Chuck Kasson

It is with a heavy heart that I post this contest write up. My Grandma recently passed away, the wednesday before I competed. With school and the contest and the funeral plus all the driving, it's been a long, rough, week with many ups and downs. That being said, here's the contest:

The Ronnie Coleman Classic
We left Lincoln on Friday morning around 8 and after a long drive, that wasn't too bad actually, got to our hotel in Phorny, TX just outside of Mesquite. We found an italian restaurant close by so I could load up on carbs, but they turned out to be closed! So after a few wrong turns (and driving the wrong way down a one way) we found a sports bar that we thought would have some decent food. I ordered a pizza, which they didn't have. So I asked what was the biggest thing they had and the girl held out her hand and said quesadillas, so I ordered nachos...they were the most dissapointing nachos I've ever had. I wasn't very happy. We stopped at Dairy Queen on the way back for a blizzard. The next morning was contest time and we ate breakfast at the hotel and headed to the venue to "be there at 9:00 am if you have to renew your NAS Membership because we want to start on time" So after arriving at 8:45 and waiting almost an hour to get checked in and registered, I was finally in contest mode. The only problem was that I had over an hour and a half before rules meeting. So we took in some of the other things to see at the Classic. One of the coolest things was the Worlds Strongest Dog! Like a truck pull, but with dogs and a smaller cart loaded with steel rails. Even still, the dogs were pulling up to 4000 pounds! Once 10:30 rolled around, I started warmups and got my yoke height in and was feeling pretty good. Rules happened and it was finally time to go. 6 months is too long to go between contests and I was ready. I was third to go in the heavyweights on the yoke and I smashed it. I felt the best I ever have under the yoke and it showed, the keg carry part was easy. It was good for 1st and 10 points. Next was the single arm DB OHP Clean and Press each rep. We had 140 pounds to work with. The most I had done was 130 for like 5 an arm. I knew I was good for 5 but wanted 10. When it was my turn, the most anybody had done was 7 and I knew I could do that at least. So I pressed the entire time and ended up with 10. There was 5 seconds left when I set my 10th rep down, and I wonder if I could have done another in that time. I need to learn to keep going until the whistle blows because 11 reps won that event. I settled (happily) for 2nd and 9 points. Next was the farmers, always a good event for me and I was excited to see how fast I could go. I was second to last to go, and there were about 100 light weights before the heavyweights so it took a while (story of the day). Anyway, everything felt really good and I smashed my training PR. I think I was like 14.24 seconds. The last guy to go did it in 14.2 seconds, which really kind of pissed me off. I mean, that's just timing error really, but whatever...can't complain about the judging, it was consistant all day. So another 2nd and 9 more points. Still first overall and 3 PRs on the day. Next was the deadlift, since I was close to the last to go in farmers, I didn't get but 3 warmup pulls at around 350. Our weight was 620...so that was quite the jump from warmups to weight. I was second to last to go again and had a long time to wait since they only used one axle. I pulled 2 reps, which was a PR for me...but not a good showing on the whole. 6 reps won it and I tied for 5th I believe. Still...enough to be only 1 point down coming into the last event. So again, I was second to last to go. After all 100 lightweights finally were finished with their carry and load, it was time for the big boys. Everybody seemed to be having trouble with the 308 stone, so I was a little concerned, but I had loaded a 310 stone with no tacky the week before, so I was still feeling pretty confindent. I was amazed at how many guys had checked out before the last event. They were talking about going out and drinking and just sluffing off the final event. Not sure how that mindset is compatible with winning, but to each his own. If I'm going to bust my ass every week, I'm staying in it until I load my last stone. Since I was one point down going into the final event, I knew I had to get first to even have a chance to win. If the guy in first then got second we would tie and they would look to see who had the most firsts, we both had 2, then they would see seconds and so on...he beat me in the deadlift so he would have won. The only chance I had was to win the last event and hope he finished less than second. I went and then he went, but nobody knew the times of the other heavyweights. So we didn't know until they had awards who was where. I knew I was guaranteed second with my win in the final event, so I was happy, and even happier when his name was called for second. Turns out somebody snuck in and took second on the last event. The top three in the heavyweights competed hard all day and it was really fun going against those guys. We left right after the contest and drove to the campgrounds where we were planning on staying, only to find that it was pitch dark and nobody was around. We didn't feel comfortable setting up like that so we drove on to Norman, OK and stayed in a hotel. From there we drove to Amherst, and Sarah took my car to Lincoln and I rode to Kimball, NE to say goodbye to the toughest woman I have ever known.

Special thanks to Sarah for all she does during contests and training, thanks to my family for all their support, and thanks to Jobe's Steel Jungle for letting me try not to suck each week.

On to the next go...