We got into Granite City pretty early on Saturday (at around 12:30 AM) because of the hour we spent in traffic on Lakeshore Drive before getting on I55 S. With a 7 AM check-in the next morning, we were all pretty anxious to get some shut eye, nothing major happened.

Saturday morning started out with us getting lost on the way to the meet. Given that the meet was in the middle of nowhere and that the directions we had weren’t really clear…

“Enter, and take the first left, which is 1st street I think, follow this road until you reach warehouse 3 (They are gigantic). It should be at 1st and D street.”

…it was no surprise we got lost.

After spending about 45 minutes trying to find our way, we finally made it in (with ten minutes to spare). The meet was in a huge, extremely dusty warehouse, in the middle of what might have once been a military base. There were military humvees scattered throughout the road as we were driving in. The temp on Saturday was in the mid 80s but inside the warehouse it felt like it was close to 95. Luckily, we had the foresight to fill a cooler with Gatorade and plenty of ice.

We got in, checked our gears, since we were lifting RAW there really wasn’t much gear just a belt, and knee sleeves. About half way through the competition we found out we could have used wrist wraps but we were almost done and just kept gong bare.

We then got measured for rack height on the squat and weighed in. Dewayne weighed in at a “light” 214. I, being big-boned and all, came in at 215.7; and the featherweights Ted and Bill came in at 154.4 and 156, respectively. Then it was time to check out our fellow competitors. There were close to 60 lifters with weights ranging from 400ibs to less than 80 Ibs (there were a couple of kids lifting). There were also about 30 volunteers, plenty of spectators, and one guy who likes to bend things (more on him later).

The lifters were divided in flights, flight A and B were for the weight classes below 220 and they had one platform; while flight C and D were for those 220 and above, and they were on the heavy platform. Bill and Ted were in flight B, Dewayne and I were in flight C. There were also plenty of practice platforms.

After a quick warm up it was time for the events to begin, first up squat.

Squat

1st attempt

At 374.7 ibs I had a lighter opener than Dewayne which meant that I got to

go first. I stepped to the rack picked up the bar, and waited for the squat command. Even with Dewayne calling out my depth I still ended up too shallow and got two red lights. There are three lights corresponding to three judges, the head judge who gives out the commands and two side judges. Anymore than one red light and the lift is DQed. So yeah, I was kind of pissed off, after that first one. But I was also kind of surprised at how nice the judges were about it and they gave a lot of good feedbacks.

Dewayne’s turn came up; he opened at 462.7 and made it look freakishly easy. Good form the entire way.

On the other platform, Bill and Ted both decided to start off strong at 225.7, which they nailed. Coming into the meet, Ted had some knee problems but that didn’t seem to be slowing him down.

2nd attempt

For the second attempt, I decided to retry my opener 374.7. This time I was determined to get it. I squatted to a point that I thought was deep enough and decided to go even deeper. When I came up, I knew I had nailed it and was pretty pleased. Unfortunately I moved to re-rack the bar a fraction of a second before the judge gave the command, almost immediately I got 3 red lights. I was really fuming after that; one of the side judges actually walked up to me and gave me a couple of pointers, which was cool.

For his second attempt, Dewayne decided to keep it light still and went for 485. He got under it, squatted it nice and easy, if anything he went down a little too deep; unfortunately he also moved to re-rack before the command and the lift was DQed.

On the other platform Bill and Ted decided to throw caution to the wind and go for PRs on their second attempts. Bill went for 253.5, took it down and brought it back up easy; but got DQed because his legs weren’t locked at the start of the lift and he re-racked early.

On the other hand, Ted went for 236.7, muscled through it and nailed it.

3rd attempt

With two bad lifts under my belt, I decided to just go all out on this one. Going in there I knew my squat had to be over 400 for me to even have a chance of breaking 1200. So I went for 418.7, got under it squatted it really low, got up and made sure to wait for the rack command. As soon as I rack it, I got a little annoyed because I knew I could have done at least 50 ibs more on the squat if not for those first two shitty attempts.

Seeing as he had nailed his second attempt and had only gotten DQed because of a technicality, Dewayne decided to bump up his final attempt to 501.5. I was kind of surprised he was going this light on it; he usually does a lot more during practice. So it was no surprise that he got it with moderate effort.

Over on platform 2, Bill also decided that since he had pretty much gotten his second attempt he would try for more on the third. He bumped the weight up to 275.5 (Aw yeah!!!), got under it and squatted, BUT he couldn’t bring it back up.

Ted who up to this point was 2 for 2 decided to go up to 253.5; unfortunately, the weight was too much on his knee.

The scariest person during this event was the 12 year old girl who weighted less than 80 ibs but managed to squat close to 115 ibs (seriously, she was scary).

With flight C being done on the heavy platform it was time for the heavy weights of flight D to take the stage. Even though most of these lifters were using squat suits some of their lifts were pretty amazing. One guy in the 275 opened at 660. The heaviest squat there was in the low 700s. But this event was pretty uneventful seeing as no records were broken.

