Labor Day Labors - Ken Leistner (1996)

 MILO January 1996

Thanks to Howard Menkes for providing this article.  Howard also happens to be mentioned in the article as well!

Years ago, we used to celebrate Memorial Day with a barbecue and a day of strength work at Ralph Raiola’s house. Since the opening of the Iron Island Gym, this has been impossible. Memorial Day weekend has been the date for the annual Iron Island Memorial Day Bench Blast, a contest that has seen quite a few world records, including the smashing of the 400-pound barrier for the first time by a woman lifter. Tamara Grimwood, the fine athlete who accomplished that feat with a 402.25, Chris Confessore, and others have made our Memorial Day meets memorable, but Ralph missed those eating and lifting fests that left everyone talking for weeks about the great time they had.

With little fanfare and great glee, Ralph and Michele hosted a Labor Day bash, complete with lots of food, lots of beverage, and lots of lifting, reminiscent of the Labors of Hercules. A great time was had by all. With the gym open until 3 P.M. and the lifting starting at 4 P.M., some of the competitors were put at an immediate disadvantage as they opted to eat first and lift afterwards. Frank De Marco, a formidable opponent in pasts contests, had to pass on the first event as he faced the choice of either filling his hands with the heavy log or the four hot dogs he was holding. He wisely chose the hot dogs, giving him, as he later explained, “Lots of energy for later events.” In the spirit of friendly competition, Ralph’s intricate system of scoring broke down early, leaving all exhausted, satisfied with their efforts, and having little or no idea about their placings. This is typical of the fun-filled times we often have related to strength training, with the only complaints related to the degree of seasoning in the homemade sausage.

Our events consisted of maximal repetitions in the overhead press with our heavy log. I originally made this log in the mid-eighties when the head of Lilco’s tree trimming crew (our local power utility) exchanged it for chiropractic services. I’m probably the only health care professional to barter services for a log, and walked away feeling that I got the better of the deal. I machined and secured parallel grip handles in this and a lighter log, but never bothered to weigh either one. The very powerful Tom Metzger and I tied in this event, although I deserved no share of that title as I knew what I needed to win, took two attempts to push the winning press to completion, and failed both times, scraping my chin in the process.

Ralph proved tough in the second event, and by this time, some of the neighborhood children had joined the throng on the sidewalk and lawn of the Raiola residence to witness the bizarre happenings. I bought brand new perfectly matched sledge hammers a few days before, and these were held in abduction for time. Frank’s four hot dogs had digested enough for him to smoke everyone else. Special mention should be made of Jackie Metzger’s performance as her delts stood out in bold relief, prompting our cameraman John Mahon to shoot half of his roll of film on this one event. To compensate for the sake of fairness, the women, and only young competitor, my son Sol, lifted our short thick bar with weights instead of the heavy log, and held out huge plastic jugs filled with water. Sol needs special mention as he eschewed the bottles for the big guys’ hammers.

Our third event was one of Ralph’s favorites, but Vinnie Borgia and big Howard Menkes surprised everyone with blistering times. Ralph made a very nice sled in his wood shop and loaded it with plates. Metzger fulfilled his request to bring a “thick rope” that could be used for a hand-over-hand pull up the driveway. Tom, of course, came through with a rope that in and of itself weighed over two hundred pounds! Now we know what our local clammers have to deal with on a daily basis. We “older competitors” were blown out after the pressing and hand-over-hand sled pull. The younger guys seemed to gain solace and rejuvenation from the between-events beer.  How do they do that?

 

Here is the aforementioned Howard Menkes pulling a 1160 lbs anchor chain

 

Our final event was by far my favorite. Jim Sutherland is perhaps the most brilliant manufacturer of strength training equipment in the country. No one can understand what a trainee’s needs are and then render the product so skillfully. I had two old Navy practice bombs that when filled with sand or water, weighted approximately one hundred pounds. Filling and refilling it was a pain- messy, and at times, difficult. I originally bought these from Archie McPhee’s weird product outlet in Seattle and then sent them to Jim for retooling. He welded beautifully knurled handles, filled them with melted lead and put a base on them so that they would not get crushed when dropped. We wound up with these great 125-pound carrying implements that are extremely well balanced.  Thank you, Jim.

These were lifted from the ground, with the competitor springing twenty yards up the driveway to the start of Ralph’s back yard. Once on the dirt and grass, five quick deadlifts were done, all of it timed. The ladies used one of our fifty-pound elevator counterweights in each hand. My wife’s triceps and delts were popping out as she used her former Purdue University top sprinter’s speed, but it was her butt, traps and low back that were screaming in the days following the run.

We eventually gave up trying to figure out placings and settled on recovering from our efforts, eating and drinking until late in the evening; and thinking about next year’s events and what other things we could do to have fun with our strength. This is what strength is all about. This is what MILO is all about.

Competitors: Vinnia Borgia, Frank DeMarco, Howard Menkes, Kathy Leistner, Jackie Metzger, Diane Oates, Drew Israel, Tom Metzger, Sol Leistner, Ralph Raiola, Dr. Ken Leistner.

Referees and Timekeepers: John Bott, Marie Bott, Mark Tuesday