Mark Farrell |American Ninja Warrior Semi Finals | Interview at Park City Live

Joined right now by a very special guest coming off of his time at American Ninja Warrior. We are here with Mark Farrell Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me Blake. It's good to be here Yeah, my experience with American Ninja Warrior was a blast if you caught me on last night Ninja Warrior Yeah, Mark Farrell aka Ninja Beta 2.0 I was on for semi-finals and it was amazing You brought so much energy to the course itself. It was so fun to watch you compete Can you tell us a little bit about your experience on the show specifically the semi-finals that we all got to see last night? my experience on the show Was definitely an eye-opening experience compare comparison to Houston Houston was inside a dome When I was at Universal Studios, it was outside. It was a little bit colder felt the winds It was raining so we had the elements against us and you have the lights the cameras were in the middle of Universal Studios But I had tunnel vision and when Ninja Beta 2.0 gets ready. It's time to bring the noise That's all I gotta say. I Wanted to ask you a little bit about fighting the elements. It was raining. It was cold You told me that it was kind of in the middle of the night Could you kind of explain what was going on behind the scenes? So American Ninja Warrior has to follow a certain rule set So they're trying to get out the kids who are 16. They got to get out under 12 12 in them in the morning at night So they're trying to get get those guys out of there And at the same time we have rain there was thunder going on as well I ride around probably 12 and it started coming down hard and they have to shut down the course and then they have to clean it So it probably rained for a good hour And everybody was kind of worried when they're running and when it was raining also you can fill this Just as cold It just started breaking down Ninja Warriors after they got cleaned up and then ninja warriors start running people you wouldn't normally see Fall on different obstacles. We're falling all over the place after that. Well, I gotta think I mean It's a lot of grip strength And so if things are wet it probably affects that and then also trying to get up, you know Maybe the warped wall you're probably sliding down that as well. So it makes it super difficult. I would assume Yeah, you're affecting it's affecting your grip. It's affecting Your mental game, you know, you're like, oh man, this is cold at the same time You know your blood circulation isn't working as as a as effective as possible So you're finding yourself running in place trying to stay warm Luckily, they have heaters all over the place which was accommodating and they got some food available But at the same time you're not on your a-game, you know that your grip The cold affects you significantly Yeah, and that's kind of some of the things that you might even need to prepare for I mean only the the top of the line are able to you know Get to the semifinals like you did and so you have to be ready for every single possible outcome And so I have to ask you how much were you training for this prior to you getting to the semifinals? I was probably trained. I've been training for you know, nine years So obviously I've been training a while but when it comes to probably about Three or four months prior to a competition especially, you know Americans wear out know if I'm gonna get my chance again I put on my a-game. I'm training about Three plus hours a day And I train in elements I train the heat so I don't train the cold But I I try to make sure that you know My body is under strain and I'm trying to conquer obstacles while my body is strained at the same time What inspired you to start doing this type of training It's such a specific type of athletic training and a specific way to get in shape I guess I should say what inspired you to get into this Obviously my the trainer Who owns the gym ninja warehouse Carson Boyles? He's a big step towards inspires any kind of ninja that comes his way and then also Lauren ball Filipino ninja he made it on semifinals. Look at holler at your boy Lauren ball He inspired me to even start ninja warrior and look at him he just flying down the course He's about my age, too He's almost 40 as well So guys like him that just don't let age affect them or their ability are just inspirational to me You know and you're inspirational to so many as well. I mean not to mention I mean your age which you aren't, you know, a 16 year old kid doing this specific course here You're a little bit older than that And then on top of that you also are like the announcers were saying a little bit heavier You don't have the super short small body type that makes it almost easier to go about this course What is the mental capacity that you have to have to be able to kind of go against all the odds? Yeah, obviously I'm breaking through stereotypes. I don't have the ideal body for an American ninja warrior But you know, I believe you can do anything if you set your mind to it I definitely have to work a little harder being at 200 pounds isn't the ideal weight. So I do a lot of stretching So those at home, they don't believe that stretching doesn't work. I beg to differ. I do yoga There's yoga out there yoga is definitely beneficial. Trust me the one of the big things I wanted to ask you about as well is specifically what it looks like to be on this show what it takes What was the process like just to get on to the show? The process to get on the show is your video you better have you can you can have and be gifted in any kind of athletic ability and then apply and then Get rejected because you didn't have a good enough story to back you up Story makes a better If you're if you were submitting a video it would you would definitely want to submit more story than Athletic ability probably 70% more story You know me prepping up for that video You know, I had to put a hundred and thirty percent effort into it getting married all my energy all Everything that I could all my blood just poured into this video and then it just became a beautiful masterpiece I definitely would like to share that with you It's definitely a creative moment for me and I'm gonna bring part two already working on my video already Because I know how much time and effort it takes. Yeah, so this next year. What are some of your plans? What are some of the things that you're looking forward to as you are hoping to get back on the show and as you're preparing To create this video I'm part two is I'm actually going to get married this This year to my fiancee Michelle. Mwah. I love you we're doing a Tango dance a tango dance and a huge lift at the end and we're having cameras galore film us We're having professionals teach us how to do all the the lift and the all the moves So we're taking it very seriously and I'm gaining a little bit of weight just so I can you know Make sure I'm doing everything how it should be and then um as far as the video goes, too I'm putting all my athletics in there gonna bring the noise Obviously, I'm gonna gonna do a sneak peek to the New Jersey that I created with as well But I'm excited. I'm excited like tell ya mark. Thank you so much for joining us here on the show today We really appreciate the time. We can't wait for your energy next year as well Good luck with your wedding and good luck getting back on the show next year We are going to be right back here on mountain connections in just a little bit