While the stage was being set up for the next event, the audience and the lifters not warming up got to take in a show by “grip specialist” Brad Manion, the guy who can supposedly tear the bumper off a car. I had my doubts about him at first but after watching him rip through 5 phone books with his bare hands in less that 2 minutes, bend 3 inch thick rail road spikes and uncurl a couple of horseshoes, I was pretty sure tearing off a bumper would have been a piece of cake for him.

BP

1st attempt

I started out the next event determined to significantly improve my numbers. At 303, my opener was again lighter than Dewayne’s so I went first. I was a lot more confident with my ability to BP than squat, so it went by really quick. I ripped through the first attempt like a fat kid ripping through a box of Twinkies. Dewayne opened at 308.5 and made it look like child’s play.

Over on platform 2, Bill opened at 209.2 and nailed it. Ted powered right through his 203.7 opener.

2nd attempt

When second attempts came around I was pretty confident I could nail 325, which I did. Dewayne, because of his numbers on the squat, decided he could afford to be a little more conservative and only went up to 319.5 and got it.

Bill and Ted both decided to try 225.7. Bill hit it but Ted (we all hate to see this happen) hit a wall half way through the press and couldn’t get to the lock out.

3rd attempt

Having made my first two attempts, I was extremely cocky and decided to man up and go for 341.5. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get pass the midpoint of the press. It’s a good thing the judge called it when he did, cause I felt my back lock up and that bar was about to come crashing down.

 

Dewayne, on the other hand took a more calculated risk with his third attempt. By that point he knew that he only had to deadlift 479 to break 1300, so he didn’t really need to strain himself on the BP. He went for 330.5 but also got stuck at the lock out.

Bill decided to go for 236.7 but bombed on the press. Ted decided to retry his second attempt, 225.7, but didn’t have much better luck. OH Well !!!

During this event, we were all kind of amazed at how dependent some of the equipped lifters were on their bench suit. You could kind of tell that more than half of them did not work out their triceps regularly. In fact, Dewayne and I had better numbers than a lot of the equipped lifters in our weight class.

With flight C done, the heavyweights took the stage again. There was one dude who weighed in at a little under 400 ibs ( I couldn’t tell if he was mostly muscles or fat). He somehow managed to wiggle into a bench suit, his best BP was somewhere around 770. We all found it hilarious, that he was so big that he really didn’t have to bring the bar that far down in order to touch his chest.

On the other hand there was a 26 year old in the 242 weight class lifting RAW who broke the USAPL national record with his first attempt at 633.7 and went on to break it again at 666.7.

DL

With the squat and BP under our belts it was time for some quick calculations. My total after these two events was at 743.7, which meant I only needed 456.3 to break 1200 my initial goal. I knew I could do this pretty easily so I decided to go for 1300, which meant that I needed 556.3 on the DL.

Dewayne was pretty comfortable at 821 and only need 479 to get 1300, so he wasn’t too worried about the DL.

Bill at 451.7 and Ted at 440.4 needed 348.6 and 359.6, respectively, to reach their target of 800.

1st Attempt

Following the advice of a power lifter much wiser than myself, I decided to make my first attempt on the DL my last warm up and I went for 473.7. It went up smooth, got three green lights and I was off to a good start. Dewayne went for 451.7, also got three green lights, (Yeah!!!). Bill went for 315 and made it look real easy. Ted went for 303 and made it look even easier.

2nd Attempt

For my second attempt I wanted to go for 540, but there was a mix up with the names the dude lifting in front off me had a pretty similar sounding name. So I ended lifting Steve’s weight at 507 it was extremely easy. Funny thing is that Steve, even with his deadlift suit couldn’t put up the 507.

Dewayne decided that it was time to quit beating around the bush and decided to do the 479.5 he needed to break 1300. He pulled it up real easy and got 3 green lights. So he was pretty much set.

Bill went for 352.5, but had a grip malfunction which resulted in him jerking the bar up and down a little, so he got DQed. Ted at the same weight also had the same problem.

3rd Attempt

For my final attempt I knew I had to hit 556.5, during the practices back at patten I usually couldn’t do more than 545, so I was a little worried. I psyched myself up a little, got to the stage looked straight up at the dilapidated roof of the warehouse we were in and pulled. It was extremely slow but it came up. I got one red light, but the lift still counted so I was ecstatic. Especially since the dude before me, a collegiate record holder, couldn’t put up 556 even with his erector suit.

On his second attempt, Dewayne decided to go for 496 just for the heck of it. He got it past his knees and pretty much had it; but his grip started to go and he couldn’t throw his shoulder back.

Bill, having failed his second attempt at 352.5 was set on getting it the second time around. He had a pretty intense look on his face when he locked the bar up at the top, but he got it and with that broke 800.

Following Bill’s lead Ted went for 352.5 a second time and delivered just as well.

We got done around 2:30, by that time we were all pretty hungry so we didn’t stick around for the heavy weights or the closing ceremony. We all packed into Ted’s car and headed for a buffet style Chinese restaurant down the road to clog our arteries with fatty, greasy food.

This done we got back on the road and headed for the real world. I was knocked out most of the way so I don’t really remember much of the trip back.