Much unlike the last Tri that I did the Yorktown Sprint, I was the one shaming other people into racing for this one. My little brother Rob talked me into Yorktown so I bugged and nagged him till he signed up for this one. This was my chance to prove myself as the faster Triathlete in the family. He already has running on me by a long shot but I wanted my Triathlon crown back. This race was the Montclair Olympic (International) distance triathlon 1mi swim 24mi bike and 10K run. This not being my rookie season doing triathlons I knew what to do and what to expect, did I follow all of my own advice… NOPE. I figure I still did well this wasn’t my A race and life isn’t only about being a Triathlete and you have to make choices some times.

The weekend starts when I pick up my packet on my way home from the office on Friday. I decide to clean the house a little and the wife has to leave to go get a manicure. Now if you know my personality I hate having nothing to do and I hate hanging out alone. I decide to detail up my car and start making calls to see who wants to go to dinner or something. I catch my good friend Allen and his wife Maey and go grab dinner. After grabbing some TGI Fridays we run back get changed and head downtown into DC. This is where it gets really anti-triathlon. After a few Long Islands, Jack and Cokes, and a shot of Jager I get back home at 4am.

I wake up at 9 the next morning do a little house cleaning on my ample 5 whole hours of sleep. While doing house cleaning my mind starts wondering then I get a nice internal dialogue going “Josh what’s not clean” response “the house is cuz your doing that right now dude damn you’re a nice guy” response “ummm dude your bike isn’t get our there man, you need a sound bike if your gonna get on that podium.” So I start taking it apart to clean it and find that the crank is making a weird clicking sound. In a bit of a panic I go out for a short ride to loosen my legs up and stop by the LBS (local bike shop) on the way home. After the LBS told me there is nothing wrong I just write it off to whatever and forget about it mostly. Anyways I get back grab some dinner and crash at 10ish.

The Alarm goes off at 4:45 and I shove down another Snickers Marathon Bar. I have to say again that is a delicious and nutritious treat before ever race. Thank you 6lb 8 oz baby Jesus for bringing out Snickers Marathon Bars to the world. Then I slam some Gatorade and head on out the door. Since there weren’t any zip ties that I could find I locked my bike and Rob’s down with the clamps. I kept them from moving at all with old tire tubes I cut into strips (damn I should have been MacGyvor). We head on out and the wife drops us off at the race site nice and early at 5:40. On my way down I spot the race director and ask if they have taken the water temp today. This has been my worry all week long since it has been in the 90’s the answer I get back is 76 and I do the Josh Happy Dance. Well I get my Transition all set up and chill for a little while before realizing wow I really REALLY have to go to the bathroom. Luckily it hit me when it did cuz the lines got longer and LONGER as time went on.

Rob and I hop on the beach since we both start in the same wave and get ready to go. As we both enter the water we look at each other and I say “where did they find the water at 76 at? It feels like 80 something.” No complaints for me though and the whistle goes off and we cruise. This was a rather uneventful swim except I got my googles knocked off. Well after what seemed like forever the “1 mile” swim was done, it was actually 1.2 cuz we calculated it later on satellite maps still 33:56 is definitely good for me. Run my way into T1 sparing nothing at all trying to get my revenge on Rob beating me in the last Tri. I get the bike and make it out of there in a record time for my t1 2:08.

The bike was a little hilly definitely right in that area that splits the term rolling and stupid hilly. They are SEVERAL climbs where you can’t keep it in the big front ring gear you gotta go small. I told all of my friends make sure you are in the small ring gear before you put your bike up into t1 cuz it is at the bottom of a good hill. Did Josh listen to his own advice, NOPE. After fumbling around like an idiot for a while I get going. It was a 4 lap course which I liked because then I could watch every one else’s status and see how much time I had ahead of every one else. Anyways this is where it gets weird, I see Rob going the other way on my third loop after about a mile past the turn around. So I did the not so complex math and figured out I had him by 2 miles and that means roughly 6 minutes so far. Well I stopped seeing him after that so I assumed all is good and time to fly on the run. For the first time I pulled the risky move of un-strapping the shoes and take them off before T2 while still rolling. For the first time making a risky unpracticed move worked for me and I didn’t have a concrete sandwich for breakfast.

