Kim Holway, a patrol sergeant with the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, said, "It'll be awesome to compete with other public servants who have the same struggles as I do." She was thrilled to discover that, for the first time, this year's Games include her chosen discipline, CrossFit.
Caldwell Clarke, a captain in the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department as well as a triathlete, is looking forward to the "camaraderie — meeting firefighters from across the world." He said with a chuckle, "I get to race with them and against them, and hopefully beat them."
There is plenty of reason to believe that both will do well. The 47-year-old Holway, who lives in Hamilton, became the world champion of her masters age group at last year's CrossFit Games and is determined to defend her crown next month. Clarke, a 36-year-old Leesburg resident, has won a number of events in his division and, having already completed two Ironman events, is gearing up for another one in the Olympic setting of Lake Placid, New York.
If the location of this year's Police and Fire Games is ideal for both participants, the timing is not so great for Clarke, who has had to train for two very different triathlons. The Lake Placid event will feature the Ironman length of 140.6 miles, complete with full marathon, but the Games are using the Olympic distances: a 1,500-meter swim, a 40-kilometer bike ride and a 10K run, for a total of about 32 miles.
"It's like training for a 5K and a marathon, so it's two different types," Clarke said. "But I'm trying to get all my volume of training in for both events."
Oh, and just "for fun," the firefighter is also planning to compete in the Games' stair race, which entails racing up 28 flights wearing full firefighting equipment. And just, presumably, because he's a lunatic, Clarke is also set to compete in the 10K cross-country race and the half-marathon.
Thus his schedule during the Games looks like this: stair race on Saturday, cross-country on Tuesday, triathlon on July 3, and half-marathon July 5. All this before doing an Ironman on July 26.
"Everybody I've told that I'm doing all these events, they're like, 'Yeah, you're crazy, you're nuts.' There's not a lot of time for recovery between events, but you know what? It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have it here," Clarke told me.
Besides, he pointed out, while the stair race involves more floors than a firefighter might normally expect to encounter, it's just a one-way trip to the top. In real life, "that's half the battle . . . once you get there, you can't be out of breath and tired — that's when the work starts."
For Holway, the Fairfax Games "are at a perfect time, because I'm already training hard for the World Games and trying to reach a certain peak. . . . It'll kind of give me an idea of where I'm at, and," she said, adding with a laugh, "get used to the stress of competition."
One ongoing issue for the officer is balancing an extensive training regimen with her job, which "can be a challenge at times." A 20-year veteran of the Loudoun force, Holway has forgone possible promotions by using her seniority to secure day shifts.
Those shifts come in 12-hour increments, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., although she alternates between two-day workweeks and five-day weeks. On workdays, Holway tries to get in an hour of cardio, and on off days she spends three to four hours at a local gym.
Because CrossFit competitors don't know what specific tasks they'll be performing until shortly before the events begin, they have to be "prepared for anything." Holway, a runner in high school and college who got into powerlifting, likes that, in addition to Olympic weightlifting, CrossFit involves gymnastic movements such as "walking on your hands, climbing ropes, doing a lot of ring movements or bar work," plus cardio training.
All that working out does occasionally come in handy at her job, such as the recent time when she had to push a car out of the roadway. "A passerby was, like, 'Do you need help?' and I was, like, 'Nope, no problem, I got it,' " she said.
When Clarke goes to work, he usually arrives at his Pohick fire station by 5 a.m., all the better to get in some time on the treadmill before his 24-hour shift begins at 7. He works roughly 10 days a month, with intervals of up to four straight days off.
Even on Clarke's days away from work, he tries to get his training done as early as possible, especially when his two young children don't have school. In addition to running and swimming regularly, he goes for two to three 90-minute bike rides a week, plus one long ride, usually around five hours.
He thinks that the expected heat and humidity could provide something of a home-field advantage. He also made a point of running in March's Reston Half Marathon because the Police and Fire Games will use some of the same course.
Both athletes noted that another advantage could come from simply being able to sleep in their own beds. "I know I'll get good sleep," Holway said, and since it's a two-day competition, "I don't have the stress of having to travel, or find places like a hotel, or having to maneuver in an area where I'm not familiar."
But while Holway and Clarke are in it to win it, the main thing for both is to have a memorable time. Certainly, they didn't give much thought to any particular rivalry with their police and firefighting counterparts.
"It'll be good to just be together, and compete together," Holway said. "And I find it hard to believe that anyone will be cutthroat in trying to do well in their sport. . . . Let's hang out, let's have fun with this."
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2015 World Police and Fire Games
What: A biennial competition open to full-time public safety officers who may compete in 71 events (some are police- or firefighter-only)
Where: Fairfax County, multiple sites
When: Friday-July 5; opening ceremonies are Friday, 6 p.m., at RFK Stadium in Washington
Admission: Free for all events, subject to capacity
Information: www.fairfax2015.com, 202-480-9734
