BELWOOD – Father-daughter duo Mike and Norah Pinkney from Belwood won an international Ruck Race Partner Series this fall.
Ruck Race League (RRL) is a new sport for people who ruck (walk or hike with a weighted backpack) and want to challenge themselves.
The competition was modelled after the CrossFit Games, said Mike, 47.
It includes five workouts with a ruck and is measured by elevation, weight, time and distance. A participant completes a workout and uploads the results to a shared leader board.
Pinkney began his solo competitive rucking journey in April when the first workout was released.
“I feel like more people need to move more often because there’s so many health benefits psychologically and physically,” he said.
After five months of intense workouts, Pinkney ended up winning one of the workout events called the Atlas, during which he carried 322 pounds for one mile.
Overall, he finished 25th out of 300 competitors.
The league then introduced the partner series and his 14-year-old daughter Norah jumped at the opportunity. The series ran over eight weeks in September and October.
“Her growth over those eight weeks was insane,” Mike said.
The duo completed one of the races that included rucking 400 metres four times – twice each and taking turns. The catch: partners must carry the same weight.
Norah lifted 160 pounds on her back for the first 400 metres.
“I thought her spine was going to snap,” Pinkney said.
So they decided to drop down to 100 pounds for the rest of the race, which placed them eighth on the leader board.
When all workouts were complete Pinkney and Norah were sitting around fifth place out of nine teams.
When Mike relayed the standings to Norah, she wanted more – especially after finding out the winners receive RRL-branded Yeti tumblers.
With a week left, the pair decided to redo three out of the four workouts.
“One of the workouts was to carry 20 per cent of your body weight on your back and walk as far as you can in an hour,” Pinkney said.
The goal was to beat their first attempt of 7.1 kilometres.
“Our second attempt came to 8.9 kilometres,” he said.
Two days later they tackled the four-by-400 metres race again, with Norah carrying 173 pounds each way.
“I just sprinted as fast as I could because I wanted her to have as much time as she could,” Pinkney said.
Lastly, the pair had to carry 20% of their own body weight and reach the highest elevation possible in 45 minutes.
“You would run up a hill, come down and then your partner would then run up the same hill,” he explained. “We passed my watch back and forth … and it recorded our altitude gains.”
On their first try they gained a total of 900 feet of elevation. Pinkney knew they needed to find a better location to gain the needed elevation.
Which is why the Shand Dam at Belwood Lake was their final destination.
“It was raining, it was dark … and we ran those steps,” he said.
Every turn was credited for approximately 55 to 60 elevation, leaving them with a total of 1,500 at the end of the 45 minutes.
The duo ended up winning and Norah got the Yeti tumbler that had motivated her.
“She was pumped,” Pinkney said. “My favourite moment of all-time competing is running up and down that Shan Dam.”
Pinkney recalled hearing Norah’s voice at the bottom of the steps. Worried something was wrong, he turned around, only to hear her singing a song titled Everything is Awesome.
Pinkney said he hoped to inspire other fathers to get active and know “their athletic life is not over.”
“I’m keenly aware my wife and I are the same age and statistically speaking I’m going to die four years before she does for no reason,” he said.
“I would love for men to be able to close that gap by simply going for a walk with weight.”
Because Pinkney placed 25th in his solo RRL, he qualified for the finals in Marietta, Georgia on Nov. 22.
“I came seventh … and it was wicked fun,” he told the Advertiser.
Pinkney ended up rucking 36km with 45 pounds on his back. He was supported by two friends and messages from home.
