Josh Billings - Berkshire Canoe Triathlon
I'd heard about the Josh Billings for several years and had been wanting to do it. This year my friend was getting into triathlons and asked if there was a race we could do together. The Josh Billings was perfect. It's a bike-canoe(kayak)-run triathlon which can be done in teams of 2, 3, or 4, or as an iron(wo)man. We were a team of 2: I biked 27 miles, we canoed 5 miles together, then she ran 10K. The race was yesterday, starting in Great Barrington, MA and ending at Tanglewood. The weather was perfect, in the 60s. I really enjoyed the 27 mile bike and managed to average 16.5 mph (which I didn't know I could do). There were hills, but only 2 uphills were long enough to test my stamina, and it felt like there were more descents than ascents. The bike leg ends at the Stockbridge Bowl, the lake near Tanglewood, and you paddle around it 1 3/4 times. It was somewhat windy, particularly on one end of the lake, so not the easiest of conditions. We saw one canoe that had flipped and stopped to empty their boat with the boat-over-boat technique and help them back in. They thanked us and offered to give us 3 minutes of their time, though I don't think the race officials got that message. The run leg went around the lake and ended at Tanglewood. There was a nice finish line party there with food vendors, but no free snacks for competitors. The hardest thing about the race, as a first-time competitor, was dealing with different locations for the start, the 2 transitions, the boat take-out area, and the finish. I missed my friend at the finish line because it took so long to paddle the boat the extra 1/2 mile to the take-out, carry it up to the parking area, get the car, load the boat, drive to where my bike was, load the bike, and drive to the finish line. Next year I'll get that part figured out better. We finished in 4 hours 5 minutes, 406 out of 462 teams, and in first place in the 2-women team category. Actually, we were the only team in the 2-women category. The course was in the beautiful Berkshires, the race was fun, we had a great time, and we'll definitely do it again. We will try to train at least once for the canoe leg next year.
