LUMBERTON — A 40-year-old Lumberton dentist hopes the third time will be the charm as she competes in one of the country’s most physically demanding televised obstacle course competitions, “American Ninja Warrior.”
Desirée Walker leaves Sunday to compete on Season 11 of the show, which airs on NBC. The show features hundreds of competitors from across the United States trying to complete a series of obstacle courses of increasing difficulty in various cities across America in hopes of advancing to the national finals and becoming the season’s American Ninja Warrior. Her performance will be recorded and air later on the show, perhaps in May or June.
This year, Walker will be competing in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
“Winning ‘America Ninja Warrior’ is actually just being able to be on the stage,” Walker said.
Walker first heard about the show in 2013 and was encouraged by a friend to audition. At the time, Walker was already trained intensively, so she auditioned. The show requires contestants to submit an audition tape no matter how many times they have competed. Walker said she believes what gives her an edge in the decision-making process is her being a dentist in a small rural city like Lumberton, her in-office training gym and her age.
“Young people in there 20s do this,” she said.
There’s another reason Walker was picked again to compete.
“There’s over 50,000 people that apply. It’s really just luck,” she said. “I got lucky. I got really lucky. They wanted me back for a third time.”
This time around, Walker knows what her weaknesses are and does not have to go far to train for the grueling competition. She has created a makeshift training room in her dentist office at Lumber River Dental, where Walker has about 1,500 active patients. In between fillings, cleanings and tooth pulling, Walker takes breaks to practice her balance on a slackline, to improve her grip strength on the rope that dangles from the office ceiling or walks down the halls on her hands. Her newest addition to the room is a personal trampoline.
“I try to make the obstacles as close as I can to the show,” she said. “I try to get my environment like a Ninja Warrior course so when I go into my environment, it’s easy to train. I don’t have to separate life and training.”
When designing the layout of her dental office, Walker said she knew that she would enable her training in it.
“This is where my mental awareness and physical awareness is,” she said about the training space.
Walker will see a brand-new course in Atlanta. Each season the obstacles change, but they usually have similar characteristics, she said. The first obstacle requires jumping, like on the quintuple steps — well known by competitors. The next requires grabbing or reaching. Then balance is tested.
“There’s always a balance obstacle. You have to run across a little narrow bridge or you have to jump on these little teeny, tiny, wobbly stones or you have to walk across something narrow,” Walker said.
Strength is tested next, she said.
“You just have to train balance, you have to train grip strength, you have to train spatial awareness and as many different ways you can combine them by looking at the show,” Walker said. “You don’t really know what obstacles are going to be at the competition.”
Walker trains three times a day, with her most grueling workout in the morning. She also has friends across the state who loan their ninja courses so she can train on them.
The last time Walker competed she made it as far as the second obstacle, the rolling log, which requires the competitor to hug a log with their arms and legs as it spins to the next obstacle. Walker said her 5-foot-3-inch frame ended up working against her.
“I tried to put my arms and my legs around it, but the momentum just completely ripped me off and I fell right in the water,” she said.
Walker said her slight build puts her at an advantage in some areas and a disadvantage in others.
“The advantage of being small is that you’re light and when you’re light, you can pull yourself up. So that’s a strength for me,” she said.
A disadvantage for her are obstacles where she needs to reach.
“The taller girls and guys definitely have an advantage in that,” she said.
Still, Walker’s background in gymnastics and acrobatic training gives her a leg up in the competition.
She hopes to lead the way for others who want to compete on the show.
“I hope that what I do can motivate someone else to work out and be an inspiration,” she said.
