Final Results

I wasn't really surprised when I got the voicemail from my sister with the results from her USMC PFT. She easily maxed out the flexed arm hang and crunches noting that she did 110 crunches and was bored after 70 seconds hanging. The only thing separating her from a perfect score was 16 seconds on the 3 mile run...done in Florida...this afternoon...when it was like 100 degrees. She's a stud. And she won overall, with the highest score on both the Army and Marine PFTs. I was a distant second.

Final Tally (Out of 700)
1. Katie (Smythe) Wade - 679
2. Brad Smythe - 666
3. Rusty Fennell - 596
4. Meghan Hegarty - 553
5. Mike Chappell - 498
6. Andrea Smythe - 432
7. Erica Labonte - 373
8. David Oyler - 262
9. Jennifer Hannen - 232
10. Valerie Highsmith - 179
11. Dave Meyer - 91
12. Rita Beard - 87

Thanks to those of you who took part and to those of you who allowed me to take part (Andrea, mom, dad, Finn, and Liam). You all ROCK!

Who knows, maybe we'll do this again next year!

The Raleigh PFT Challenge is in the books

Though the turnout was a little less than I expected, it was exactly the group that I was hoping for. In the end, we had 12 participants register scores in the events. Maybe next year I'll make it more user friendly and not just fit in events when I have free time. I could do a run of t-shirts, make on-line preregistration mandatory, and charge $40. Or not. I might try to advertise it a bit more, maybe with local military recruiters. I'll have final results up today or tomorrow.

If you're reading this and participated, thank you very much! Please email me or comment with any suggestions.

Brad

Last event this Sunday!

Hope you've been working on your pull-ups! We meet and start Sunday morning at 0700 at the pull-up bars at Shelley Lake (near the big grass field), at mile 0.5, assuming you go counter-clockwise around the lake.

Contact me with any questions!

-Brad

Round 3 Coming up!

If you've waited this long to join us, don't wait any longer! The final event in this year's PFT Challenge is scheduled for Sunday, July 10th. We'll hold the event at Shelley Lake in Raleigh (for the sole purpose of the dual pull-up bars.) The test consists of a max pull-up set, crunches, and a timed 3 mile run.

New athletes welcome! Email with any questions, and check out the rest of the info on the blog.

Round 2 Results and Updated Standings

Round 2 took place yesterday and we had some awesome weather for it. Much better weather, than say, Gainesville, FL, where Katie took the series lead (warm and humid there). We had two new athletes join the competition and both put up good marks. Round 3 is also worth 300 points so the overall winner is still yet to be determined. The USMC PFT consists of a 3 mile timed run, max pull-ups and crunches. The date for that one is July 10th. (If you've got a conflict, let me know and we'll set something up prior to then.)

Updated standings:

Athlete Round 1 / Round 2 / Total

1. Katie Wade 28F, 94.375 / 287 / 381.375
2. Brad Smythe 33M, 94.750 / 285 / 379.75
3. Rusty Fennell 44M, 99.375 / 277 / 376.375
4. Erica Labonte 21F, 91.875 / 282 / 373.875
5. Mike Chappell 42M, 95.000 / 248 / 343.0
6. Meghan Hegarty 27F, 90.625 / 250 / 340.625
7. Andrea Smythe 30F, 83.375 / 200 / 283.375
8. David Oyler 45M, 0 / 262 / 262
9. Valerie Highsmith 41F, 0 / 179 / 179
10. Dave Meyer 47M, 91.500 / 0 / 91.500
11. Rita Beard 22F, 87.875 / 0 / 87.875

Active.com link

link here: http://www.active.com/running/raleigh-nc/raleigh-pft-challenge-2011

Round 2 Coming Up

Round 2 in the PFT Challenge is the day after the Army Birthday. The date is June 15th (that's a Wednesday evening) at 6:00. The run portion will be a one mile out and back (total of 2 miles) on the Crabtree Greenway. The meeting point will be the Greenway parking off Lassiter Falls Circle (off of Lassiter Mill Road, across from St. Davids School).

The Army PFT consists of a 2 minute max push-up set, a 2 minute max sit-up set, and a timed 2 mile run.

The push-ups will be much more strictly graded than they were on Monday. Starting in the up position, lower yourself as one unit until your upper arms are at least parallel with the ground then move up to lock out at the top. If your arms don't lock out at the top, it doesn't count. Pacing yourself is key in this one as 120 seconds is an eternity when your arms are shaking. Resting is done in the up position.

Sit-ups, similarly, will be strictly graded. Fingers touching behind your head, elbows to knees at the top. Lower yourself until the bottom of your shoulder blades touch the ground. Again, 120 seconds is forever when it hurts to breathe. Resting is done in the down position.

A timed 2 mile run is just a little harder after the muscle workout above.

Each exercise is worth 100 points and are gender/age graded.

This is not designed for you to get a high score if you don't deserve one. This is designed to test yourself against military standards.