I lift weights… I put them down

Mitch does the barrel carry

Here’s the score chart for each event for the South Downs Strongman 2009 competition held on the 13^th June and summarised earlier (http://sumoman.com/compsum/) – full details can be found here.

The numbers represent who was 1^st, 2^nd, etc., for each event;

Name	Carry	Press	Pull	Stone	Yoke	Medley	Totals	Order
Lloyd Jarvis	1	1	1	1	2	2	8	1
Giles Powell	3	1	3	1	3	1	12	2
Matt Starling	2	7	2	3	1	2	17	3
Mitch Tutt	6	1	6	4	4	6	27	4
Chris Ward	4	4	5	4	7	4	28	5
Juan Lancaster	7	5	9	4	5	4	34	6
Tom Chantler	5	9	4	7	6	6	37	7
Rick Meldon	8	5	8	8	8	8	45	8
Gordon Fairey	9	7	7	8	9	9	49	9
Jason Willis	9
Wayne Hawtin
Simon Mansell

The gray areas represent where the competitor didn’t compete. Thus Wayne and Simon pulled out prior to the competition due to injuries. Jason had to retire on medical grounds. Tom missed the second event because he was pumped up with lactic acid and nauseous from the first event. The chart is greatly simplified from the original.

Carry & Drag

For the first event we did 20 metres with 105 kg barrel and then drag a 200 kg builders sack for 20 metres.

Me and Chris were the very first to go. I was restless, but up for it. At the whistle I trotted off the 10 metres to the barrel. To pick it up I tilted the barrel on one edge holding the top left and bottom right. I do this because it means I can stand astride it to deadlift it to my lap. I then reached for the far rims of the barrel (in the video below Mitch grabs the close rim edges perhaps because of his short arms/big chest). This means I carried it high and so was able to dump the barrel on the platform in one go (note that Mitch had to put the barrel down before grabbing the far rims to dump it on the platform). I guess I took 20-25 seconds for that. I think I was slightly ahead of Chris at this point.

I then ambled back 10 metres to the sack and started pulling it. I did ~11.7 metres. I could have gone a bit further in the time limit (90 secs) but was concerned that my quads would be burned out for the next events.

Presses

The next event was the 70 kg beer barrel press, the 90 kg yoke press, the 35 kg water bottle press (one hand only), the 100 kg yoke press, the 105 kg barrel press. I was matched with Mitch.

The 70 kg barrel went up first time (the first time I’ve done it first time), we had to use an even grip for the actual press. If you look carefully at the video you will see I stumbled a bit just as I was about to flip it to my chest. I recover within a fraction of a second but it was a sign that I could still feel the first event. Simon gave the down signal as soon as I jammed it up, although I was still stepping about, so I held it a moment longer before dumping it.

The 90 kg yoke was a pain. I’d finalised the move the previous session;

But I hadn’t ingrained it enough to do it at the competition and kept getting my breathing and positioning wrong. I was a bit disappointed. If I’d have got the 90 kg yoke I would have got the 35 kg water bottle with no problem. Still, I can’t really complain as Matt had an absolute disaster on the move as he messed up the 70 kg barrel totally so didn’t register any lifts! Mitch also managed to smash himself in the face with the 100 kg yoke, chipping his front teeth in the process.

Tractor Pull

The next event was the tractor pull, which I was most definitely not looking forward to. I figured this was largely bodyweight dependent and explained this to Matt in scientific terms before the competition. I wanted a rope to pull on and figured without the rope that the tractor wouldn’t even move.

Somewhat to my surprise it did move, but I couldn’t go any faster than my bodyweight would allow. This event is basically a torque event. The body acts as a spanner levering the tractor forward, but the amount of force that this spanner can exert is dictated by bodyweight and friction with the ground. You’ll note the two assistants in the video started placing a foot behind my feet, this was actually a great help… they timed it so that it was as if a block were magically there at each step.

Nevertheless the event was over in about 60 seconds for me. I think everyone completed this event, it was the only event where this happened. My legs were entirely cramping.

