ThursdayMy god it were warm (read with Northern accent LOL). 27+ degrees C indoors. Starting with a pick up of me and my equipment inc the Millennium Dumbbell on Thursday afternoon and away I went. I met up with Chris, Joshua and co at the iharts gym and wowed the first crowd of the weekend with a quick 1000page book tear while sitting in reception.
I also got to meet an old bud, Steve 'steedee' Dawson and partner Sally Hart+2. That and an ice cold Guinness... nice. Then I got to crash at the Ibis. Thanks goodness I didn't have to do the Mac D breakfast this time.
FridayFriday am and we were away in a convoy of cars and vans heading 'down south' towards the NEC. We timed it right - hot, boiling hot and what felt like no air con in side the massive halls. I've seen a comment online about the lack of air con in the halls when they were open to the public. They WAS working dude - you should have been with us Friday.
We pretty much stayed at it from 12 noon through to 8pm. I made sure to say hi to any of the more familiar faces I saw. The first order of the day following our short fast drive to Coventry where we stayed (yes hotels were that booked up), mostly a guy thing, was an old so cold and oh so sweet Guinness (another of the several that barely touched the sides over the three+ days). A very quick scrub up (did I??) and then an oh too chatty (by me) mixed grill. Yum. More bods had arrived during the day/evening so I shared my room with Steve Smith. Steve's an market trader and if I thought I had some gob... he beat me!
SaturdayUp early and no brekkie at the inn so Steve and I scooted over the road to a petrol station M&S for snacks and shed loads of water. With the venue due to open at 10am we arrived at about 8.30 and not too long after met the exhibition girls i-harts had got down to help out. The final touches to the stand, plus some grab shots and before you knew it the PA system announced 5 mins to go. I was scheduled to be on the main stage at about 11am so that hour, as you can guess, was fast.
We had a backstage chat with the MC, sound man and the girls about how the show would go. With the girls, including Victoria Gribben, working the crowd for me we were off. The MC, much practiced, helped and I started off with some quick nail bending and then we had volunteers come up on stage (all got a free shirt). Some workman's gloves were provided and I quickly tore an Argos catalog or two while they got ready. Some cheap frying pans were rolled up and discarded and so on. The 'all.... day....long...' phrase may have been abused a tad ha ha.
Then with Chris Hart timing we had the guys attempt to become benders (see banner with shirt design). We had two groups and one guy, who I chatted to after and found out was a cross trainer, caned 16+ in 90-seconds which remained the best record over the whole weekend.
I also, using a 20-kilo disc, lifted one of the girls up on a rolling thunder handle, pin and clip and span them round. As I said during the weekend, even though I can lift way more weight lifting up a person always works well. I finished with a pull or three on the 228lbs Millennium dumbbell.
Back on the stand i-harts was doing a roaring trade of their £5.00 goodies bag. Given that other companies offered up bags of their own for free this was awesome. At times, with me helping clear stuff away and pulling bags forward, we were barely able to keep up.
The guys and gals made sure I was fed, watered and where needed 'coffee'd' up so I could do my thing. Even so my claim of 'all day long' seemed to a little hopeful come 4pm. I'd done 3 more shows and nail bending comps each time we got some good numbers in front of the stand. Towards the end I started doing the claw of death with my hands cramping and sore. 6pm couldn't come quick enough. Some what bizarrely and maybe because of it I was faster through the 1810 page Argos catalogs later on than I was earlier on.
Back to the pub and hotel for more Guinness and another (better this time) mixed grill. I also iced my hands as they had started to feel sore and I needed them in tip top condition for the following day. No tears, blood etc just sore spots and a little cramping.
The rest of the gang went into 'B'rum' for a few hours (to about 3am) but I must be getting old cos there's no way I could do that and then kick ass a few hours later. So I grabbed 5 hours snoozing before hearing them arrive back and then 'enjoying' Steve's ''light'' snoring. Ahem. I am deffo getting old cos there really is, for me, no place like your own bed. It still took me a day after getting back to have a real solid nights kip.
SundayIf I thought iharts had brought too much stock down for the weekend I started to change my mind when we had, literally 10 mins after the door opened, the same if not better sized crowds we'd had on Saturday. I took a photo, now on facebook, showing the crowd as above - just minutes after opening. Damn it was busy.
One or two morning shows and we were really enjoying good crowds around the stand. Chris and Steve were doing their 'how much, are you mad?' double act and the bags,m if anything, moved even quicker Sunday than they did Saturday. Talk about promotion. The guys and gals we had still with us were working very hard at keeping up and in between shows I was clearing empty box after empty box in an effort to keep the stand tidy.
A subway for lunch and then I had to get an escort through the crowd with NEC security clearing the way with the kit inc the dumbbell. As I pointed out to them when it seemed to be an issue - no kit no show... bye ha ha. I'm fixed with a DY Noxpump by one nice red headed woman (never did get her name) who we'd been friendly with all weekend (cuddles and all). I'm back stage shortly after for another chat with the MC (also called Steve) and he sorted me out two Cheerleader girls to work with. I also spoke to Andy Harman, NPC competitor and Dragan Radovic who'd been on stage before my 2.30pm show with his son. Apparently his son had beat his timed record over whatever time they did it by doing 750 reps with the 20-kilo bells curl and press. Amazing, simply... wow.
The crew turn up and initially the crowd seemed to disappear so the guys and gals went out throwing out samples and shirts and in no time we had 200 plus clamoring to have a freebie. Showtime!!
Kye Thomas, sometime trainee at our whey gym, had come down with some buddies and they were up on stage first. Nails were bent and Kye won. A recommendation for what we do strength wise ha ha. More book tearing and dumbbell and girls picking up ensued. Catalogs were torn and either thrown down with a flourish or tossed out over the crowd.
Making my way back after (I'd sat for a few minutes back stage) I heard that Andy Bolton did a 432.5kg raw (no special suit) deadift. First off - awesome lift. I was on my way past later, after the lift, and he calls me over and we chatted about his grip training with me all those months back. That in itself was sweet. Then guys are having their photos taken with us BOTH (sweeter). He says it's the fastest he's moved since surgery and after just 8 or so weeks training back. Mind numbing. Just before seeing him I'd had another crack at the HG350 on the Ultimate Grip stand.
Back on the I-Harts stand and within a few minutes we're in 'Sale' mode with an everything must go attitude. Steve's already warmed up when we were on stage with a 'we don't want to take it back in the van' spiel and now this is in overdrive. At one point I have to literally stop (yes I know - but it was that mad) people coming onto the stand and there was so many hands out it was back to the MMI days of Muscle Tech (photos from that time show crowds surging towards the MT stages at expo's). This was chaos!! But how many shirts, bags and goodies were sold or given away I have no idea. Once the madness died down some and boxes etc cleared away Chris very kindly weighed me up, as they say, and I managed to persuade Loz and H to give me a lift back which was very handy.
Finally I'm with Laurence Shahlaei and his brother Harry and whose sitting in the car right next to Loz's? So they have a quick chat about Loz's 400kg effort etc. One hell of a weekend . All in all f'ing sweet
