An athlete completes reps in SB OTS (Sandbag over the shoulder) competition.

This year’s Rally in the Valley brought athletes from 22 states and Australia to Hurricane for three days of hybrid fitness competition on August 29-31.

The athletes competed in trail running, weight lifting, CrossFit styled workouts and more.

On Friday night, competitors were challenged to complete as many 5k loops as possible on Meeks Mountain Trails in a four hour period.

On Saturday morning, action shifted to the soccer field at Valley Park for “Shallow Grave” competition. “Shallow Grave” is a fitness challenge that involves completing an increasing number of repetitions of a specific exercise or circuit, where the workout stops if you fail to reach the minimum required reps in a round. It’s a challenging routine that tests mental fortitude and physical endurance and is often used in obstacle course races (OCRs) to push athletes to their limits by eliminating them from the competition if they miss the minimum rep target for a given round.

The competition consisted of 5: 3-Minute AMRAPS, 24/17 Cal Echo Bike, Devil’s Press (50’s/35’s), and Max SB OTS (100/80).

The 5-round AMRAP session combines cardio, strength, and endurance using just dumbbells and a short running distance. Each 3-minute round challenges participants to push through a 150-meter run, 20 dumbbell push presses, and max walking lunges.

The 24/17 Cal Echo Bike is a CrossFit workout, where the number of calories to be completed on the Echo Bike is 24 for men and 17 for women.

The 5 Devil’s Press (50’s/35’s) requires 5 reps (50 lb dumbbells for men / 35 lb for women)

Max SB OTS (100/80) is Sandbag over the shoulder: Max reps in the remaining time (100 lbs for men / 80 lbs for women)

On Saturday afternoon, fitness competition moved to Shotfire Fitness on Midland Trail where it was Hinge Pin time. Competitors lifted barbells from the ground to hip height as many times possible in 30 seconds on/30 seconds off for six weights (225/135, 275/185, 335/225, 405/255, 455/295, and 500/255).

Action then shifted to the Putnam County Gun Club in Eleanor for Under Fire competition — a half mile run to the shooting range, followed by 10 burpees (a burpee is a full-body exercise that challenges chest, tricep, leg, and abdominal muscles). The burpees were followed by firing at a target with a .22 caliber pistol. Score is determined by time with shooting accuracy adding or subtracting seconds to the time based upon shooting accuracy.

The Bob and Weave competition on Sunday involved many elements of the Shallow Grave with an added quest of retrieving 3 dive rings and 1 shark (one at a time) at the Wave Pool while battling artificial breakers. The Challenge of the Waves was a first time ever fitness event.

Monique McCrenor, the Australian competitor, said that the wave challenge was worth her trip half way around the planet.

After retrieving the shark the athletes sprinted to the soccer field where they tied two sandbags together with a bowline knot, drag sandbags (60’s/40’s) to three cone stations; perform 30 Shoulder-to-Overheads with one sandbag; 30 Alt Shoulder Step Back Lunges; 30 Shoulder-to-Overheads at the goalie line; then drag bag to Endline.