Wes, I know you had a strongman competition last week and I was wondering if you would give us the rundown on events, as well as letting us know how you did.
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Wes, I know you had a strongman competition last week and I was wondering if you would give us the rundown on events, as well as letting us know how you did.
Thank you Burly for remembering!!
The contest was awesome, it was a "partners" challenge. So you had to have a male and female competitor and competed as a "team". First time I have ever done this and it was alot of fun. We had to weigh under 270lbs combined and we came in at like 240lbs together, so we were the lightest team. My partner was Kristen and she recently took 1st place in a contest called "Battle of the Belles" so on paper we were probably the top team to beat. Day of we showed up, she was sick with the flu and I had a high glute strain from practicing one motioning the log..Go figure. But we still pulled off a good performance for sure!
First event was Log- 220lbs clean and press each rep for me, 110 for her. We did awesome. I was able to "powersnatch" my first rep, which has never been done in a competition before. This is different from Poundstone's viper press (which I also did). A viper press is when you lift the log into your lap and then sit down and then stand up and power it up over your head by rolling it up your chest. My first rep was a "powersnatch" meaning i grabbed the log in one motion and pulled it up off the floor straight over my head. This is not easy to do with 220lbs. I think as a team we took 3rd in this.
Second event- Deadlift last man standing. We took second as a team. My partner hit 315x1 PR at a bodyweight of 130lbs which is awesome. Then I hit 675x1 at 208lbs..which is not a PR..but after tearing my hamstrings this summer I can live with that number,plus my DL sucks, unless it is a "car deadlift" and then I am phenomenal because that event suits my build much better...Another guy at a hit 700x1 at around 225lbs BW. He beat me fair and square and was impressive all day as well.
3rd event- Farmers walk for 50' (250lbs per hand- 500lbs total) run as fast as you can with the weight..i then had to jump on a sled that weighed 150lbs and my partner had to drag it back 50'. I had the fastest time in the farmers, but my partner just missed the fastest time for the women, so we ended up 2nd place.
4th event, Stone to shoulder medley. As many reps as a team we can get in 2:00 minutes. We rocked this event. My stone was 225 hers was 110. Pick up atlas stone to shoulder, drop back and pick up and tag your partner when you get tired and they rep out. We ended up getting 15 reps. When the scores came out, we were shown to be second. They listed someone to have gotten 16 reps, but we watched the whole event and counted and the next best team got 14 reps. So we were given 2nd.
Last event - Hussafelt- I hate this event even when healthy. But today I was babying a high glute strain and lower back strain. Eqi block and horse linament all day but now I knew I was in trouble. I ended up going a few hundred feet when I had to stop and my partner kept going for several hundred more. This event was my fault, we got dead last..but an injury was what prevented me from going on.
Mystery Event, aka the last event was canceled because as is we were there for 8 hours and everyone was exhausted!!
Regardless I knew we were good for 2nd maybe 3rd place overall.
When they called the awards, they called us for 5th LOL...Even worse they called the team who won for 6th place instead of 1st. Felt kind of like the GSP fight recently..but stuff happens. We have both experienced errors before in scoring. There were 100- 120 compeitors and maybe 6 people running it,so they were overwhelmed. I am not one to complain at all, but we did keep score and we all knew who did what. I feel bad for the team that "won" that was awarded 6th place.
Years ago in Cali, I did a contest and I won first place for a fact..everyone knew it. When the awards came out they called me 4th..I showed the judges my videos. LOL..They had me down in one event for 5 reps, when my video clearly showed 14!! So this does happen. It happened to Kevin Nee in Worlds Strongest Man. They gave him 7th place in a qualifier, top 6 advanced. After the show they re-calculated and he was actually in 4th and would have gone on to WSM finals...There is no "appeal" process in Strongman..that's just it. You get what you get LOL.
At the end of the day, Strongman is not always about winning. Its' about the experience and it is a "huge" family. That is the best part. Win or lose no one really cares. Hitting PR's and just getting out there is half the battle.
So I can live with this event. The athlete I went up against today was ranked #1 in the Nation for 2013. So him and I will battle it out most likely this upcoming year for that title. I took 2 years off, so I am not currently ranked..but I will promise you I will be in the top 3 in the Nation at this year's Nationals. If I am healthy you will see me in the #1 spot :)
Anyways, had alot of fun, felt good to be back. Lining up some more comps asap, including bodybuilding and Powerlifting as well. If I can find the time I may drop weight and do an amateur boxing or MMA event. Mostly I am just enjoying myself for the time being..not getting too serious just yet :)
I took Sunday and today off, but I am back at the gym on Tuesday :) super motivated after a contest! Some of my videos are on my FB page for anyone here who is a friend, you can check them out :) I am trying to add them to my Athlete page which is public access, but they wont' post.
Sounds like a lot of fun! Nice job on the events, even if you did get shorted a bit in the results. Never heard of a man/woman team setup like that before. Sounds interesting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by burlyman30
Yes it is rare for it to happen :)
Here I posted a link to my FB athlete page. It should be public or you can click Like to add and see. I posted up 3 videos:
LINK TO FB
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wesle...3542002?ref=hl
That press was awesome! Nice videos....
I am amazed at you, O Ryan, Sorrow.... All strong as hell....
Nice work Wes!
Love the videos. Thanks for sharing them!
Your definitely an impressive athlete.
Holy hell! Nice work and great description of everything that went on. Thats an interesting concept, the team bit.
WOW - Great videos !! Thanks for these - I love showing vids like this to my 17 yr old kid that works out with me - a great example of what effort and dedication and focus can do for you.
You're the man Wes. Awesome team! And as always SICK display of vulgar strength right there! Loved the vids!
Wes, proud to have you on board, you are one hell of a competitor.