When the race is long — a 70-mile test of speed and endurance, for instance — there are multiple chances to misstep.
And when the goal is to be among the best at what you do, missteps are not tolerated.
On Nov. 14 in Clearwater, Fla., the Vancouver man took a significant step in the right direction. The 27-year-old placed seventh in his age division at the World Championships 70.3 triathlon. His time of 4 hours, 7 minutes and 22 seconds was Monda’s best by 17 minutes at the half-Ironman distance.
He completed the 1.2-mile swim in 30:12, the 56-miile bike ride in 2:10:45, and the 13.1-mile run in 1:21:53. He was the fastest American his age, the 37th fastest amateur in a field of 1,400, and earned USA Triathlon all-America status for the second year in a row.
For Monda, the performance was a satisfying conclusion to his fourth season of racing, and validation that he is on the right path as he dreams of qualifying for the Ironman World Championships.
Such an ambitious goal wasn’t on Monda’s radar when he took up running in 2005. He only hoped to shed some weight and shape up. It wasn’t long before his competitive nature kicked in and he was entering road races, then marathons, then triathlons.
Now, just a couple years removed from taking up swimming, he lives the triathlon lifestyle.
“My life is definitely eating, sleeping, triathlon, working — not in any particular order,” he said.
It is a much different life from the road Monda was on as a teenager.
Raised by a single mom in the St. Johns neighborhood of north Portland, he found trouble in his early teen years. He spent time in juvenile detention, and was ordered into an intensive drug rehabilitation program.
A runaway who spent time living on the streets, Monda faced long odds.
“Back in his young days I was a little concerned,” said Alan Monda, Josh’s father and a Vancouver native.
These days, Alan Monda is one proud papa. He marvels at how quickly Josh has become a successful triathlete.
“It baffles my mind to think about how far he’s come in a short period of time,” Alan Monda said. “Let’s face it, the kid never really swam until about 3½ years ago.”
The turnaround started a decade ago, when Josh Monda enrolled at Open Meadow, an alternative school in north Portland. He said he thrived thanks to the small class size and individual attention students receive at Open Meadow.
“When you have (a teacher) you work so closely with, you don’t want to let them down,” said Monda, who is now on the school’s board of directors and speaks in behalf of Open Meadow.
“I want to show people that with hard work and believing in yourself, anything is possible,” Monda said. “I have tried to prove this in overcoming my delinquency as a teenager, in my sales career and in this sport that I love so much.”
He enjoys sharing his story with current Open Meadow students. His message: “No matter where you are at in life, don’t shortchange yourself. Get out there, try to be the best you can be, and good things will come.”
Monda credits a more focused training program developed by Portland triathlete and coach Dave Ciaverella for helping him stay healthy and on track during 2009. In order to compete at the world championships last month, Monda had to train about two months longer than most of his training partners.
Monda said he uses the struggles from his youth and the discipline he learned at Open Meadow as he pushes himself through training. Whether it’s the knowledge of how fleeting opportunity can be, or his innate competitiveness, Monda’s personality is marked by a single-mindedness that pushes him to rise at 4:30 in the morning to swim.
“Usually, when my face hits the water I kind of snap (awake),” he said.
Now that he has seen how far his focused training can take him, Monda is eyeing a bigger challenge.
The goal that will get him out of bed before the sun in 2010 is to qualify for the Ironman World Championships. Never mind that Monda has yet to attempt a full Ironman-distance race.
Monda plans to enter the Ironman Coeur d’Alene in June. If he is at the top of his age division there, he will qualify for the World Championship event in Hawai’i in October 2010.
“It’s accomplishable,” Monda said. “But they’re pretty competitive events.”
Which, it seems, provide just the kind of challenge that drives the competitor in Josh Monda.
Paul Danzer covers Community Sports for The Columbian. Reach him at 360-735-4521 or by e-mail at paul.danzer@columbian.com.
