the Way of the Turtle

To Josh or Not to Josh...
Monday, August 15, 2011

Yesterday's race left me with serious doubts about doing the Josh Billings Runaground this year. The Josh starts with a tough 27 mile ride - lots of climbing, from what I remember from 1998 - followed by a 5 mile paddle around the Stockbridge Bowl (flat water, but sometimes it can get pretty windy) and finishing with a 6 mile run.

The bike course during yesterday's duathlon had a decent amount of climbing, but less than the Josh (from what I recall...) - and it thoroughly chewed me up and spit me out. I just haven't done enough riding in general and especially enough hill work this year, and it really showed.

I'm confident I could finish the Josh... but what took me a little over 4 hours back in 1998 will probably take me over 5 hours this time around... and I'm not sure that's fair to the race folks and especially to Ann (who'd be there to be my "helper".)

Guess I need to get my backside over to MA and ride some of the bike course - and see if it's as bad (or even worse) than I remember...

JMH