Personal Trainer

Chapter Thirteen

"What the hell are the firefighting Olympics?" Teddy asked.

All three of the firefighters's smiles in the room lit up.

"The firefighting Olympics are when every station in Seattle competes to be the best," Andy started.

"A combination of endurance, speed, agility and strength that pushes everyone to their limit. We all compete in various drills, races and skills and it is regarded as one of the toughest competitions we have," Vic continued signalling for Maya to continue.

"The winning team is given the holy grail of trophies, bragging rights for the whole year, a new vehicle of our choosing and $50,000 for whatever the station needs."

Everyone in the room seemed to just stare at them, wide-eyed at this new found information of which they had discovered, "So, how does it work exactly?" Amelia asked, sitting forward curiously.

"Well, each station has 4 shifts, A to D, so to avoid chaos ensuing across the city we each take a day to compete - Monday through to Thursday respectively and then on Friday the winning Station is announced. With each event someone from every station is selected and then the winner is given points which decrease the lower in rank you fall - then we have shift winners which are announced at the end of the day then the big reveal at the end."

"Huh - How have we never heard of this?" Teddy asked - she'd thought she'd lived in Seattle enough to have known about an event like this.

"Well, it's been cancelled the past two years so that may have had something to do with it - and I'd say its more a 'you'd only know about it if you a firefighter' event; it's not too widely publicised," Vic answered.

"Why was it cancelled?" Maggie asked on behalf of everyone who were now all evidently invested.

"Last year, D shift all got food poisoning and as the next shift we had to go on call, meaning we had to forfeit and we lost completely that year as only 2 shifts could compete," Andy explained. Carina looked over at Maya and had to suppress a laugh seeing the irritation on her girlfriend's face, clearly still bitter about the loss.

"Which we never forgave them for," Vic added with a scoff.

"And this year?"

"Do you remember that massive skyscraper fire that was on 28th and 1st in July?" Maya asked.

"You mean the one that meant I didn't leave the hospital for four days? Then yes I do," Maggie replied, her face showing the memories of the exhaustion and stress that she'd felt.

"We got the 5 alarm call just as we were about to start...so no firefighter olympics. But, myself and a few of the other captains managed to talk the chief into more of a...Winter Firefighter Olympics which is in 3 weeks so that means extra training every shift and no more eating crap in the station," Maya instructed, directing the final part to Vic and Andy who while solemnly nodded knew that in order to win and reclaim their title they needed to work hard for it and nobody knew discipline, fitness and dedication as well as Maya did.

"So, what sort of events do you guys have?" Link asked, opening another beer.

Maya let out a breath as she tried to recall everything, "So, it covers a range of skills. Strength which includes deadlifts, benchpress, pull-ups, pushups. Then endurance which is where the stair climbs come in; one of the worst in my opinion. Planks and hose line drills followed by Vic's favourite event..." Maya trails off to let her explain.

"Turnout challenge! Fastest time wins," She cheered. "Reigning champion, I have not been beaten and have the department record," she said with an equally proud and smug look receiving a high five from Andy and a grin from Maya.