Okotoks Online/Harrison O'Nyons
Foothills County played host to the FireFit Championships on June 14 and 15, with the BC, Yukon, and Nunavut regional qualifiers being held at Spruce Meadows.
Several Alberta fire departments took part, including members of the Okotoks and Foothills fire departments.
Four Okotoks firefighters competed at the Alberta qualifier event in Medicine Hat on May 30 and 31, with four more joining them at Spruce Meadows.
The Okotoks competitors were Lisa Barton, Ryan Chigol, Davada Chudobiak, John Dillabough, Tim Houghton, Georgina Johnstone, Amanda Mason-Espin, and Alejandro Zamora.
Chigol, who has been competing in FireFit since 2006, posted the top time for men over 50 in Medicine Hat and repeated the feat at Spruce Meadows.
He said he's proud of how his colleagues represented Okotoks.
"Lisa Barton came in third in the women's overall competition. Georgina got a personal best. Amanda, I think she got a personal best by two seconds, which is awesome. Alejandro, that was his first time running, and he ran a 1:53, which, for your first time, is really good... Timmy almost got a personal best, he was short by one second. We took home a couple of medals that day, which was awesome."
Okotoks also had a strong showing in the team relays, with the men's team placing seventh out of 13 with a total time of 05:31:9, just a second behind the Kitimat Fire Department.
Barton, who was the only female Okotoks firefighter to compete last year, was joined by Georgina Johnstone and Amanda Mason-Espin.
Though they had only practiced for individual events, they formed a team and competed in the women's relay on Sunday.
"They almost took down one of the women's relay teams that did quite well last year," Chigol said. "They were short a little bit, but they gave it their all, and they kept up as much as they could. They were only behind them by about five or six seconds. It was awesome to throw a girls' relay team together like that and compete against some of the other women from Strathcona who have been doing the course for a few years."
Barton was also among the Okotoks firefighters who took part in the Firefighter Stairclimb Challenge the weekend before.
"The stair climb, it took a lot out of all of us. I was still feeling my legs. The stair climb was Sunday, and then we went down to Spruce Meadows on Friday afternoon just to scope out the course," Barton recalled. "I climbed up the tower and I got to the top and I was pretty gassed. I was like, 'Oh, I don't know if I'm going to do this tomorrow.'"
A major challenge for all competitors is the requirement to wear a full set of turnout gear, which adds weight and hampers maneuverability.
While heat might seem like the biggest hurdle, Chigol said it's manageable with proper preparation.
"I try to stay cool and not stay out in the sun before the race," explained Chigol. "Yes, having all that gear and all that extra weight on a hot day can be taxing, but the race in itself takes for some people anywhere from 90 seconds to four minutes. It's not like it's an endurance race or you're running a marathon. It's more, I would say, about the preparation."
Barton shared that sentiment, having learned a tough lesson in Medicine Hat.
"It was 33 degrees there, and I did not drink enough water. I thought I was funny, I was on everybody the day before to like eat properly and drink enough water. I was constantly reminding everybody on the drive there to drink their water, and then the next morning I didn't. So I had a little bit of a struggle during and after my race from that, but that's just something that you learn."
Looking ahead, the Okotoks crew will have to decide whether they want to travel to Kitchener, Ontario, to compete in the nationals this September.
Either way, Barton said she’s grateful to have returned to FireFit and to have more of her teammates by her side.
"It was good to get more traction this year, especially with more women, because I was the only girl who did it last year. It's pretty cool to have other females join the team now. It builds the camaraderie, us girls are getting closer because of it. It definitely brings people together."