Edmonton firefighter Chuck Cartier, said the competition is where they really feel the burn.
``It hurts all the time, I wonder why I keep coming back,'' said Cartier, 43. ``It's a good way to stay in shape for the job we do.''
The competition sees fully equipped firefighters perform the same feats of strength they would in a real fire.
They race up a four-storey structure carrying a 19-kilogram fire hose. After simulating a forced entry, they drive a heavy steel beam 1.2 metres with a mallet, then drag a hose 23 metres and spray a target.
And finally, they grab a life-sized mannequin and drag it to safety across a finish line 30 metres away.
The very best can run the course in less than one minute, 20 seconds, said Edmonton firefighter Sean McCartan.
``It''s pretty close to times when you're actually involved in a fire,'' Cartier said. ``When you go into a fire right off the bat, everything happens at once, there's a lot of hard work.''
Christian Vezeau, a world-record setting deputy fire chief from Cold Lake, Alta., said it's build-up of lactic acid in muscles that takes down so many competitors.
Vezeau, 41, set a world record in the chiefs' category with a time of 1:34.90. He's also the Canadian champion in his category.
``Your legs are just burning,'' said Vezeau. ``The biggest part of this course, besides being fit, is the mental aspect of it.
``You've got to be able to run through that and not think about your legs. As your body tells you to stop ... you have to keep going.''
