•280lb Log Clean & Press Away, 60 second time limit. I was fighting a bicep strain and was glad we only had to clean the log once but once I got it up I went to work. I got 6 good reps in the first 30 seconds and needed air so I dropped the log but it took a Chicago bounce and almost rolled to the judges feet. I spent the next 20 seconds retrieving the log. I tied for second place in this event.
•800lb Yoke, 50 feet with only one drop allowed, second drop ends the run. I felt good about this event in training but twice my knee buckled because I was trying to take to long of steps and that costed me valuable points.
•585lb Axle Deadlift. My bread and butter. Because of my poor performance in the yoke, I was in the second group to go and I set the mark at ten reps. A mark that couldn't be beaten that day, but was tied by the eventual winner of the contest (so I don't feel too bad about the tie)
•320lb Farmers Walk, 50 feet. Here's where the contest took a turn for me. I was setting a winning pace until I fell. I'm not certain what happened but it was the same leg that caused my yoke drops. First place was 8.9 seconds, second was 9.9 and I fell at 9.0 seconds with 8 inches to go. By the time I got up and moved the weight across the line my time was 14.5. My mental game took a hit over that one.
•320lb Stone of Steel. Due to the bicep strain and the farmers wreck, I wasn't able to pick the warm-up stone that only weighed 240 pounds without the feeling of a nail bring driven into my bicep. So with great sadness I had to withdraw. When big John Anderson announced that I had withdrawn due to injury, the crowd gave me an ovation that made my eyes water.