S08.E11: National Finals Week 1

[VartanFan]

Travis Rosen.....NOOOOOO!  

The most epic fall was the red-haired guy who ate it hard on the broken bridge.  

What else can you say about Jessie Graff??

And Flip's facial hair looks like the puppet's hair in Team America World Police when they glue splotches of hair all over the puppet's face.  

[Quilt Fairy]

I was so sure - so sure - that Jessie was going to fail Stage 1 when I saw she was running last and it didn't look like there was enough time in the broadcast for a successful run.  It wouldn't be the first time that ANW faked us out by touting someone all evening only to see them fail instead.  So I steeled myself to watch her run, wondering at every obstacle if this would be the one where she'd fail.  Except she didn't fail!  Seldom have I ever been so pleased to be wrong!  I was shouting and applauding at the end like I was in the grandstands rather than sitting alone in my living room.  And tonight, I did something I promised I would do on Monday after the show: I caught one of the endless reruns of the episode and I recorded only her run. I intend to save that for a long time.

[JenMD]

Heh, I did the exact same thing last night, Quilt Fairy. 

I was undecided about how the previews were going to play out.  I knew she at least made it to the warped wall (thanks for the spoilers, NBC) and even without the previews I had guessed if she made it to the wall this year, she'd make it up the wall.  But really, I just waffled all ep long as to whether she'd make it to the buzzer on time (little did I know).  Was a nail-biter, that's for sure!

[Chaos Theory]

The thing about Jessie Graff that is so amazing is she continues to improve each year.  I watched some of her early runs on YouTube and she fixes her mistakes.  She doesn't jump high enough on a trampoline during qualifying but she makes the jump at finals.  She doesn't get up the warped wall but she does the next year.  She makes it to Vegas but fails to finish......the next year well you all know the rest.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[Quilt Fairy]

It seems as if she sets reasonable goals for herself.  I'm sure deep down she wanted to finish, and described the course as "doable", but her stated goal was to get past the obstacle that defeated her last time, the warped wall.

 

Did anyone else think that broken bridge thing was kind of easy?  I think only one or 2 people fell on it. It seemed like the proper technique was to run really fast and if you were within a step or 2 of the platform just dive for safety head first. A lot of people made it that way.   Other balance obstacles that have been in that spot before seemed much trickier.

[kimberussell]

Brian Arnold had his girlfriend watching him. I'm 90% sure that a few seasons ago when he made the big announcement that he quit his job to train full time that he had a wife and kids. Does anyone else remember this?

I am also over Kacy. She didn't even make it to city finals. Much respect for being the first, but the course now is tweaked more to favor parkour runners and rock climbers and less toward gymnasts/runners. She, like a lot of the old guard guys, can't keep up with the newer athletes.

[healthnut]

2 hours ago, kimberussell said:

Brian Arnold had his girlfriend watching him. I'm 90% sure that a few seasons ago when he made the big announcement that he quit his job to train full time that he had a wife and kids. Does anyone else remember this?

His girlfriend, Shanda, has been referred to as his wife incorrectly a few times by the show...perhaps they didn't like "pregnant girlfriend" back in 2013 or they they wrongfully assumed. They have a child together and she has two kids from a previous relationship that lives with them also. 

[mlp]

Brian has a very tolerant girlfriend - a climbing wall in the living room, stuff hanging from the ceiling.  I can't imagine.

[AZChristian]

If his sponsors are paying him enough to use their training equipment, I'd let him have them anywhere he wants.  I did notice (if I remember correctly) that they now show his occupation as "salesman."  Didn't he used to be "stay-at-home dad"?

[mlp]

I watched again yesterday and was horrified again when Travis Rosen fell on the first obstacle even though I knew it was going to happen.  He must have been devastated.  He said before his qualifying round that he'd considered retiring from ANW before this season but decided to compete.  I hope his fall doesn't change his mind.  He's long been one of my top favorites and I'd really miss him.

[simplyme]

50 minutes ago, mlp said:

He's long been one of my top favorites and I'd really miss him.

Me too, even if every time he runs they keep saying how OLD he is and I find myself staring into an open grave. Thanks, guys.

[QuantumMechanic]

Any idea what's up with the pig (in a blanket, no less :)) that you could see on the sidelines during Graff's run?  It was even referenced the LEGO of Graff.

[JenMD]

That's Jessie's pet pig, Sammo Hog.

[Fukui San]

20 minutes ago, JenMD said:

That's Jessie's pet pig, Sammo Hog.

Well that's just the greatest thing ever. 

[mlp]

Quote

Me too, even if every time he runs they keep saying how OLD he is and I find myself staring into an open grave. Thanks, guys.

