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The Recorder, August 10, 2005
"Sports: Just push through"
By Kyle Belanger, Recorder Staff
(Click here for PDF version)
On his left arm, written in black permanent marker was the No. 408 - his numerical identification for the morning.
On his right upper arm, in the same dark ink, was written in capital letters the identification he wanted nobody to forget: "PAT."
At age 19, Greenfield's Peter Bell was carrying more weight than most of the other competitors combined in Sunday's Greenfield
Triathlon. And as I witnessed the morning's events unfold in their entirety, I have to admit I wasn't able to maintain my dry eyes.
You see, Bell wasn't just running the race for himself - though his time of 1:11:09 gave him fifth overall in the Sprint race -
he was competing for the memory of older brother Patrick.
"It was hard standing there in that transition area," Bell said, recalling his pre-race feelings less than two months after his
23-year-old brother Patrick died. "There was a little doubt (that I'd compete today). But this was (Pat's) event; he's been doing
it since he was 13. No matter what he had going on in his life, he was always here."
So, regardless of what Peter Bell may have had penciled into his schedule before his brother's death, he was not about to miss this
race - an event the triathlon committee had appropriately dedicated to the memory of their fallen friend.
And with the vocal support of the spectators familiar with the Bell family's situation, Peter Bell was having himself one heck of a
race. In fact, entering the race's final leg - the run - Peter had opened a sizeable lead over the rest of the field.
That was when things got a little tough for me to watch.
As Bell put down his bike and exited the transition area on foot, without a second-place competitor in sight, I got to thinking
about what must have been going through his head. Which, of course, led to thoughts about my brother, and how deep our relationship
is, and how completely incapacitated I would be for weeks if anything were to happen to him at such a young age.
Meanwhile, in front of my eyes, I was watching Peter Bell bounce back from what was undoubtedly a devastating tragedy to post
what appeared to be a storybook performance.
Of course, this wasn't a storybook, and the run pounded away at his lead, as Bell faded to a fifth-place finish.
"The bike is always going to be my strength. Just like my brother (Patrick), I've never been a great runner. He would always lose
it on the run, so I guess, in keeping with Bell tradition, I had to lose it then," he said with a good-hearted chuckle and a
humble glance at his shoes.
Peter wasn't the only Bell on the race, though. Not by a long shot. And the writing on his arm most definitely was not the only
visual memento of his older brother. There was this little matter of "the bike." Instead of having me explain it, listen to this:
"I was actually riding the bike that Patrick gave to Peter," explained 14-year-old Michael Bell, the youngest of the four Bell
siblings. "It's a little beat up, but it works pretty well." Yeah, I know. Emotional stuff.
For Peter, the decision to hand over the bike - which already held so much sentimental meaning - to his kid brother was a no-brainer.
"I think that a couple days after (Pat) died, I forced myself to get back on the bike," Peter recalled. "He was the one who got
me on there when I was a freshman in high school.
"Pat gave me his old bike, and took me out for rides all the time," he continued. "That was a big part of our relationship. Just
a couple of days before he died, I had gotten a new bike, so I handed the one he gave me to my little brother (Michael)." Which, of
course, led to quite an emotional maiden voyage.
"We went out for a ride together, and that was 20 minutes of just crying," Peter explained. "I rode up Frizzle Hill as hard as I
could. I got to the top and my little brother and I just sat up there. It was one of (Pat's) favorite rides.
"It was training, but it was also very cathartic just to get it all out."
It wasn't just the Bells who were talking about the late Patrick. In fact, as I was walking away from Michael Bell,
another competitor approached me, just moments after his impressive second-place finish in the International race -
and he wasn't interested in talking about himself at all.
Corey Boilard of Keene, N.H., held a water bottle in his left hand and had sweat pouring off his face when he spotted me, and
hollered, "Hey, are you with the Greenfield paper?"
"Yeah."
"I wanna talk about Pat Bell," the 27-year-old Boilard said.
And just like that, he launched into the story about the first time he met Bell.
"It was here two years ago when they cancelled the swim (because of high bacteria levels in the water), he was such a positive guy.
Everyone loved him, and they all had a reason to," Boilard said with his sweat-soaked hat tilted to the side.
"I remember, one time, he told me that he liked to eat honey on bread before a race because Lance Armstrong did it and I guess it
was his thing, too," the suddenly-loquacious, no-longer-a-stranger Boilard said. "Two weeks later, I was doing it. If it was good
enough for Lance and Pat, I figured ..." And that was where Boilard stopped, for one reason or another, choosing not to finish his
sentence.
I knew where he was going with the thought. You do too. In many ways, it's similar to what things were like when Pat was around:
You knew what you were going to get - persistence and a whole lot of smiles.
Which is just what helped young Michael Bell through his morning.
"You just have to get through the pain," he finished. "You just have to try to think what Pat would have done, and that's push
through it."
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