benchmonster
New member
Well, we had our bench on the surface of the sun contest today. It did not go swimingly, as the temperature was well in excess of 100 degrees, and we are much better polar bears than we are . . . whatever the Hell animal can survive the heat.
Day went as follows:
I made weight, got in at 218. No problems there. Went to my father-in-law's and got a good night's sleep, and showed up at the meet site on the beach at 8:30 a.m. and it was already 90 degrees. Got a sun canopy set up, and was ready for the long wait by 9:00. bigokie and Screwball arrived later, Screwball weighed in at about 290 or so (small for him) and then we sat around and waited thru more than 50 lifters before Screwball's first attempt.
Now I am not making excuses, cause everyone there had to suffer through the same heat, but there were a ton of guys, not just us, who were missing lifts I have seen them do before, especially in the last flight, where the bigger lifters were, and of course the last flight had to wait in the sun the longest.
Screwball opened with 450, a weight he should have made easily, and just missed his groove. He was soaked in sweat, and badly dehydrated too. We could not drink fast enough to keep up with the sweat, and Screwball sweats like a Bishop at a little league game anyway.
4 or 5 lifters later, I took my 1st attempt with 480, which should be a pretty easy opener. I honestly got out of breath walking to the platform, and never regained my composure before taking the excellent handoff that bigokie provided. Everything went down pretty good, but on the way back up, I misgrooved it over my face, and could not fight it back into groove, so now we have both missed.
Screwball went for the same 450 on his second attempt, but just did not have any gas left. He waived his 3rd, cause there was nothing left in the tank. At 220 ish, the heat was about to kill me, I could not imagine what it would have felt like if I was 70 lbs heavier.
I went for 480 again on my second, kept it in the groove, and got it IMHO rather strongly. But I had a bad problem. The heat was causing me to sweat so bad, my double denim was completely soaked, and was losing its tightness. So. . .
I pulled out the new shirt Karin made for me, that I just got in the mail, having no idea what would even touch, and decided to wing it. (things were not going to well anyway, so what could it hurt?) At least this one was dry. I pulled it as far toward my neck as I dared, hoping the 505 3rd attempt would touch. It did, but it sat an inch from the shirt for about 3 seconds before it finally sunk in. Well, I got it off my chest, but missed it pretty badly back over my face. Ran out of gas from the sun, ran out of gas from the long wait for the bar to touch, and just missed it badly.
So, going 1 for 3, I still managed to win the 220 open division, won a tiny bit of money in the pro division, and was only outlifted (bar weight) by 2 guys out of the 60 or so who lifted, and they were both bigger than me. So it was a mildly, and not wildly successful day.
The bikini contest was great, and some other lifters did well, but this is already too long, so I will let bigokie and Screwball tell the rest.
B.
Day went as follows:
I made weight, got in at 218. No problems there. Went to my father-in-law's and got a good night's sleep, and showed up at the meet site on the beach at 8:30 a.m. and it was already 90 degrees. Got a sun canopy set up, and was ready for the long wait by 9:00. bigokie and Screwball arrived later, Screwball weighed in at about 290 or so (small for him) and then we sat around and waited thru more than 50 lifters before Screwball's first attempt.
Now I am not making excuses, cause everyone there had to suffer through the same heat, but there were a ton of guys, not just us, who were missing lifts I have seen them do before, especially in the last flight, where the bigger lifters were, and of course the last flight had to wait in the sun the longest.
Screwball opened with 450, a weight he should have made easily, and just missed his groove. He was soaked in sweat, and badly dehydrated too. We could not drink fast enough to keep up with the sweat, and Screwball sweats like a Bishop at a little league game anyway.
4 or 5 lifters later, I took my 1st attempt with 480, which should be a pretty easy opener. I honestly got out of breath walking to the platform, and never regained my composure before taking the excellent handoff that bigokie provided. Everything went down pretty good, but on the way back up, I misgrooved it over my face, and could not fight it back into groove, so now we have both missed.
Screwball went for the same 450 on his second attempt, but just did not have any gas left. He waived his 3rd, cause there was nothing left in the tank. At 220 ish, the heat was about to kill me, I could not imagine what it would have felt like if I was 70 lbs heavier.
I went for 480 again on my second, kept it in the groove, and got it IMHO rather strongly. But I had a bad problem. The heat was causing me to sweat so bad, my double denim was completely soaked, and was losing its tightness. So. . .
I pulled out the new shirt Karin made for me, that I just got in the mail, having no idea what would even touch, and decided to wing it. (things were not going to well anyway, so what could it hurt?) At least this one was dry. I pulled it as far toward my neck as I dared, hoping the 505 3rd attempt would touch. It did, but it sat an inch from the shirt for about 3 seconds before it finally sunk in. Well, I got it off my chest, but missed it pretty badly back over my face. Ran out of gas from the sun, ran out of gas from the long wait for the bar to touch, and just missed it badly.
So, going 1 for 3, I still managed to win the 220 open division, won a tiny bit of money in the pro division, and was only outlifted (bar weight) by 2 guys out of the 60 or so who lifted, and they were both bigger than me. So it was a mildly, and not wildly successful day.
The bikini contest was great, and some other lifters did well, but this is already too long, so I will let bigokie and Screwball tell the rest.
B.