We were very lucky to have IFSA Pro Jon Andersen on hand all day. He drove up from California, along with Highland Games World Champion Shannon Hartnett. Shannon also competes in strongwoman, and appeared on the 2002 World's Strongest Woman tv show. She was also on hand all day to cheer people on and help.

        The venue was a new concept in Strongman contests. Due to almost all of Portland's parks being booked with softball or soccer games, Tod and Julie had to come up with other options. Since they often train the strongman events on Tod's street in front of his home, they decided that it might just work to run the contest in the street in front of his house, especially since the street is a cul de sac. A porta-potty was rented, and they marked off the street with chalk and cones and the venue became the least of their worries. There was ample room for parking, and plenty of shade due to the canopies they had set up in the morning.

        The first event of the day was the SE Chiropractic yoke walk. Only the men's classes did this event. This is because the women did farmer's walk and no yoke, novice men did yoke and no farmer's, and middleweight men did both. The novice men's class events were chosen specifically so that people who are new to the sport could train for the contest without having to own special strongman equipment. Even if a guy doesn't own a yoke, he can simulate the feeling of 400 lbs on his back with squats. All the other novice events could be trained in the gym. In the middleweight class, the yoke was truly a race, and the top 4 finishers Mark Wechter, Josh Finck, Larry Hook and Bob Moore were within 1-2 seconds of each other! Mark took 1st, and showed that his extensive experience in strongman contests has really paid off. The top 5 guys in the novice class were also very close, separated by 1-2 seconds, with up and coming Luke Patterson from Boise taking the win in the event.

        After the yoke everyone moved on to the pressing event, sponsored by Paul's Automotive. All of the men did the Apollon's Axl press (2" diameter bar rather than a 1" diameter regular bar), the lightweight women did an 85 lb regular bar press, and the heavyweight women did a 130 lb log press. As this event was focused on pressing rather than a full body olympic lift type movement, competitors were only required to clean the bar once, and then press for reps. Julie and Tod believe that every Strongman contest should have an overhead press event, and for the most part, this event should focus on shoulder strength rather than overall body strength, thus, one clean. There are plenty of other events that test overall body strength and endurance. The middleweight men's class consisted of the top middleweight pressers in the NW! It was a dogfight from the start. Josh Finck and Mark Wechter tied for 1st with 19 reps on the 200 lb axl in 90 seconds. Larry and Bob were close behind with 18 and 16 reps, respectively. Jon 'Sarge' Allen pushed up 10 reps. It was just as much of a dogfight in the novice class! Jason Wands, in his first Strongman contest took 1st with 21 reps on the 180 lb axl, with Justin Scott and Tod Christensen close behind tying for 2nd place with 20 reps each. The lightweight women's class was also very exciting. Pat Smith and Machell Collier had competed against each other only 3 weeks before at another contest, with Machell taking 1st overall. The gals wanted a rematch! Machell pushed up 19 reps with the 85 lb bar in 90 seconds. Pat bettered that by 6 reps to take first with 25 reps. Victoria was happy with 11 reps for third. The heavyweight gals, Julie Havelka and Laura Maccarrone, went at it in the heavyweights. Julie holds the 2002 Strongest Woman in the West title, and Laura holds the same title for 2003. Julie went first in the press and set a personal best of 18 reps with the 130 lb log. Her best before had been 15 reps in competition. Laura had been hoping for at least 8, but finished up with 6 strong reps. It is important to note that most local female strength athletes cannot clean and press a 130 lb log. This was witnessed at the 2002 Strongest Man/Woman in the West contest. Laura cleans 130 lbs with ease. A little more practice and she will double her reps. Brice Gimbel, ranked nationally as a top amateur strongman, was on hand to show everyone what axl pressing is all about! Brice has one of the strongest cleans around, and had no trouble continental cleaning the 260 lb axel. He then proceeded to pound out 9 reps on the press. He would have done even more had the 60 second time limit not run out.

        After the pressing events, the women and middleweight men prepared for the Sport's Nutrition Center farmer's walk. A lot of contests that Tod and Julie have been to have a longer farmer's walk course, with turns and relatively lighter weight. The idea behind the farmer's walk in this contest was to make it heavy and straight. The weights turned out to be just right for each class, as almost no one was separated by mere seconds. The event was challenging and fun to watch. Sometimes the farmer's walk should be about how much weight a person can carry without setting down for a certain distance, not 'how fast can you run and make turns with a lighter weight?' In the lightweight women's class, Machell showed everyone why she holds the title 'Strongest Woman in the West 2003' for the lightweights. Laura and Julie took up the challenge of attempting the heaviest women's farmer's walk ever contested in the United States! 175 lbs in each hand for a 100 ft course did not scare these two gals off. Both ladies made a good showing, Laura finished in under 20 sec and Julie in under 12 sec. They both want to raise the weight next year! The middleweight men manhandled their weight of 220 lbs each hand. This group showed why technique is so important. The top three placers, Mark, Larry and Sarge all came in under 15 seconds. But the 4th and 5th placers both had grip troubles and unfortunately dropped the implements early. Precious time was lost, and a lesson on technique was learned. The big thrill for the audience in the farmer's walk came with Brice Gimbel's exhibition lift of 300 lbs each hand for 100 ft! This guy is truly amazing as he actually runs with this weight. He finished the course in 13 seconds, and proceeded to turn around at the finish line before setting the implements down. Brice is so good at farmer's walk, he has twice beaten World's Strongest Man show competitor Jesse Marunde in competition on the farmer's walk. This guy is simply made to pick up heavy weights and move fast with them.