T2 went pretty well for me this time as well cuz I spared no luxuries and no time wasting. I was gonna see the podium today and I wasn’t gonna fall short. So I make it in and out of T2 in 1:05 which is again another PR for me. There is one bad thing about driving the course before you do an event is because you know what is coming. The run in one word was BRUTAL, it was hill after hill after hill. I just never stopped climbing. One thing that was nice about doing Montclair was a lot of the people that lived there were out watching. The cool part was a lot of them turned on their sprinklers and pointed them into the street, damn that felt nice. There was this one kid about 12ish with a hose in his hand as I get close I yell out to him and say “come on bro HIT ME!!!” He gets a nice big smile on his face as he soaks me when I go by. Well I pushed and pushed and pushed trying to get a fast time (for me that is). I can finally see the finish line and at this point I am in top gear floored. I keep looking over my shoulder for Rob and his final kick that kills me and it never comes. I am not gonna lie I felt like Pre for a minute looking over his shoulder for people trying to reel me in. I cross the finish line completely done, after almost throwing up on the timing guy I manage to walk back. Even with all of the hills I still ran a 45:16 which is by far the best I have run all year long.

After walking around and recomposing myself I ask a question I thought I already knew the answer to. Where is Rob, has he crossed yet? The response hit me HARD, “oh he has been back for about 20 minutes…” I was like huh, how he NEVER passed me anywhere, I know this cuz I was looking the whole time for him. So I talk to Rob and ask him, where is it that you passed me dude? And his response was on the last bike loop. My first thought was no I didn’t see you and my second was ok that would mean you would have had to run a 24 minutes 10K to spread 20 minutes on me on the run. Anyways I sulk on it for a while in disbelief finally I come to terms with it remember it’s only a race it’s not the end of the world and wait for the awards because Rob got 2nd in his AG.

Right before they start the awards the timing people make an announcement “can Rob Bell please come to the timing tent.” I walk up there like I did at Yorktown to make sure he doesn’t get shafted and understands the whole Triathlon speak since he is a runner. The first question out of the timing ladies mouth was do you have a computer on your bike that I can see? The answer was of course no, Rob runs the minimal to race he is after all a runner. So the next question was do you usually win the bike leg in triathlons? Of course the answer again was no. So they start talking and ask him are you sure you finished all 4 loops? He said he was sure then they told him he would have had to average over 26mph pace which was beyond elite status. The second place biking time was only 24mph cuz it was that hilly, so he accepted he only did 3 loops and not 4. I do have to say Rob has gotten better he didn’t throw a fit or be all whiney about it he just didn’t say anything for a while.

We get home, and we are in and out of the house in less than 15 minutes to head to another party. After some more drinking and parting the weekend draws to a close when we get back at 830pm. The next day the results are up and all in all I am pretty happy with the way things went. I broke out the calculator to see if Rob would have still beaten me if he did all 4 laps. This is how I did the math he finished 18 miles in 55:26 which is an average speed of 19.48mph. So I calculated that even if he was able to hold the speed for another 6 miles that puts his bike time up to 1:13:50 not 55:26. Now this bumps him another 18:24 and actually brings it in at 2:34:37 total finish time.

For my results my swim time for the “1mile” swim was 33:56 which isn’t bad because for 1.2 real miles. With the swim time I came in 11th out of 30 in my AG. T1 which is a PR for me was 2:08 but I still gotta practice that more. Bike leg I did pretty well I think coming in 8th in my AG with an average speed of 20.5 and a time of 1:10:06. T2 again another PR at 1:05. Finally the run was good for me this year at 45:16 which is 6th. At the Fodderstack I ran a high 48 and that was only a 10k not a Tri so not too bad at all. Total time brings me to 2:32:33 and 8th in my AG. I wanted a podium spot but oh well maybe next time. Montclair Olympic Tri I will see you again next year.