I know  LOL.  Travis is younger than my kids.  And I'm still here.  :)

[healthnut]

21 hours ago, AZChristian said:

If his sponsors are paying him enough to use their training equipment, I'd let him have them anywhere he wants.  I did notice (if I remember correctly) that they now show his occupation as "salesman."  Didn't he used to be "stay-at-home dad"?

He used to be a maintenance director, I believe at a nursing home, before he quit his job to focus on ninja warrior. Not sure what he sells but he's trying to find ways for ninja competitors to get paid so they can train full time. He and his Wolfpack bunch are doing a US tour in which they have a Kickstarter trying to raise $25,000 to build obstacles. I don't think they're going to make their goal though. 

[JenMD]

I was debating between putting this in the media thread or here, but I think it fits more here.  It's an obstacle by obstacle run down by Jessie of her run, done with the Lincoln (NE) Journal Star.  I thought it was a great look at not only each obstacle and what's involved in getting through them, but there was also some interesting behind the scenes info.

Obstacle by Obstacle

[HawaiiTVGuy]

On 8/29/2016 at 4:19 PM, healthnut said:

I enjoyed Jessie's run but I would've enjoyed it more if NBC hadn't given away last week that she made it up the wall. 

Yes, all the wild cards were girls again: 2016 wild cards . I don't mind some being girls, but not all of them, really no more than 15, I don't even remember several of these girls. I really think they use them to even out the playing field because the difficulty varies in each city. 

I actually thought this course wasn't all that hard, seems pretty similar to last year. Most of the veterans that went out was kind of flukish, probably taking obstacles for granted. They spend so much time training for Stage 2 and 3 and it's the little stuff that can get you. 

Did I mis-remember?  I thought the Brent guy (Kacy's ex) didn't qualify for Nationals (on his merits) either?  Again, I am probably wrong, it is hard to keep track of everyone.

[Chaos Theory]

Hey I'm not complaining about the wild cards being girls.  I loved seeing some of them again.  Yeah maybe a few did quite deserve it but many if not most kinda sorta did.  Tianna,. Kristi Pratt, Allysa Beird, Michelle Warnky.  These were actually some of my favorites and I hope to see them all again next year.

[JenMD]

46 minutes ago, HawaiiTVGuy said:

Did I mis-remember?  I thought the Brent guy (Kacy's ex) didn't qualify for Nationals (on his merits) either?  Again, I am probably wrong, it is hard to keep track of everyone.

Brent didn't finish, but he did run the final fast enough to qualify for Stage 1.

[HawaiiTVGuy]

14 minutes ago, JenMD said:

Brent didn't finish, but he did run the final fast enough to qualify for Stage 1.

Thanks, yeah I had thought he didn't go fast/far enough.  Was he close to getting bumped?

[majormama]

Brent was 10th out of the 15 to qualify from his city (Oklahoma City). No, he didn't finish, but almost no one finished. Like three people total. Okay, I'm exaggerating, it was 11. One city had no finishers (Philly), and another had just one (LA). OK had two. A few of the qualifiers from OK failed on the Salmon Ladder, barely past the Warped Wall. Brent making it to Bungee Road was certainly far enough fast enough. Man, looking all that up makes me realize what a weird season this has been. Either the courses have gotten way harder, the people aren't as well trained as they appear, or a lot of people got really unlucky. 

[Chaos Theory]

On September 6, 2016 at 5:37 PM, majormama said:

Brent was 10th out of the 15 to qualify from his city (Oklahoma City). No, he didn't finish, but almost no one finished. Like three people total. Okay, I'm exaggerating, it was 11. One city had no finishers (Philly), and another had just one (LA). OK had two. A few of the qualifiers from OK failed on the Salmon Ladder, barely past the Warped Wall. Brent making it to Bungee Road was certainly far enough fast enough. Man, looking all that up makes me realize what a weird season this has been. Either the courses have gotten way harder, the people aren't as well trained as they appear, or a lot of people got really unlucky. 

Its a combo of both I think.  The courses have gotten way harder. Each of the finals courses had two added Vegas level obsticals and it was a bit of psyching out.  I think after awhile everyone just got pyched out.   Its been a weird year.  

[Kromm]

Curse of Akbar strikes again (when he talks about how Flex LaBreck was going to make it past the jumping spider, and then of course, in line with him doing that it means she didn't, immediately as he finished the statement). 

Oh... the new Giant Log Grip?  To me... made of win.  I love a vast grand equalizer.

Snake Run has been pretty entertaining too.

Edited September 14, 2016 by Kromm