Pulling away from the competition

A girl doesn’t just roll out of bed one day to become Idaho’s strongest woman. She has to tie a rope to her pickup and pull it around the neighborhood a bit.

So went Kristyn Vytlacil’s story Saturday as she captured the women’s title at the 2006 Idaho’s Strongest Man competition in Post Falls. The event in the parking lot of the Hot Rod Café challenged men and women to shoulder press logs, to flip giant tires and to pull vehicles like human tow trucks – with only honor going to the winner.

About 30 thick bodies from four states showed up for the event, styled after strongman contests on ESPN television. Vytlacil was the only woman.

She has been to three strongest man competitions. “This is the first one I’ve been to where I was the only woman,” said the 5-foot 2-inch, 160-pound dynamo, who managed to heft 130 pounds over her head 13 times.

When Vytlacil’s name was called for the truck pull, the 23-year-old prison instructor from the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla sat inside a 700-pound tractor tire, braced herself, then grabbed the business end of an 80-foot ship rope and pulled a full-sized GMC pickup hand over hand for 60 feet.

“I do have a GMC 1500 4x4 at home, and I practice,” Vytlacil said. “I get in a harness, and I pull it strapped to my back, or over, over, over (hand) pull.”

The transformation to strongwoman hasn’t been an easy one, Vytlacil said. She used to wear size 8 pants, but buff thighs have forced her up to a size 15, with ample fabric to thread a belt through at the waist. She’s put on 30 pounds of muscle and mostly hangs out with burly guys, many of whom can’t relate to the struggles a 5-foot-2 woman has flipping a farm tire taller than she is, end over end.

And then there’s eating. Athletes in strong competitions, no matter the gender, consume about 5,000 calories daily, more than twice as much as the average person.

Tim Nagy, a 315-pound winner of Saturday’s heavyweight division, eats a meal every two or three hours to get enough calories. Besides oatmeal for breakfast, his diet consists mostly of chicken and lots of ground beef. He eats ground beef because it’s a good source of protein, Nagy said, and he doesn’t wear out his jaws chewing several steaks a day.

Nagy, a diesel mechanic from Auburn, Wash., won all but two events in his weight class. In one event, he failed to simultaneously tote two 300-pound objects luggage-style for more than 20 feet. Competitors who neared the mark inched forward, veins bulging in their necks, before dropping objects within inches of their feet.

“I’ve squished just about everything,” said Rocco Liogghio. “The worst thing about getting squished is realizing suddenly that your finger’s flat and then later the nail comes off.”

Liogghio, 46, gets a little ribbing from the other competitors about how smooth his hands are. He works in the information technology industry on the West Side. He works out with Nagy and strongman Jason Marunde, a regular on ESPN’s World’s Strongest Man competitions. Among the things the men do to train is go to Allied Van Lines early in the morning and flip tires end to end before the moving company opens for business.

There is little financial reward for the amateurs competing at events like Idaho Strongest Man – only the chance to flip more tires, tote bigger boulders and pull larger trucks. A premier amateur contest might offer $750 to $1,000 in expense money, plus some free supplements. By winning his weight class Saturday, Nagy secured the right to compete at the North American Strongman Inc. Open Men’s Nationals in Louisville, Ky.

Jay Hagadorn, of Nampa, Idaho, also won the chance to go on by finishing second to Nagy in almost everything. Hagadorn, 33, topped the field in the final event. Harnessing himself like a horse to an 18,800-pound semi truck, he pulled the rig 60 feet in 19 seconds. His face turned blueberry purple while he was doing it, but he got it done.

Vytlacil is on her way to the women’s nationals in Wilmington, Mass., though she’d like to put on 40 more pounds before she gets there.