You may know him as a dominant para-cyclist, but Dennis Connors is a versatile athlete. Hear how he claimed his third USA Climbing Para National Title and secured a spot on the National Team.
It's Dennis Connors here.
This past weekend I had the amazing opportunity to compete in my fourth USA Climbing Para National Championships. And the competition did not disappoint! Hosted at Touchstone Pacific Pipe in Oakland, CA the competition hosted 145 competitors all competing for a spot on the National Para Climbing Team and the ability to represent Team USA at Paraclimbing World Cups and this year, at the COMBINED Able-bodied and Para World Championship in Seoul, South Korea! Just like in other Para sports, athletes are classified into different categories based on their disabilities. My category is Men’s RP2 which stands for Range and Power. Athletes in my category can have a myriad of different disabilities but the common thread is the disability affects two limbs.
Qualification Route
The competition started on Saturday with the qualification round. Climbers are assigned two different climbs, are given a preview video of the climb, and then are assigned a time for each route. We are given one attempt at the route and are scored on how far up the route we get before we fall off. Each hand hold is worth a point. So, if you get the the 20th hand hold, you get 20 points. You get the maximum score if you get the TOP hold on the route. After some coffee and a good breakfast I headed to the gym about 2 hours prior to my start. I always have a bottle of water with a small scoop of Skratch on race or competition days just to force in some hydration. I spent about 40 minutes warming up to make sure I was ready to go at my allocated start time. I pulled onto the first route and felt good, until the tippy top, where the route challenged my disability and I had trouble bringing my left foot up to a small hold and I fell grabbing the top hold of the route. In between routes I kept hydrating with LMNT and fueled up for the next route with an Amacx Drink Gel.
Second Route
My second route consisted of very overhanging climbing for about 40 feet meandering across the wall before turning vertical onto small holds. My ataxia gets worse as I get tired so my ability to be accurate, (think: quickly touching your finger to your nose) gets worse over time. I had to launch my right hand out for a small edge about the thickness of a pencil and only about 2 inches wide. My ataxia hands missed and I was off the route. I was disappointed as I wasn’t tired, I just missed. But hey that’s climbing. It was enough to advance me to the finals round in 2nd place. I always follow up my climbing with a Clif Protein Bar immediately following my climbing before finding some real food.
Finals Route
Sunday was the Finals round where the climbers who advance from qualifiers start with a clean slate. We are kept in an isolation room and cannot see each other climb so we have no idea how the other climbers did. We get 6 minutes to look at the route before the competition starts and the come out of isolation one at a time. Basically, we look up and start climbing. I knew that with the strength of the other, and much younger, competitors in my group I was really going to have to bring it all on the Finals route. After a few hours in Isolation our category was up and we went to climb. During Iso I kept fueled with a Kyoku shake early on and a Amacx Energy Fruit Chew about 30 minutes before climbing. Sipping LMNT the whole time. I pulled onto the finals climb and felt fantastic. The route was short and powerful climbing with small holds leading up to a big left handed move. I felt great and heard the crowd go wild when I grabbed a hold that was only one hold away from the top. I had to balance on my left side which is my partially paralyzed side and pull into to really small holds. I came off one hold from the top but it was enough to take the win! This is my 3rd National Championship win in the past 4 years and I earned a spot on the National Team. In prior years it would have been my only competition on the year as I the competitions overlapped with Paracycling Races. But this year being the first in the Paralympic four year cycle, I plan to compete at least one Climbing World Cup and at the World Championship in Korea in September!
The Feed Products I Used:
LMNT and a Kyoku shake in Isolation
Amacx Chew about 30 min before my climbing
Clif Bar Protein builder bar immediately following my climbing
If you want to follow along on my journey here is a link to my instagram: https://thefeed.cc/Dennis-Connors
