St. Albert first class firefighter-paramedic Jim Hill's fledgling career in FireFit Combat Challenge came full circle at the Canadian Championships in Brampton, Ont. earlier this month.
In May, Hill had competed in his first ever challenge. At the event, Hill was poised to race in full bunker gear, including standard-issue boots. Another firefighter instead lent him a lighter pair specifically designed for competitions.
And now, standing at the start line in 20 C at the Canadian championships, Hill had been paired up with that same firefighter.
"It had rained all morning and I was number 99 and he was number 98 and I think there was 160 competitors on the final day," Hill recalls. "I finished five seconds ahead of him."
His time was 1:35.71, good enough for 72nd place. It was also a 15-second improvement from his first race in Grande Prairie, a 10 per cent time decrease in an event dubbed "the toughest two minutes in sports." While many have seen it on TSN or the Outdoor Life Network, the sheer amount of physical and mental strength required is more than the average person can appreciate.
"I thought it would be an interesting way to challenge myself," Hills says. "It turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it was going to be."
The course
Known most commonly as Combat Challenge, FireFit is the Canadian name of the same event. Geared for firefighters, it is a gruelling obstacle course in which each station resembles a task firefighters perform in the course of their duties.
Clad in either their 18-pound bunker gear or a lighter nine-pound race version, two firefighters at a time line up in front of a series of stairs four storeys high. Each is also wearing a full mask and respirator so they can breathe air from the 22-pound tanks strapped to their backs.
When the starter says go, each firefighter grabs a 45-pound high-rise pack of hose and heads right up the stairs, all 63 of them. At the top, they ditch the pack into a box, then grab a rope, attached to the end of which is a 45-pound "doughnut" roll of hose. After hauling the hose all the way up to the riser, the doughnut roll goes into the box and the firefighters head back down the stairs, but with a catch — while they can climb as many stairs at a time as they want on the way up, they must hit every step on the way down. Every missed step is a two-second penalty.
At the bottom of the stairs is the forcible entry machine, a metal block on hydraulics that requires 500 pounds of force to move 13 inches with a nine-pound hammer. After tossing the hammer in a box, the competitors negotiate a series of pylons, as if they were running to the fire truck for gear. They next grab a charged 45-millimetre hose, drag it 100 feet and use the water inside to knock down a target.
And then comes Rescue Randy, a 175-pound dummy the firefighters must drag 100 feet to the end.
"It's meant to simulate dragging a down firefighter," explains Andrew Martin, a local firefighter and a member of St. Albert's relay team.
Randy is also Hill's worst enemy.
"He always wins. I can run as fast as the guys running in the top 25 in Canada up to the point where I hit the dummy, and that's my weak spot."
In Hill's first race, Randy wasn't just difficult to move — he actually pinned him to the ground.
"I got the dummy 15 feet from the finish line and I dropped him. Then when I picked him up I took one more step and he fell on top of me."
At the finish line, every firefighter collapses onto a large mat where a team of five strips off their gear. Time penalties of two to five seconds apply if the hoses or hammer fall out of their boxes. The fastest time wins the event.
In the team event, it's set up like a relay with each member of a team of four responsible for one sequence of the course. Hill takes care of the stairs and hoses, while Martin is responsible for Randy.
"Exhausted. Just completely fatigued. You've got nothing left. I can't think of many words to describe it. It's the most exhausted I've ever been," says Martin.
Getting serious
It was with the help of a team at NAIT that Hill, Martin and the rest of the team were able to take their training to a higher level. Under the direction of Randy Dreger with the Personal Fitness Training Program, a team of students developed workouts specifically geared towards each of the stations in a FireFit event. They used cable rows to simulate hauling up the doughnut roll, 45-pound dumbbells and a large bench to train for the stair climb and a weighted chopping motion for the forcible entry station.
"Even thought it's a very short duration, they need a very high aerobic fitness, not in terms of being able to run for an hour, but being able to go as hard as they can for that two-minute period," Dreger explains.
That means lots of running on a treadmill. On an incline. In full bunker gear, breathing from a back-mounted air tank.
"Wearing those boots to run on a treadmill with them, it's not good. With sneakers, it's easier. But you have to wear boots in the competition," Hill says.
Besides building strength and endurance, working in bunker gear and running on air also helps competitors cope with thermal and respiratory stress. At nationals, when the mercury hit 40 C, coping with the heat is an added factor.
"We want our bodies to be conditioned to the temperature," says Hill.
Racing the clock
Everyone who competes in a regional event qualifies for nationals. Every competitor must run in a wild card race where the goal is to finish faster than a previously designated time. This year the cut-off time was 1:48. And when Hill took to the course, it was hot.
"Everybody's holding umbrellas, not because it's raining but because it's so hot. I've got my gear on for 30 seconds and the sweat is already on my nose, getting in my eyes, burning my eyes. That was uncomfortable."
On wild card day in Brampton, Hill completed the course in 1:37.52, clearing him to compete in the final day of competition. With the temperature a palatable 20 C, Hill lined up beside the firefighter who had lent him the boots at his first race. After going up and down the tower, Hill was two seconds behind. He powered through the forcible entry station, then motored through the pylons and grabbed the hose, moving into the lead. And then came Rescue Randy.
"He's four seconds behind me and now he's gaining on me. The referee … he was using different words but he's yelling at me, "This is what you train for," and "Is this how you're going to finish?"
Hill crossed the finish line first. He's happy he dropped so much time from his personal best, but feels he can still do more. He is hooked and plans to work as hard as possible to get ready for next season.
"Guys want to do good. It's nice to play the game and the social networking and all that stuff is fine, but it's still a competition. You're still running against somebody, even if you think you're running against the clock."
