By Phil Davidson
Idaho Falls Post Register (Idaho)
Copyright 2006 The Post Register
All Rights Reserved
Some of Idaho Falls’ best will square off with others from the U.S. and Canada in November for an annual skills contest.
Idaho Falls firefighter Isaac Eaton is 30, but after one run through a combat challenge course, he felt like he was 40.
“Halfway through you’re thinking, ‘What am I doing?’” Eaton said after completing the grueling obstacle course in a respectable 2 minutes 59 seconds. “It’s really more in your head.”
Eaton and a half-dozen other firefighters came to the department’s Foote Drive training center Tuesday to take a stab at the gauntlet. They were joined by two members of the Idaho Falls Fire Department’s Firefighter Combat Challenge team, which last week qualified for the Scott Firefighter Combat World Challenge XV to be held in November.
The world finals - often referred to as the “Toughest Two Minutes in Sports” - is an annual event in which firefighter teams from all over the United States and Canada compete in a timed obstacle course for bragging rights.
The course, as one can imagine, is no picnic.
Each five-man team member must climb a five-story tower, hoist a 42-pound coiled hose up five flights, move a 160-pound metal bar 5 feet using a 9-pound shot hammer, run through an obstacle course, and then drag a 175-pound dummy 100 feet. The catch, beyond the obviously draining tasks, is that each member must perform the entire event draped in 75 pounds worth of “full bunker gear.”
Oh, and in order to be competitive, teammates need to complete the challenge in less than two minutes.
“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done,” said Parker Ruby, a 29-year-old who captains the Idaho Falls team. “It takes everything you have.”
In order to qualify for the world finals, the top three times of Ruby and teammates Cody Anderson, Dan Muhlestein, Tory Stewart and Rob Hall had to be under 6 minutes 30 seconds, combined. The team recently accomplished this feat in Seattle and has been training every day for the upcoming finals in Henderson, Nev.
Getting to the events can be costly, so the team relies on the generosity of sponsors such as Paul Davis Restoration, the Firehouse Grill, World Gym and the local firefighters union.
One firefighter who is not a team member made it to the dummy portion of the simulated challenge Tuesday, but his legs collapsed and he was unable to finish the event.
Ruby, whose best time is 1:56, said this was common, as “sometimes your legs don’t have any more to give.”
Eaton agreed.
“That just burns,” he said.