SE: K-State BSB Alum Lucas Pfannenstiel Competes on ‘American Ninja Warrior’
Jul 03, 2017 | Baseball, Sports Extra
After years of preparation and hours of waiting, Lucas Pfannenstiel stepped onto an elevated stage at Kansas City's Union Station ready for the moment. Cameras aimed toward Pfannenstiel and lights illuminated him in front of hundreds of people around 5 a.m., on April 24.
Pfannenstiel, a K-State baseball alum, competed in the hit NBC obstacle course competition show, American Ninja Warrior, on that long night in April. While Pfannenstiel's part in the night did not make the cut for Kansas City's one-hour episode, which airs on Monday, July 3 at 7 p.m. (CST), on NBC, the experience was enough in itself.
"It is truly larger than life," Pfannenstiel, who played at K-State from 2000-01, said of competing on American Ninja Warrior. "You see it on TV, and I always hear people say, 'Oh, that's so easy. I could do it.' I'm telling you right now, it's much harder than it looks."
Pfannenstiel's road to obstacle course racing — OCR, for short — started as a hobby in 2011, a way to keep his "competitive nature" alive, he said. He tried triathlons and road races, but neither stuck the way OCR did.
"It was really the obstacles. I've always enjoyed running but being able to climb walls or run through mud or lift things, just the different, unique obstacles was really the thing that set it apart," he said. "I just kept doing them for fun and had a lot of really, really good results. I decided to train more seriously and see how far I can go and see how good I could get."
In 2015, Pfannenstiel turned his OCR hobby into more of a lifestyle. The culture within the sport took hold of him and he embraced it whole-heartedly.
"I have never seen anything like it. Everybody is out there for fun and to help each other out. The camaraderie is just so amazing," he said. "We're out there racing and we're battling against each other, but if somebody gets lost off course, we're hollering to get them back on the course. If people are injured, we're stopping to help. If we're at an obstacle, you can't help people out on obstacles, but if you see somebody struggling, you give them a technique or a tip that might help them get over that obstacle.
"Even though we're out there fighting against each other, we're a really, really tightknit group."
This camaraderie reminds Pfannenstiel of his time at K-State, where he can draw plenty of parallels from then to now.
"The competition, having that bond with your brothers on a baseball team and having somebody to compete with was just amazing. Always having that field for competition, it drove me to today," Pfannenstiel said. "I found different brothers in obstacle course racing. It is a solo race, a solo event, but you can't do it by yourself. You have to have friends. You have to have training partners to push you. When I was at K-State, we pushed each other. Whether it was in the weight room or the practice field or traveling for games, and that's what it is here. It's being able to push others, help others see their dreams and succeed in life goals."
Training for OCR, Pfannenstiel said, requires a well-rounded fitness routine. Running by itself isn't enough, nor is lifting.
"You have to do a lot of high-intensity interval training. You have to do a lot of grip strength. You have to do a lot of heavy carries," he said. "The training's tough because you have to train for a lot of different aspects of it but, once again, that's why I like it."
Pfannenstiel, who lives in Olathe, trains with more than a handful of people in his neighborhood. He's also part of an OCR Facebook group for those in the region interested in training together, called Mid America OCR, with more than 600 members.
While being on the road often for his job as a fire protection engineer can make finding time to train difficult, Pfannenstiel, who is also married with two children, said his passion for the sport allows it work.
"That's what helps set me apart. I 100 percent make it a focus of my life. It's not a want, it's a need," he said. "It's a priority of the life."
Last year, Pfannenstiel was picked up by Conquer the Gauntlet, a professional OCR team that holds races throughout the Midwest. While some professional OCR teams bring in athletes with the main purpose of winning races, Pfannenstiel said Conquer the Gauntlet's goals lie more in growing the sport.
"Our job is to go out and win races, but it's also to promote, promote the industry, promote running, just be a face for people to ask questions to and be part of the crowd," said the 38-year-old former Wildcat. "It was cool to be part of this team because I love their values, I love what they stand for. They have a hashtag, #CTGFamily, and it's what really, really hit home for me, because to them it's all about the people. It's about creating a great race, a great race series, great race venues and just being there for the people, getting people to come out and love the race, being part of it and wanting to come back. That family atmosphere really made it a good match."
Pfannenstiel's favorite part of OCR is the obstacles, which he feels is his strength in the sport. It's a big reason why he wanted to get on American Ninja Warrior, along with feeling a strong connection to the show's premise of motivating others.
"It really intrigued me," he said. "I just thought it was a really cool opportunity just to see what I could do."
To earn one of the spots in Kansas City, Pfannenstiel had to submit a three-minute video to the show's casting department about four to five months in advance. About 100 competitors are selected for each site out of tens of thousands — more than 70,000 people applied across the country last year.
Many contestants are selected based on emotionally driven stories of redemption or of overcoming great odds, said Pfannenstiel, who went a different route. In his video, he said he displayed his outgoing, high-energy personality and his skillset in OCR, which proved to be enough.
"I was really, really thrilled that they selected me. I was extremely lucky to get picked," said Pfannenstiel, who does bring a unique style to OCR with his mohawk. "Everybody has their thing. I came up with the slogan, 'Mohawks win races,' and that's kind of my thing. It really stuck with me."
Pfannenstiel arrived to the obstacle-filled course that April night at 9 p.m. As contestant number 86, he waited, and waited, and then waited some more. It wasn't until around 5 a.m., that his time finally arrived.
"It was an extremely long night," he said, "but I couldn't sit down because it was so much fun."
Nerves that kept him up for weeks before the event subsided once he stepped onto the stage.
"Everything was gone," he said. "The fans were so loud. The course is so big and the cameras were in my face. Everything else shut off and it was 100 percent focus, 100 percent beast mode. That's one of my slogans, 'Go beast mode.' I was up there and I was ready to go."
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