Valentine's Day Muscle Massacre

We felt as if we were fleeing the flood. It had rained for days and the river was rising when we drove out of Greenwood, Mississippi. On the way, Penny and Trevor were reading aloud from Facebook posts about the growing concern over the rain and the river and the water that was covering roads and in a few cases invading houses. It rained on us all the way to Little Rock, Arkansas and as far as I could tell, it fell all night long after we got there.

We made our destination, the Comfort Inn and Suites on Interstate 30, checked in, and rested before finding Alpha Athletics so Trevor could weigh in. Then we went to the Cajans' Wharf which was located in the same complex of buildings as the gym. There we dined on fine fish. I looked longingly out the huge windows that gave us a grand view of the Arkansas River. 

"You could do some big-time swimming in that," I noted.

"You could do some big-time fishing in that," Trevor answered.

We were in town for Trevor's first strongman contest. He and I started working out together in August. Since then, Trevor has blown up in muscles and strength and here we were. I admired his spirit of adventure, his willingness, eagerness, to jump into an event as raw as he was, is.

The next morning, we did the continental breakfast thing and then made our way back to the gym. At 8:30 was a scheduled rules meeting and the contest was to begin at 9:00. Once inside the gym, Trevor did the Trevor thing and talked to everybody there. Before we left, everybody knew him by name. 

Trevor 19.5 pounds under the
lightweight limit of 180.

The competition began with an event called the country crush dead lift which is basically dead lifting weight on a single upright plate holder with a handle that rotates making the grip rather than pure pulling strength one of the difficulties of the lift. That event ran with the athletes being allowed to jump in whenever they wanted, meaning they did not have to make every weight and the could consequently save themselves until the weight got higher if they were confident in their strength. They had 60 seconds to complete the lift once they started an attempt.

Watching this was a lot of fun. The opening weight was 105 and the teen novice competitors jumped in first. Everybody who attempted made 105. The weight jumped 20 pounds each round. Trevor made his first attempt at 145 which he made easily. One of the teens failed at this weight.

Trevor pulling 225. He made 245 before
failing at the next weight.

T-man made 185, and 205. Will, a friendly guy we talked to from Oklahoma City, jumped in at 205 for his first lift. Like Trevor, this was his first strongman contest, and also like Trevor, he was a never-met-a-stranger kind of guy. Trevor pulled 225 and 245 but failed at 265. All the lightweights were out by 265 as were all the women. 

Will stayed in until 305. By now, the competitors were thinning out and as a result, their rest between lifts was reduced. The new weights were coming up more and more quickly. At 325, six guys went out leaving only three strongmen. One was the man I had dubbed in my mind, "Tall Guy." When he entered the gym, I started trying to guess his height. My first guess was 6'7''. Then I thought, no he's 6'8'' if an inch. Trevor said 6'9'' but were were looking from a distance. When he later walked by, I thought he must be seven                                                            feet tall.

Will pulling 245.

Eventually, I saw Tall Guy alone and went over and asked him outright how tall he was. "Seven feet," he answered. I wished I had asked how much he weighed. My guess is 350, and his shoes that looked like Ronald McDonald shoes. I have seen someone bigger, but only a time or two. I once had a student, Terrence Brown, who was 6'11" and 404 pounds. He played in the NFL after he left MDCC and then Ole Miss.

Tall Guy skipped 345 and that's when I knew he would win this event and maybe the whole contest. One of the other two athletes failed at 345, and the one who made it struggled to make the lift. 

There was no rest for the guy who barely made 345. The weight was changed to 365 and he had to go right away. He failed, and tall guy made 365 with what looked to me like ease.

The next event was a 50 foot sled drag followed by a 50 foot keg carry for time. The sled, for the lightweights was loaded with two 100 pound plates and the keg was filled with 200 pounds of sand. Now the competitors were going in the order of their weight classes. There were two lanes so the lightweights and the teen novices went first. One lightweight dropped the keg which disqualified him. One did the the event in :50 and Trevor did his turn at 1:00. Someone I didn't know and had not even spoken to came up to me and said, "Trevor is tied for first place." Everybody there knew Trevor.

The third event was the circus dumbbell. I will forego trying to explain it and give you the picture instead. Bear in mind, we have none of this stuff at Plate City. We do have a sled, but no keg, no country crush dead lift, and no circus dumbbell. We will, however, be getting some of this stuff made over the next few months.

The circus dumbbell. It's heavy and large
making it awkward to lift.

The dumbbell lift was an overhead press for reps and Trevor finished in the middle of the lightweights resulting in him being tied for first place, the man I didn't know informed me. I was so proud at this point that I was about to burst into tears. That would have been embarrassing to me and maybe even to T-man, but I could barely take it.

The penultimate event was sand bag over bar for reps. The lightweights had a 200 pound sandbag which they had to put over and 52 inch high bar as many times as they could in 60 seconds. This was a brutal event for all the contestants. A few, some big guys even, failed to record a single rep. Trevor made three barovers and almost passed out afterwards. This is where he lost the lead, with the other lightweights performing a little better. That, however, did not dampen my admiration of his gall, his efforts, his performance.

T-man about to make his run at the sandbag.

Finally, the contest moved to the last event, a natural stone carry for maximum distance in one minute. Here I was confused. They had several stones, one for each weight class, but as God is my witness, the stone the lightweights carried looked like the largest of them all and not by a little bit. Supposedly it weighed 200 pounds but who knows what those guys actually carried. Trevor did well but was not able to regain the lead. This one put a hurt on all the participants with everyone falling out on the floor in pain and exhaustion after their turn. Tall Guy even had an oxygen tank which he used after most events and he used an long time after this one.

And then it was over. Trevor placed third in the lightweight division. He looked good up there in his Chicot Challenge T-shirt representing Team Centerville and Plate City Gym. We were unbelievably happy for him. He had a blast and so did we. Will placed second in the novice division. We were happy for him. Tall Guy, whom I found out was named Matthew Roebuck, won the super heavy weights.

The adult novice group with Will taking second place.

The super heavyweights with Tall Guy the overall winner.
The second place dude must be at least 6'8". The
guy on the right is about 6'3".

The lightweights with that guy on the right
making the podium shine.