RIVALUS Sports Nutrition Blog

I decided to write this article to shed some light my sport. It seems that when people ask me why I am always training and traveling to compete they seem to expect me to tell them I am a football or hockey player. When I tell them I train for Firefighter Combat Challenge they look very confused. When I tell them it’s that thing on television with the guys running up the stairs and dragging the dummy they generally do one of two things… Say ahhhhhh yea… That thing…. Or still look at me in a state of confusion.

The sport is definitely not as public as most but it is one of the most rewarding of any I have ever played in the sense that you truly get out of it what you put into it. It lives up to its moniker as a challenge because that is what it does to you on every level imaginable. Obviously there have been no huge endorsement deals in it, there are no big parades when teams win a championship or television shows that specifically follow the day to day activities of the athletes so people can see what we go through in an effort to be at the top of the sport. It takes year round dedication from a team of 5 who sacrifice their personal lives and relationships to prepare themselves for both the course that lies ahead and the other competitors who stand in the way of being at the top.

There are three different events in this sport Team, Relay, and Tandem Relay. The saying ” It looks easier than it is” could not be any more true. Here is a detailed breakdown of what we do: Run up a 5 story tower with a hose bundle on your shoulder, when you get to the top of the tower you throw the hose in a box proceed to the tower railing where you hand over hand pull up a rope with a 42 pound hose roll attached to the end which has to go in the same box as the hose you carried up the stairs. You then run down the stairs as fast as you can, I say run but it is basically a controlled fall using the handrails and touching every step on the way down. You then jump on what is called a force machine where you pick up an 8 pound shot mallet and move a 185Lb steel “I” beam 5 feet. Quickly run through a series of slalom turns until you reach the charged hose line which you drag as fast as you can to shoot a target. Then it is on to the last event where you pick up a 175 pound dummy and drag backwards 100 feet to the finish. Oh yea – I forgot to mention, you are wearing full protective firefighting gear while you do all of this which adds on average about another 60 pounds to your body. They don’t call it the toughest two minutes in sport for no reason.

I have had the privilege to compete in many sports and this to me is the hardest. In other sports you get a line change after 15-20 seconds, there is a stoppage in play or you are on the other side of the field and can jog to catch your breath. This sport is everything you possibly can do to stay on your feet at maximum effort, when your lungs feel like they will explode and your legs feel like someone injected concrete into them you must have the mental focus and drive to push harder and harder until you are finished. At the top levels of competition we are looking for hundredths of seconds to decide placing. When you consider the duration of the event that means that you must run clean every race for every step and every second of the event. A loss of focus for even a second can be extremely costly. You train year round for something that is over in about a minute and a half and like a fellow competitor said one time “It’s either gonna be Picasso or its gonna be a train wreck”.

I am very blessed with the fact that I am part of a team of great athletes and truly great friends. At this time we are looking at the current dates on the North American tour to decide our regional competitions we will go to before Canadian Nationals and then to the World Championships.

[Mike Sears is a member of the Halifax Firefighter Combat Challenge Team and has competed worldwide in firefighter competitions.]