World's Strongwoman Championship write-up

[Kristyn Vytlacil]

Pt. 1 (Yes, I know, it's long... I'm sorry)

And so, the write-up begins…

I arrived in Poland on Wednesday, May 21, where I was greeted by Boguslaw, the promoter of the contest and my friend Tanya who came from Germany to watch me compete. One of the very first things Boguslaw said to me was (imagine me speaking in a polish accent) “Ah, you are not so big…” I just laughed because I really didn’t know quite what to say in response.

Tanya and I made our way to the middle of Tczew on Wednesday afternoon where we found ourselves in a cute little pizzeria where there happened to be a poster hanging up for the contest. After we managed to order some pizza (there was no one there who spoke English) we attempted to explain via charades that I was one of the strongwomen whose name was on the poster… One woman’s response, also via charades, was that I was quite tiny… Ha ha ha. So, apparently, I’m pretty small, message received loud and clear, lol. We also found a limo, which had a banner on the top of it, announcing the contest as well. The posters were just about everywhere we went… Very cool.

Thursday was the Corpus Christie holiday, of which Tanya and I were unaware and in our attempts to find an open restaurant, we ended up taking part in a religious procession near a church in Tczew. It was quite fascinating actually as I really had no clue until much later what was going on. I’m sure every Polish person there was wondering what the heck we were up to walking around with them, but it felt pretty awesome to take part in such a cultural event.

Friday was spent with a number of the competitors and their significant others exploring Tczew. After a nap in the afternoon, we all went out to a nice little restaurant down the street from our hotel.

Okay, moving on to the contest…

We competitors were driven to the contest in the same limo we’d seen earlier on the week. How amazing is that, to show up to a contest in a limo. I felt pretty darn special, that’s for sure! The contest got started around 2, where each of the athletes was introduced… I’m quite curious what the MC had to say, as all of it was in Polish and I can’t say I picked up much more than “thank you” while I was there.

[Kristyn Vytlacil]

Pt. 2

Farmers for distance: The handles were 70 kg each, though I felt like they were quite a bit heavier than that. The course was marked for 66’ and then you would turn. I made it through 2 turns and then about half-way back down the course and dropped them. I didn’t feel I did terribly awesome on this event, especially since I’ve done better in training, but hey, it was the first one of a big day… gotta just move on and focus on the next one. Took 8th place.

Conan’s Wheel: This was set at 200 kg… and I couldn’t move it. I barely, sorta, kinda got it up and then plowed it into the ground, at which point I was like, okay, this isn’t happening, I’m done. I didn’t know, however, that we could give it another go if we dropped it within the first couple steps. So I walked away without a second thought, when I should’ve tried again. Crapola dude. Oh well, moving on.

Axle C and P for reps: Ha, reps, that’s funny. Seventy kg on this event. I cleaned and pressed the first rep fairly easily, but the 2nd rep just wouldn’t go. I cleaned the axle for the 2nd rep but I could press it. At some point I put it down and tried again. Got the clean, but not the press. It became obvious that I wouldn’t be getting that 2nd rep, so it was time to call it quits. But hey, this is actually a PR for me. A 1 lb PR, but a PR nonetheless, so I can’t complain about that. I think that I tied for 5th in this event.

Yoke: 210 kg and I’m not sure how long the course was. Thirty meters maybe??? Well anyway, all I know is that I’ve never really carried a yoke that heavy before and I did quite well! I had one drop about 2/3 of the way through, but I just picked it right back up and kept on moving. We were on a grass surface, so things were a little uneven, but I made it to the finish line within the 60 seconds. I don’t actually know what my time was, but I’m not sure I really care. I made it to the finish line like I needed to and ended up in 7th place here.

Max Log Press: The log was an 8” log and we opened with 60 kg. I hit that just fine. Unfortunately, we then bumped up to 70 kg. I was able to clean the log just fine, just not press it. I know I could’ve gotten 65 kg if we’d jumped there first. I think I might’ve gotten 7th or 8th (likely in a tie) in this event, though I’m not sure at all.

