11/07/2022
Another Tampa Bay Strongman Classic in the books. Donnie Kiernan is always there to dream up new and more sadistic ways to challenge us, and this year he did not disappoint. This really is a fantastically run show with great attention to detail making it an awesome experience for competitor and spectator alike.
Event one was alternating between a 180 pound axle bar and a 200 pound log bar for reps. I needed 7 reps to tie for first here but due to slow transitions only made 6 putting me in 3rd going in to the Squat.
Up next was a hummer tire squat. Being the first to go on this one was a big disadvantage as you have no benchmark. I thought for sure being over 40 reps would be impossible to beat, but I was wrong coming in second in this event. Over all this left me in 3rd 1/2 a point behind second.
Bad toss has been a pretty good event for me in the past, but it's an event that can go very wrong very easily. Fortunately, today things went my way with a first place finish in this event and the leader taking 3rd. This was huge because it left me the ability to possibly win the stones and take the whole show. Points also far are 1st with 6.5, 2nd (me) with 6, 3rd with 5.5
Last up was the stone over bar. A light stone at 225 to a lowbar at 48 inches with an evil twist. Once the stone was returned to you, you had 15 seconds to start your next rep and there was no time cap. 3rd place set the mark to beat at 19 reps before I went. I was pretty sure I could beat that, but I knew it would suck.
The first few reps move fine, by rep 8 the fatigue starts to catch up and the stone starts to feel heavier. From there the focus become pacing myself and using as much rest time as I safely could. 17, 18, 19, just one more for the lead...20! Now the problem is my target is gone and every muscle in my body wanted to quit 10 reps ago. I have one more competitor after me and I have to beat him to win the show. I choose 25. I needed a goal. By rep 23 I'm fighting the urge to vomit with every rep, but last year I lost by inches. I wasn't going to let it happen again. 25. More. I had more. By rep 27 I'm starting to get black out with each rep but if I'm careful I can load it fast enough to keep from going out. 28. It's too close to 30. I can do 30. 29. Even as I load the 30th rep the will power finally dies. If he can beat 30 he can have it.
Agter over 8 minutes of continual stone loading I was breathing to hard to even walk off the platform and had to just collapse there until I recovered a little.
I manage to make my way to the side and collapse in to a chair. A huge thanks to , fischer, Eric and everyone else who helped cool me down and rehydrate after that.
I still don't know if I did enough though. First place is up and I missed the start while trying not to die. As I watch each rep I have no idea how many he's already done. Rep rep rep...miss. He's done... 19 reps.
And I got to walk away with the top spot.
A huge thanks to all of the spotters, loaders, and volunteers who make this possible. Thank you Valor Fitness for providing an amazing venue and great equipment. , Mace Fit , thank you for sponsoring. Will Development thank you for sponsoring and for making the beautiful stone that nearly killed me. Heidi Walnum thank you for putting up with my crazy obsession!