Atlas Stone

The fourth event was the stones. Lift a 100 kg atlas stone onto a platform, which I estimate was ~1.2 metres high. Do this as many times as possible in 75 seconds. As an added bonus, the stone then had to be lowered to at least knee level… it couldn’t just be dropped. This was purely for the practical reason that Matt didn’t want great 100 kg hammer blows to destroy the platform we were standing on.

I did 4 reps. I felt like I was going to pass out on the second rep, so I hung onto the stone on the platform for a moment. I was a bit annoyed that I didn’t get the 5^th rep. I was really feeling the cumulative effect of the previous events. We’re not allowed tacky on this event. Its important to stand astride the stone when doing this event, standing behind it in a regular deadlift fashion leads nowhere fast. I was on my own for this event. Apparently someone did pass out just after completing their lifts.

In training we had been doing the stone to Matt’s brown wheelie bin which is about a metre high. For the first rep we would dump it on the bin in one go. However I didn’t do this at the competition because I was wary that the extra height of the platform might mean that I would drop the ball. Instead I lapped it first.

Yoke Walk

By the 5^th event I was running on empty… I was matched with Mitch again and went staggering off with a 260 kg yoke, wobbling and dropping the weight numerous times. I made it to the 10 metre mark ahead of Mitch, but was running out of steam fast. Mitch plodded along tortoise-like and eventually got 20 metres to my ~17.5 metres… I really, really wanted to beat Mitch at this but my legs kept locking up with cramp. Matt won this event doing 260 kg then 300 kg for 20 metres each.

Farmer’s Walk, Tyre Flip, Atlas Stone

By the 6^th and final event I was running on really, really empty. I was matched with Chris just as I was with the first event. I wandered drunkenly upto the start line, cleaned the Farmer’s handles with my t-shirt. As with the yoke I used a belt for the farmer’s. I moved the farmer’s closer together. They weighed 105 kg each, Matt and I had weighed them accurately the day before and made them all equal with added plates. I’d practised at home on the farmer’s but these farmer’s consisted of 8 foot long sleepers and we had to walk them around a pole at the halfway mark.

I picked them up easily enough even with their mirror smooth handles… but walking was a nightmare as the sleepers were very rough on the side of the calves. This greatly inhibited walking and ripped up the skin on my calves. Because the walking was so slow I took ages to get the full 25 metres and had to pick it up at least half a dozen times. Maybe it was a dozen times. Turning round the pole with 8 foot sleepers is not fun… my right thumb is still numb (I used a hook grip).

I was in a black bubble as I walked the last few metres, Matt’s ghostly presence urged me on. I dumped the farmer’s and weaved my way to the 350 kg tyre. I wondered how it could possibly go up, it would be bone crushingly painful. The crowd wailed away, banshee mad. I set myself against the tyre and could see vaguely that Chris had actually done it. I did the tyre magically, no pain, it just went up, I couldn’t really see it, it seemed to be in shadow, perhaps it was my sunnies.

I was absolutely done but the crowd kept baying away so I had another go at the flip, I managed to get it maybe a foot off the ground but not high enough to lap it. I was actually quite pleased as this second quarter flip is flat off the ground whereas the first one is off a sandbag so that the hands can get under it. The idea was to do 3 flips of the tyre and finish by dumping the 100 kg ball on the platform – I think only Giles managed this.

Somewhat to my surprise Mitch only managed a metre or two with the farmer’s, his left hand just wouldn’t stay on… so he never got to the tyre.

Unfortunately I neglected to film anyone doing this last event.

The whole competition went like clockwork with helpers and refs on the ball and burning in the sun. Matt had hired a photographer who photoed everything, it actually added to my motivation having a camera stuck in my face, I particularly remember it helping with the yoke walk… I was in a black bubble so the camera seemed distant. Marco got his face sunburned. Dan prepared the grass nicely, it was much better than I was expecting… it turned out firm, flat and grippy.

Maybe it was just me… but it seemed that the crowd was particularly noisy when I came out, even at the trophy giving they ramped up a gear for me, which was an ego boost.

They did cheer particularly loudly for Matt for organising the entire event and still managing to come 3^rd despite messing up the barrel and roaring encouragement at everybody for hours on end. I liked the trophies he had made up, they were specially made wooden mushrooms, we got beers from Hepworth & Co Brewers and of course the orange t-shirts were very lovely.