If firefighters work 24-hour shifts, one might wonder what they do on days off. For one Washington firefighter, winning fitness competitions is an off-duty alternative.

Capt. Johnathan Hardin, with Washington Fire-Rescue-EMS, and teammate Travis Turnage took on 100 other competitors Aug. 2 to win CrossFit’s Red, WOD and Blue competition in Myrtle Beach — WOD, a CrossFit term meaning Workout of the Day. The two-man team competition required one participant to be an active member of a fire, law enforcement or rescue department — Hardin — and another CrossFitter.

CrossFit is fitness regimen that’s gained massive popularity recently, incorporating high intensity, yet functional, movements into workouts. One of CrossFit’s many competitions, the Red, WOD and Blue tournament is designed for not only fire, law enforcement and rescue personnel to participate, but to bring awareness to the rigorous challenges those jobs entail.

Team Paragon, the team name under which Hardin and Turnage always compete, slid into first place during the final trial of the match, narrowly earning victory over a team that included a South Carolina sheriff, Hardin said. The competition involved dragging a life-sized dummy, running with a 45-pound bag of sand on one’s back and scaling a six-foot wall 86 separate times during a timed trial, among other physical tests.

Hardin has been doing CrossFit for three years and regularly trains for CrossFit’s many competitions, but Red, WOD and Blue is a different take on the regular tournaments.

“This one was a little special because it involved firefighters and police competing together,” Hardin said. “It’s probably the toughest competition I’ve been in so far.”

That comes from someone who has made it to the semifinals of the Reebok CrossFit Games, in which the company refers to its competitors as “the fittest on Earth.”

Competing in CrossFit tournaments is only part of the draw for Hardin. Being a firefighter means putting oneself in the way of physical harm — it’s part of the job — but deaths in the line of duty come from a surprising source, and one that’s preventable, he said.

“Heart attacks are the leading cause of death for firefighters,” Hardin said. “(CrossFit) plays into my job because everything I do in CrossFit translates to movements I do on the job. It definitely makes me a better firefighter.”

Hardin said the workouts are both mentally and physically demanding and require a participant to push past what they believe they can do, just as working the job can be. His dedication to fitness has worn off on others in the department because they’ve seen their own results through better physical agility test times that personnel is required to take each year.

“Anytime we can work out, that’s always a good thing,” Hardin said.

Hardin plans to compete Aug. 23 in CrossFit’s Legacy Series Race WOD, also in South Carolina, a competition that includes CrossFit workouts along a five-mile run.