With a great premiere of American Ninja Warrior 5 last weekend in the books covering the opening round of the region held in Venice, we turn our attention to the episodes on Sunday night on G4 and Monday night on NBC focused on the opening regional round held in Baltimore. Baltimore was the second of four regional cities in this year’s American Ninja Warrior, was the region where your humble host competed, and was an epic experience and a ton of fun. For me it was particularly special because I was raised in Maryland and my 71 year old mother and father, along with my oldest sister, were able to come and watch the competition in person and experience the scale and intensity of it live (the whole course is much bigger and grander in person). I shared what I could about my experience in my fairly emotional Thank You Baltimore blog I wrote immediately upon my return from the competition (we are bound by non-disclosure concerning our performance until after the airing of the show). I won’t cover the same sentiments and thoughts here, but if you are curious about the experience as a competitor, I’d encourage you to read that piece.
Who knows if they’ll show any or all of my run this season? I got zero airtime when American Ninja Warrior 2 and 3 were shown. I got a lot of airtime last season in American Ninja Warrior 4 when I was a featured competitor in the episodes that covered the opening round in Dallas, the regional finals in Dallas (where I was the oldest competitor to advance), and then the “Best of 2012” mini-series they ran earlier this year. They seemed to dig my story of being a 40 year old father-of-three, and how I drove for several days with my whole family just to have a shot to compete as a walkon (I didn’t get a guaranteed invite last year). But this year…who knows? My family and friends seem to think I am a lock to be shown again, but I think they are being optimistic and naive, yesterday’s star is today’s old news.
In any case, whether I am shown or not, I was absolutely thrilled to get another shot to compete, particularly when they got around 10,000 submissions for what was only about 400 guaranteed invites this season. I also think whether they show me or not, the viewers will get to see some amazing competitors with insane athleticism and great personal stories that are deserving of the shot and the airtime. Thank you everyone for your support, and I hope you enjoy the episodes on Sunday night on G4 and Monday night on NBC. Once the episode is aired, I’ll write a blog about my run, as you’d expect me to 😉