        The next event was the Ace Event Services front hold for time. Tod ran this event a little differently than you may have seen front hold events on tv. The lift started with the lifter's arms not higher than his eyes. The lifters were allowed to let their arms lower, as long as the weight was still hovering above the ground. Tod wanted to see everyone go to complete failure. This made for some exciting holds, as people held on for dear life (for dear points!) The middleweight men and novice men used the same weight, a 45 lb tire with rim. Todd Christensen led the pack in the novice class with an amazing 1:16 time! Mike Barney and Pete Marcoff took 2nd and 3rd with 1:03 and 1:01, respectively. Every second counts! Larry Hook won the middleweights with 1:12. Some thought this would be an easy event going in, but it was a lot of work, mind you! The lightweight women were close, with Pat beating out Machell by 3 seconds. Laura and Julie were also not too far apart, with 49 and 54 seconds, respectively. The lightweight women held a 20 lb tire (no rim) and heavyweights held the 20 lb tire plus 5 extra lbs. This event is actually pretty fun for spectators to watch. Contest promoters have been creative in the past using anything from swords to bunches of bananas or sausages for front and side (krusifix) holds.

        The final event of the day was the APT Semi-truck tire max deadlift. This event is very similar to the silver dollar deadlift, except that this apparutus put the bar at 19" above the ground rather than the 18" used for the silver dollar deadlift. The empty apparatus weight was 460 lbs, so the women used regular car tires instead. This put the women's bar at 3" higher than a regular deadlift, 12" actual height. The novice men all went first. Lifters were allowed to use straps, and the first 14 competitors received their very own pair of commemorative Hell on the Hill straps, supplied by Alan of APT's Pro Wrist Straps. These are top of the line lifting straps, made to handle the kind of weight these guys were pulling! The biggest novice deadlift was pulled by Mike Barney, a former powerlifter. Mike ended the day with an 810 lb lift. Right behind him was Vince Eldridge, with 800 lbs. No one else really came close to these guys. But everyone had fun and really got into this event. Larry Hook pulled the biggest lift of the entire contest - 835 lbs. Mark Wechter had pulled 830 lbs on his 3rd attempt, and thinking that no one would pull more than that, jumped to 875 lbs and could not lock it out. So Larry wanted the win on the deadlift, and simply bumped Mark's 830 lbs by 5 lbs, and was successful with the pull. The lightweight women's deadlift was won by Pat, with an easy rth attempt of 340 lbs. This was a personal best for Pat on this lift, and she was very pleased with it. Machell was close behind with 335 lbs. Pat simply did was Larry had done, and strategically jumped 5 lbs on Machell's last lift for the win. Victoria had no idea what she would be able to pull, and was pleased with her lift of 240 lbs. In the heavyweight women's class, Laura finished her day with a strong 350 lbs. Julie had envisioned a certain number going into this contest, and went home with that exact number. 470 lbs was her final attempt and it was good. These lifters are really getting a workout when they finish a strongman contest with a max effort deadlift!

        In order to break ties, or for anyone who wanted to see how far they could push it, a 7000 lb Bronco was brought in by sponsor Jon Byers of Exclusive Pet Food. Jason Wands and Pete Marcoff were tied for 5th in the novice class, so they both had a go at it to break the tie. People did not know what to expect with a truck this heavy, and it turned out to be a true strength event, or rather, strength plus size event! The biggest competitors performed the best on this event. Bodyweight is a plus for events like these! There was also a special award for the best time or distance on the truck push. Pete really wanted to take 5th overall, and also must have wanted the truck push award, because he was the only one to push the truck the full 100 ft in 60 seconds! The rest of the competitors tried to finish, but had to be satisfied with a good leg workout at the end of the day by moving the truck as far as they could. The heaviest gal in the lightweight women, Victoria, was able to push it the farthest, with 21.3'. She was right at the top of the 140 lb cutoff. Machell, being just slightly lighter, pushed it 20.5'. Talk about close. In the heavyweight women, Julie pushed the truck 43.1', but Laura pushed it a full 62.1', beating out some of the men! Not everyone pushed the truck, just the people who wanted a good leg workout to finish out the day, and to be eligable for the truck push award. Pete was very pleased to receive the truck push award, a 16" barbarian knife. It was very generous of Jon Byers to hang around in the heat to help out with the truck push at the end of the day.

        The contest went off without a hitch, really. It could not have been done so well without all of the helpers, loaders/spotters, judges, timekeepers, and of course the sponsors. A special thanks goes out to Ko Attebury for excellent timekeeping and judging, to Dave Fish for loading weights all day in the blazing sun, to Kevin Smith (who came all the way from California just to help out at this contest), Ted Havelka and Anthony Becraft for timekeeping, to Jon Andersen and Shannon Hartnett for their help and support throughout the day, and to Jan and Kim Becraft for keep track of all the scores. People have had nothing but great things to say about the contest. Here is an example of what some people had to say:



'Excellent show yesterday. I really enjoyed the opportunity to compete in the men's middleweight division at that level. Those were a really great group of guys. There is no shame in losing to any of those guys. Plus the contest was a great experience and some good exposure to some different events. Really opens your eyes and broadens your horizons in the training possibilities. Keeps it interesting, too. Thanks again for having me. Tell all the staff they did an outstanding job and were very professional in their attitude and performance. They made a tough job look easy on a hot day. Looking forward to next time. You [Tod and Julie] are both a credit to the Strongman/woman community.'

-John 'Sarge' Allen, competitor



'Thanks for a great showing of what the Strongman sport is all about.'

-Gary McNulty, spectator



'I was proud to have my business name associated with such an event.'

-Chris, Ace Event Services



'I had a great time watching the contest. It was very exciting to see this kind of lifting event in person.'

-Uwe Plefka, Corporate head of Lufthansa Airlines, former powerlifter from Germany