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Though you may not be familiar with the Josh, make no mistake, it is the 2nd largest Canoe Triathlon on the Continent, as well as being the World Josh Championships, and the pinnacle event of the Berkshire Olympics.  I have competed in the cycling leg when I could since 2002, and won it in 2005 (the bike portion) but this year I am back in the two person division with canoe paddler Mark Peters.Canoe triathlons are unique in the aspect that most paddlers aren’t really the strongest runners or cyclists, this results in the vast majority of teams being entered in the relay format.  So while there were only 400 teams, we were racing against 1400 people.  In the past I just did the bike, while Mark and Bill would paddle, and we would have various whippets do the run.  Now that I have emerged from my cacoon as a triahlete, our new strategy was to have me bike, paddle with Mark.

Rachel came along to tell stories, entertain the driver, (1750km 2 days) and be Josh Sherpa.  There are transition area’s, but spectators are allowed, anything goes.  Also all events are point to point, so someone has to run ahead to literally catch the bike and hand me shoes/ life jacked to the paddle… and so on.

Bike warm up, pack start with 400 other people, most of whom have never ridden in a pack….  The fist 1.5km to the climb are really tense, but then 390 of the people are dropped, than 5 more, lead group, but we have one more hill going up.  Either my legs are tired from IM last weekend, or my triathlon specificity (I can ride 280 watts for 5h, but no longer can pull off 600 for 3 minutes.

I’m still 3rd off the bike but at the first turn (of the canoe) buoy it looks like there are a lot of people breathing down our necks. The guy in the back of the boat (me) is in charge of steering me, while Mark in the bow is the powerplant.  I did pretty well, with my part though we, uh, had contact, with a few other boats (oops) and did a little extra zagging, when we should have been zigging … and a few e-braking situations.  Less than 1 (of 10) km to go and we’re passed.  As I yell at Mark to ‘dig, go, dig, go’ and think about running so that hopefully some blood will head to my legs, I hope that these ‘older’ guys don’t run like Bob Knuckey.

Hop out of the boat, onto the beach, thanks for water Josh Sherpa, I’m excited, and going perhaps a little too quick (3:15 first km) and manage to pick of 3 people, and unbeknownst to myself the leader of my category to finally win the ‘big mug’.  Prizes are coffee mugs, which are sized for your placing.

At long last Mark and I have our Large Mugs.  This makes us happy.

Otherwise I hustled home, repacked, and jumped the bus to the Buffalo airport - and a long day later I am in Red Rock outside of Vegas, in the heat, getting ready