CrossFit TYL will host a pump and run 5K 9-11 a.m. Saturday at the CrossFit TYL gym, 500 S. Oak St.
“They’ve done a pump and run up in Winterset for quite a few years, so we just thought it would be a fun thing to try,” said Chris Doster, owner and trainer at CrossFit TYL.
Pump and Run is part bench press competition, part race. It’s open to all ages and there are four divisions for both men and women.
Participants will weigh in upon arrival, and part of the challenge of the Pump and Run is to bench press a percentage based on age and body weight. A male competitor age 14 and under will try to lift 70 percent of his body weight and a female competitor in the same division would need to lift 45 percent of her body weight. Men, ages 15 to 39 would need to lift 100 percent of their body, and women in the same age division would lift 60 percent. The requirement for males 40 to 49 is 90 percent and women in the 40 to 49 division need to lift 55 percent of their body weight, while men in the 50 and over division need to lift 80 percent and women 50 and over need to lift 50 percent.
Doster said, “We don’t do a lot of bench press here, but people from Hanson’s, a lot of them are into bench press.”
For each successful bench press repetition a contestant completes, 15 seconds will be taken off his or her run time.
“Say I did 10 reps at my body weight for a male,” Doster said. “Then, that’s 15 seconds off for every rep, so it would be 150 seconds off, which is 2 and a half minutes. If I ran a 20-minute 5K, I would take 2 and half minutes off. 17:30 would be my time.”
Competitors will not be required to do the bench press portion of the event, however, in order to be entered in the 5K they must successfully complete one repetition. Those not completing the lift part of the competition can still run, but they will automatically be entered into a 1 mile run.
“If you can’t do a bench press at whatever weight you’re supposed to,” Doster said, “then you can do the run. You’re just automatically entered in the run. There’s a mile run or a 5K. People can come and just do the run. I mean $25. That’s a typical price for a 5K. If they like to just run, come on out and run. If they like to pump, I suppose they could just do that and then walk. If they do a whole bunch of them, they wouldn’t have to run very fast.”
The race route will begin at the CrossFit gym and will be two laps around the southern part of town, running east to Rainbow Park, north to Union Street, west to New York Avenue, south to Fremont Street and then north on Oak Street back to the gym.
Medals will be handed out to first, second and third place winners in each division.
One of the goals of the event, Doster said, is to bring in people who have never tried CrossFit. To that end, any non-member that competes will get a discounted membership for their first month.
“We’re hoping a lot of people come out,” Doster said. “We’ve got quite a few signed up online.”
Registration for the event is $25 and people are encouraged to register ahead of time at by visiting https://raceroster.com/events/2018/17430/crossfit-tyl-pump-and-run.