have to get up too early and worry about maps, leg cramps, driving directions, tolls, stopping to piss, eating, getting lost, getting gas, being late, being early, and just being off your game.

My wife Lisa drove, and even though that helped, it was still less then optimal. We arrived about an hour early, making sure I had enough time to weigh in. When I left the house in the morning I was a perfect 264 (one pound under). When I hit the scale in Pittsburgh I was 261; I lost 3 lbs of water! To an athlete of any kind this is bad news. It means you are dehydrated and getting water in your system is paramount. I started slamming water and piss warm Gatorade to get the fluids back in me. High intensity hydration combined with nerves created an immediate chain reaction: drink, then pee; drink then pee. I did this all day until I was sure I had lost even more water weight.

Two guys I had been training with, Mike and Tim, met up with us at the weigh in. Tim was competing at 231 and under and Mike was in the 171 and under class. They both made weight and we sat around shooting the shit. That's when I noticed Roland. I'd never met him before, and have not seen his name come up since, but Roland was your prototypical strongman. He stood 6'3" 290lbs and didn't speak a word of English. I later found out he was from Slovakia, a country that has recently produced a number of up and comers in the strongman circuit. Although we were different weight classes, we were still both heavyweights and, based on looks alone, I saw first place just get taken by this Euro-giant.

The organizers set up our competition area in the middle of the convention center floor. There were a thousand people there competing in or watching the different martial arts fights. At first glance, I don't think any of them came for the strongman contest. But as soon as we started our day, the inevitable happened, and a large crowd gathered. People love to watch what we do. They are always amazed.

The first event was a 250lb 15" log clean and press for maximum repetitions in 75 seconds. I did three and just missed a fourth. I was happy with that as I had only done log press for the first time the prior week. Roland did seven.

The farmers walk was next. I was overly cautious, going too slow for the first two laps for fear of dropping the implements. Roland smoked it.

I'll save you the time and just write "ditto" for the tire flip and the medley.

Then came the stones. I wanted to redeem myself. I'd been smoking the stones in training and I wanted to get all five in order to take at least one event on the day. One thing had me worried, though. The platform for the first stone was about a foot higher then the one with which I train. It was nearly six feet high, the lip was above my eye level. I put it out of my head and got ready for the event.

I dove down on the first stone and ripped it off the ground. I lapped it, rolled it up my chest and realized, "Shit, I'm still a foot below the top of the platform". I tried to shoulder it but I had never done that before and dropped it.

Pro Steve MacDonald yelled at me "Pick it up, get it on your shoulder, then put it up." So with out hesitation that's what I did, or tried to do. I was trying to push the stone up with my hands and face, but it wasn't high enough and I was pushing the platform back. It slipped and hit the ground. I did it again and again. Four times I tried placing that little baby stone and four times it fell. I ran out of clock. I zeroed an event. No loads. No points.

You Fucking Suck!

The implications of what had just happened rattled around my head. I didn't load a single stone. The first one was light; I could have picked it up all day. Why didn't I just pop it up? What was wrong with me?

My only consolation was that no heavies loaded all the stones, not even the freak Roland. I was the shortest Heavyweight and the other guys (who spoke English) tried to console me, reassuring me that it's not a tall man contest and it was ballsy for me to keep going.

Mike and Tim did well on the day--placing second in their respective weight classes. This was Tim's first contest as well, so he was happy with his results. All in all I did enough to take second in my weight class and third overall.

But the best thing I took away from that day was the fire that zeroing the stones lit under me. I had a four hour ride home to think about what I did wrong and how I could do better. I decided I wasn't going to let it get to me. I was going to get better, I wasn't going to zero an event again, and I would get strong enough that getting an object over head would never slow me down again.

Posted by Mike Gill at 4:27 PM

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Dang dude, I already want to hear about competitions after this and how you conquered the stones or other objects that you had to lift over your head.

Posted by: Wayland at February 27, 2007 04:13 PM