2017 Strongman Corporation Nationals Recap:
To say I’m still overwhelmed with emotions is an understatement. Yes, I might not show it but that was one of the biggest rollercoaster of emotions I’ve experienced. Here’s how it all went down:
Wednesday morning we landed at around 9:30 so it was about noon on the East coast. I was extremely dehydrated and hungry from the weight cut I had to do to get down to 175 but whatever. We roamed the streets of Vegas and went into places such as Caesars Palace, holy hell.
Thursday morning at 9 am was weigh-ins, and let me tell you I was ready to eat and drink pedialyte like it was my job. I was shaking with nerves while waiting to weigh in, fearing I’d be over the 175.4 lb weight limit, but nonetheless, I weighed in at 173 and then began to refuel throughout the day. Later that night, we had an athletes/rules meeting and were told to give the Yoke heights for the yoke/farmers medley the next day (Friday). What a goddamn process that was…back of the line…behind 277 athletes. Just kill me. So instead of waiting in the line, I walked by the yoke, eyeballed it, and then proceeded to the next table to give my yoke height. CHEAT THE SYSTEM FOLKS.
Friday was day one of the competition and it was 9 long hours worth of Strongman events. Event 1 was the 260 lb Boss Log, and that was a gong show. A handful of athletes were able to complete some reps with it (more heavy weights got it than any others) but I had a close attempt, but I ended up zeroing the event. I was in 7th after that event, out of 30 in the weight class. I had to build up some points if I had any shot of qualifying for the Arnold Classic. They threw a curve at us that day and switched up the events. So next up was the Frame Deadlift. Nothing I couldn’t handle, but was I nervous? Abso-freaking-lutely. I wasn’t sure how 620 lbs was going to feel from the floor considering I had been training off plates. So they called out all the men and warm-ups began. The way it worked is it was really every man for themselves, you just had to step in and lift it and move on and hope no one made any stupid insane jumps during the warm-ups. I ended up going 20lbs heavier than what my actual frame weight was supposed to be, so I warmed up to 640… I could have sworn it was 600. I ended up hitting a PR on the frame event hitting 16 reps in 60 seconds at 620lbs…No idea on how I placed on that but I didn’t seem to move placing wise. Then at around 6 oclock, they told us the Husafell Stone carry was going to be our last event for the day. First they told us it was going to be a pick up off of Kegs, but there were no kegs to be found. Then they told us it was going to be off the floor, people starting flipping out so they finally decided to have the keg set up on stacked up plates, to replicate a keg. I made it 5+ lengths of the floor for about 310 ft carrying the 300 lbhussafell stone on my chest. I placed 4th in that event and then I was pooped.
Saturday was day 2 and final events were supposed to be the Yoke and Farmers medley and then the Stone of steel over the bar. Well we walk in and no farmers handles were out, so people starting chirping and saying they think we were just going to do the yoke and have to sprint with it. They were right. It was now just a foot race for any top competitor looking to qualify, you just couldn’t mess up. A lot of folks rushed the pick up and the yoke began to swing and it pinned them, causing them to drop it, then re-pick it up and try to catch up. I just kept to myself and replayed all the yoke carries I have ever done in my life and kept repeating in my head, “Don’t mess up Jack.”
I step up to my yoke when my heat was up, place my shoulders under it, wait for the call, and at Go I just went numb, picked it up and started running. I kept focused as best I could as to not drop it or make any mistakes and I finished the event with an 8 second time. This secured me a 2nd place finish, which was .2 seconds away from first place.
Finally, the stone load event. I didn’t really warm up this event, all I did in the athlete area was pick up 4 45lb plates and that was about it. I spoke to a good friend of mine prior to walking out there, knowing I was in 7th place at the time (top 7 qualified for the Arnold), and I asked him, “what do you think a good number is?”
He looks at me, and goes, “just go out there and win it.”
That got fired up knowing that my friends had confidence in me to win this event, and that’s exactly what I did. I walked out, remembered why I was there, why I trained hours at a time, day in and day out, and I laid it all out there, and loaded the 270lb stone 8 times in a minute. It was nuts. I could hear every single person cheering me on and the commentator screaming my reps into the microphone and I knew in that moment that I had won the event and secured my spot at the Arnold. So many emotions hit me after that minute of work, I cant even do it justice.
Later that night, the banquet was held to announce who qualified for the Arnold, and I had placed 5th overall and was going to the Arnold. I couldn’t have done it without all the support from my family and friends, and I cant thank everyone enough for all that was said and done for me.