Battle of the Badass 2011

Well hello there fine men and women of the internet. I've got some time on my hands, school doesn't start until Tuesday and Rob demanded I make a long write up so here goes. Grab your butts.

Just got back from an excellent competition, Battle of the Baddass hosted by Joe Farino out in Wallkill NY. Here's how it all went down.

I woke up Thursday morning at 177.5lbs on my mom's scale at home. I always thought this bad boy was a little bit off and I thought my weight was a little high. Anyway I did some stretching outside, came back inside and weighed 175. Nice. I wanted to compete at 175lbs so this was good. Get the car all packed up with all the important stuff, tacky, weight belt, G-string etc. Pumped for a weekend filled with weights, sticky hands, low back pain and lots of bromance.

I'm still scared the scale was light so I do the whole car sauna thing on the ride over to Joe's place to get weighed. Ya the danger of heat exhaustion is high but I didn't weigh the pros and cons before I made the decision.

I pull up at Joe's driveway confused and dehydrated(I actually had to call Joe from next door because I was lost) and I head directly to the scale. I keep my clothes on and bam, 173.5lbs with all my clothes on. New PR. My calculations were right on. (Not) My car may permanently smell like body odor now but it was all worth it. I thanked Joe and Jon and went back for some rest.

I show up the day of the competition and see lots of old friends. I haven't competed in about a year so it was great to see everyone there and to see how much progress everyone has made in strength. The 200lb class is stacked with about 12 very strong competitors. The 175lb class only has a few competitors but I'm glad to see that more people are competing at this class.

My stomach is feeling terrible. I tried to jam into my stomach a bunch of whole milk mixed in with a can of coconut milk in the morning. Everytime I tighten my belt I'm scared I'm going to be shooting coconut milk out of my butt. Bad idea.

I get super excited to see we have sponsored sexy Brett Somerville to be featured on each of our T-shirts for the contest. I think the picture would have been more tasteful if Brett were wearing a mesh tank top but maybe we'll get that for the next shirt design. Now I'm ready to roll! I'm also excited that my camera is not working so I didn't get any footage.

First Event: 180lb log - 200lb axle - 220lb log medley.

First log I rip the log up, its feeling light, I go for the viper press and I blast myself in the face. After I realized the weight didn't make it overhead I viper it again and this time no face blast. The axle was nice and easy. The third log was 13" and I wasn't prepared for it. I press it too far in front of me at first and miss it. I regroup and go again. This time I get it. Real sloppy but good enough to take the event. Man that was sloppy.

Second Event:

Yoke carry 600lbs x 60"

Yoke was real wide so I couldn't grab the sides well. Made the whole thing rock a bit but otherwise everything was fine. Finished in 13ish seconds.

Keg Deadlift apparatus:
I forget the weight on this but the machine had an axle in front and it started around 18" We didn't get any time to warmup for this which is always a good thing. I figured the first few reps would have to be good enough warmup. Reps 1-3 were very easy. Rep 4 was way harder then the previous reps. I gathered myself for the last keg and it ended up being a lot easier then I thought it would be. This was lots of fun.

Yoke Zercher carry 400lbs x 60'
This one was fast. I don't remember how fast, somewhere under 10 seconds. Probably should have made this one heavier.

Stone over bar 240lbs over 48" 60 seconds:
I got 9. Not super happy with this but it isn't bad. I probably should have gathered up and gotten 10 but my setup wasn't great and I was being a baby.

As usual the guys put on a great show today. Thanks to Joe, Jon, Steve, Jeff, Nick and everyone else I forgot who helped out at the show. You guys always have interesting events and really run the competitions professionally. Looking forward to Hudson Valley in the Fall.

I finished first in the 175lb class. They gave me a giant samurai sword that made me extremely nervous. I can't wait to throw some melons in the air and slice them in half midair. Everyone had a great showing, and seemed to bring their A games as well. I didn't poop myself during any events which is always a win in my book. I can't wait for some more competition in the future, I think next competition I'm going to try the 200 or 231lb class. Seeing everyone today really motivated me to get cracking on the weights again!