10 weeks to get ready for show? I guess it would come down to how much work that you have to do,,this show I believed help me get back on track, bodybuilding has been something in my life to help keep structure and focus, I'm sharper when I'm dieting and I get things done, for this reason I did this show, I needed to get back at my training and needed a goal and just so happened that this show was in 10 weeks, I had not trained very much the whole year of '99 and I guess for a while I thought that winning the Atlantics was the top for me, and so I had to get back to my roots and find myself, 10weeks was not alot of time and I knew that I could not waste a second on any negative thoughts, part of the incentive also was that the Nationals were coming to Halifax the very next year and this would be the only show that would qualify me, so I love a challenge, "Bring it on!!" At the beginning of this plan I was 180 and very soft, great arms and legs but that was it, more work than any other show and less time but I was confident that I could do it and be better than I ever was I would regain that title that I had won in '96, I knew that this show would bring alot of great names to it because of it being a qualifier for the Nationals and they were coming so close to the Maritimes, there are lots of names that I can think of from back in the day but one name stands out, his name is Bruce Sweeney. I met Bruce way back in the day in Moncton when I trained at the Fitness bank, they called Bruce "The Tank" because of his size, same height as me but 250, Incredible!! 5 weeks in to the diet I had heard a rumor that Bruce was going to the show, with 5 weeks left to the show and being extremely burned out because of the crash dieting I was doing this is what I needed to give me a lift. Early one morning at the "Y" I'm training and out of the corner of my eye I see this huge guy with a hood over his head and I knew from the traps touching his ears that it was Bruce, as I was looking he looked up and smiled, he then ask me how things were, I lied and said "I feel great" lol show no weakness, ha ha,, I knew that in the overall it would be Bruce and I standing toe to toe and that pushed me, if there was anytime that I had to turn it up as high as it could go it would be now, I was going up against a pro as far as I was concerned because he didn't look like anyone that I had ever competed against he looked like the guys in the books, as the show got closer Bruce and I became better friends and both of us were excited for the show, and then there we were, the NB show that year was smaller but the calaber was incredible the best in New Brunswick were there and in every class there was great bodybuilders. In the morning of the show it went fast no real psyching out, everyone was a professional and the comraderie was very good, from the way the prejudging looked I was going to win my class, it was the overall against Bruce that was now my main concern, and that is exactly what had happened, that night I was awarded first place in my division and off to the over all, back stage pumping up for the overall is the best feeling, all the top winners of the night were getting ready for a war, all shirts were off and more veins then highways on a road map and looking around everyone was keeping there head down not looking but looking, lol, no sign of the Tank anywhere, then, I could here from the back, gentlemen line up, and they called us one at a time, we all had friends in the audience, I think I brought half of Saint John to the show, ha ha, the Tank brought the other half, so first up me, the light weight, then welter, then middle, then lightheavy, then the Tank, we were all lined up and still no Tank, then here he comes like a dinosaur, now the heavy is supposed to stand beside the light heavy, Bruce walks past him and all the way down beside me an I'm thinking, holy shit, here he comes!!! Then before the announcer says anything Bruce and I start posing and before we knew it everyone was into a full pose down, I remember it perfectly the announcer said "this is like the WWF" lol ,then he says, gentlemen the judges are going to judge you, then everyone straightened up and we went through the poses with my favorite one first, front double bicep, Bruce looks at me says "this is your pose buddy" a smile came on my face and I hit it, the crowd screaming and the poses went on, we went through them all and every pose I squeezed my hardest and then the overall pose down, I was chasing Bruce all over the stage and he was given it right back to me, then it was said, a vote of 4-3 awarded to the champ of the night the Tank, I was proud even to be able to stand beside him and be compared and there was no hard feelings, to this day I'm happy to say that Bruce and I are best friends just like brothers, and will be forever!
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