Car DL Hold: Side-handled, with a Honda Civic. The pick was pretty easy for me and I was told it came up really fast and looked awesome. Unfortunately I only managed to hold it for about 14 seconds. I would’ve thought I’d do much better here, but I guess I just couldn’t find my happy place for long enough to gut it out longer. I took 7th place in this event.

Weight for Height: Oh man, I tried training for this one at home with a kettlebell, but that really didn’t seem to prepare for this one very well. I couldn’t even hit the opener. There were a few of us who couldn’t and I think we’re going to start a club, a “I don’t do weight for height in strongwoman” club. Note to self, always always fully prepare for every single event you will be doing.

DL for reps: Going into this last event, I actually felt amazingly good. After 7 events, I was surprised I felt as good as I did. The bar was slightly higher than a normal DL and 185 kg (that’s 407 lbs!). I got the first rep and felt totally exhilarated. I wasn’t actually sure what the weight was at that point, but I knew it felt HEAVY. I tried for a 2nd rep but it wasn’t budging, so I took off the straps, changed my grip and tried to grind out another pull. I definitely got it off the ground, I’m not sure how far, but I just couldn’t get it high enough to even try hitching. Pulling 407 lbs is a BIG PR (about 32 lbs) for me, from any height. Granted, it was suited, but I’m quite proud of myself anyway. I took 7th place in this last event.

Wow, what a day I had!!! I went to Poland with one particular goal in mind, to prove to everyone, including myself, that I could hang with the big girls. I feel like that’s exactly what I did, despite the fact that I had 2 goose eggs for the day. There was a very short period of time where I felt like I could nitpick at myself… “Oh, you could’ve got farther on farmer’s, or you didn’t have to drop the yoke, or you definitely could’ve held that DL longer… etc.” I didn’t nitpick for long though, mostly b/c I’m quite proud of how I did. I hit PR’s and I feel quite privileged to have competed with the women that I did. I think I put on a good show and it was simply amazing to compete in a place where strongwoman is such a big thing. I had people ask me to take pictures with them, I signed tons of autographs, and one woman even had me take a picture with her baby. This experience is one that I will never forget!

To Boguslaw and his sponsors, a HUGE THANK YOU. This contest was one of the best I’ve ever been to and I am so lucky to have been invited. I cannot say how special I felt, competing in front of such a huge crowd and feeling like a pro.

To Donnie, Matt, David, Ian and Tanya, thanks for helping out all day. Taking pictures, helping with wardrobe changes, video-ing, basically doing anything we needed, and most importantly, cheerleading.

To all the ladies: It was a pleasure meeting and competing with all of you. I hope that you all had just as much fun as I did and hopefully I’ll see all of you again someday soon.

[strongwoman]

Hello,

Have you not left something out of you write-up? What happend after the competition? :T:

Hugs
Hanne

PS It was great to meet you and hang out with you and Tanya. Hope to see you again soon!

[Kristyn Vytlacil]

Hello,

Have you not left something out of you write-up? What happend after the competition? :T:

Hugs
Hanne

PS It was great to meet you and hang out with you and Tania. Hope to see you again soon!


:BB:

What happens in Poland stays in Poland... or something like that :B:

[strongwoman]

I take it that means that I do not have to talk about my hang over the next day! :EL:

I am pleased you are happy with what you did in the competition, you should be really proud!

Hanne

[Jonathan Macfarlane]

Congrats Kristyn, looks like you had a great time and had some good results.

[Lesley Gardiner]

Great write up! Congratulations on competing and doing so well AND on the PRs! Sounds like a great time.

Guess we'll have to weasle this after comp story out of you someday! ;)

[Mike Landrich]

Congrats Kristyn. You did great. Now begin preparing for next year! :EL:

[Kalle Beck]

Sounds like an amazing experience!

Congrats on a great job.

