Dan preparing for a run
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Dan Brady, GM Operations, recently participated in the World Firefighter Champs for the second year running. Between full time work and a busy young family, Dan pushes himself to train for this gruelling sport. Find out why… and how he went at the Champs!
After competing in athletics or rugby most of my life, a rugby injury forced me to take a step back. I checked out my local fire station in Devonport and decided it was a good way to give back to the place where my family has lived for four generations. I’ve been involved as a volunteer firefighter ever since and recently got into the competitive side of firefighting.
Competing
The competition
The firefighting competition is a huge personal challenge, mentally and physically. You can finish the race and be unable to move for 5-10 minutes – it’s the most anaerobically taxing activity I’ve ever come across.
Wearing 25kgs of gear and breathing apparatus the competitors:
- Run up six stories carrying a 20kg hose pack
- Haul up another 20kg hose pack
- Run down touching each step
- Hit an 82kg forced entry simulator steel beam 1.5m with a sledge hammer
- Run a 40m slalom
- Grab a hose full of water (120kg’s) and run it 30m through two saloon doors and squirt a target
- Pick up and drag an 82kg dummy 30m to the finish
You can barely breathe let alone stand up – it’s the ultimate test of fitness and is billed as the ‘toughest 2 minutes in sports’.
Team NZ
Juggling work, life and training
Fitting training around work and family life can be tricky. Both are my kids are exceptional at what they’re into (proud dad moment!) and have massive sporting/performance commitments. I work around their commitments and fit my training around them, especially in the off-season.
I’ve been lucky enough (and sought this out when I decided to come to Unitec) to have Will Seymour and Glenn McKay as managers, who have been really supportive of my sport. I either train before or after work and go for the odd run around Oakley creek or head over to the softball fields and do some hard grind during a lunchtime if it’s not an Operations peak.
The World Firefighting Champs
My first Worlds in 2017 were in Louisville, Kentucky. It was 22 degrees one minute, snowing on the track the next. This year was in Sacramento, California: 29 degrees the whole time and not a cloud in the sky! Sixteen countries competed, with numbers heavily dominated by USA and Canada. Firefighters over there are hugely supported, very similar to how their military is seen – people were constantly coming up to us saying “thank you for your service”; quite a unique approach. ESPN do coverage of the World finals and the local media got right in behind it. I “volunteered” (was stitched up by a mate) and ended up getting interviewed.
Last year, I broke into the World elite group called the Lion’s Den by running the course under 1min 40sec (100secs) for the Open Male. This year my goal was to break into the Top 15 and run under 1min 30sec, but a back injury in September affected my training.
I was pretty happy with my performance overall. After qualifying for the finals, I ran in 1min 36sec. My training partners and I also qualified for the men’s tandem final, co-ed tandem & men’s relay, breaking the New Zealand records in the Tandem and Relay in doing so. (Watch Dan’s Day 3 run below).
Next year…
I’m still hungry for that Top 15 so I’ll be heading back next year to Montgomery, Alabama, but first we’ve got the New Zealand season. I’ve got a couple of regional titles to defend on the way to Nationals where the goal will be to win the New Zealand Open Men’s title (currently held by a good mate) and hold onto our National tandem title.