[Matt Parkes]

Great job Kristyn! 8 events in one day is brutal! Way to get through it in one piece and set a couple of PRs along the way!

[david horne]

Kristyn,
It was great to meet you and all the other athletes. I've just read your email - eeeh what a journey home!

Please thank Tanya for all her help.

photos
http://www.davidhorne-gripmaster.com/WorldStrongwomanChampionship/index.html

Quick report by David Horne

If you’re interested in strongman/women then Poland is the place to go. This is a country where I watched Jarek Dymek on TV in the morning advertising VibroAction (I think), bought Super Glue with Mariusz on the front of the packaging from a supermarket in the afternoon, and then in the evening watched Aneta Florczyk on TV in Dancing on Ice. Strongman is their second sport, and from what I saw in our stay it definitely is very popular.

Roman Liebrecht, Boguslaw, Tean Aneta and of course all the sponsors have got to be commended on the extremely well run, fast-paced, entertaining contest. Thousands came to watch the contest, and the ones at the front never moved except for a chance of an autograph from one of the competitors for over 4 hours. With 8 events, 9 competitors, 4 t-shirt changes, and appearances by dancers there was always something going on – perfect!

My piece on Elizabeth is that she was a little disappointed on some of her performances, as she knew what she did in training. Mistakes were done, and WILL be learned from. I saw a brave lady battling right to the end, even when the unexpected problems occurred. There will be another day.

The events and weights were all good; it was a very well balanced contest.

The competitors were super strong, very friendly and hopefully we will meet up again in the future. I haven’t got all the results (hopefully Boguslaw can send them to me), but believe me there were some incredible performances!

Elizabeth got a forearm workout with all the autographs she signed, and hopefully the fans enjoyed the experience as much as we did.

Many thanks to our sponsor Jackal's Gym, and to all the well wishes, messages and phone calls!

David

[strongwoman]

Well I will tell you a story....

We went to a bar/pizza place after we had eaten at the hotel with the sponsors/helpers/and all others involved with the competition. We got a drink in and a few ordered some more food and not long after that we were told the place would close at 11pm, so we would only have time for another drink.

Well the owner of the bar turned up and some young guy told him that we were the competitors from the Strong woman comeptition and that changed everything. Suddenly the bar was open till we went home. People kept coming up to us asking to have their pictures taken with us on so on...It was really funny!

We left at 3am because we were flying home at 11am sunday.

Thanks for all your support and great to hang out with you Kristyn :YR:

I hope you are really proud of what you did, because you did SO well!

I really hope we get to meet again!

Hugs
Hanne

[Ryan Wells]

Awesome experience, Kristyn!

BTW, thanks for the inside info. If I ever get to go to Poland, I'm going to learn how to say, "yeah, but I'm big where it counts."

[Kristyn Vytlacil]

Thank you everyone for all of your kind words! I really can't say enough how wonderful this trip was for me. It's simply indescribable. Even now, after being home for a bit, I keep wondering, "wait, did that really happen?" The jet-lag and body aches are my reminders that it did indeed.

Hanne-I AM very proud of myself! I think I've had a grin on my face since the yoke on Saturday. I'm also pretty sure that I've tried to mention my contest to just about anyone I encountered on my way home, LOL. Good story by the way, way to keep it PG, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. :xo:

[Lacy]

LOL the PG version leaves ALOT out!Ok not a whole lot !It was a blast to get all the girls togather.I will do a write up a soon as I can think clearly I had some flight issues yesterday and cant think straight right now

[Kellee_Rassau]

Kristyn - one of my favorite comebacks is "Dynamite comes in small packages." :D

[Kimberly]

Congratulations Kristyn AWESOME JOB!!!!

[Robert Anthony]

Great job.

[Kristyn Vytlacil]

So apparently the axle was 165 lbs... HUGE PR for me, HUGE!!!

And the yoke was 473... also a HUGE PR... EXCELLENT!!! Things just keep getting better and better.