“You Can’t Make This S#*& Up.” Norseman Competitor Hits Bear At Race in New Hampshire

Matteo Agostino on his way to a fourth-place finish at the Canada Man/ Woman Xtri race in 2024. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

We’ll begin with the most important part of all this – despite hitting a bear at roughly 45 kph (28 mph) last weekend, Matteo Agostino is OK. There were no broken bones, so the upside is that his dream of competing at the prestigious Norseman Xtri race in six weeks remains alive.

And, no, that wasn’t a typo. Agostino really did hit a bear at the White Mountains half-distance triathlon in Franconia State Park in New Hampshire on Saturday. The Canadian had decided to start his busy race season with the low-key race that was supposed to include “breathtaking views and nice scenery.”

The day started well – the Montrealer led the way out of the water and had opened up even more time on the rest of the field through 77 km of the bike. Then the bear decided to cross the road in front of him.

“Luckily the bear got scared and went straight into the woods,” Agostino said in an interview today. “I fell on my left side, but I didn’t lose consciousness.”

Agostino went to the hospital to get things checked out, and the good news is that while he has lots of road rash and his shoulder got banged up, there were no broken bones.

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“Now I just have to gain some mobility in my left shoulder,” he said. “I can move around, but I definitely can’t swim. I think that I should heal rather quickly – the target is still there for Norseman. I want to go there and swim and bike and run and complete the race.”

Agostino is paced by Patrice Brisindi up the final climb to the finish at the Mont-Megantic Observatory. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

That’s a bit of a different goal than he’d originally had for the prestigious Xtri race in Norway. Last year Agostino finished fourth at the Canada Man/Woman Xtri race in Lac Megantic, Quebec, and he’d hoped to push for a top finish in Norway, too. While the first two finishers of the Canada Man/ Woman race had qualified for Norseman, Agostino was shocked when his name was drawn as a wildcard qualifier.

“I looked at my wife and said ‘We’ve got to go,'” he said. “She was full on pregnant at the time – now we have a seven month old. My in-laws are coming, my coach (Francois Raymond) is coming to pace the last half of the run with me.”

You’d think that a new dad and full-time civil engineer would struggle to find the time to train enough to just finish a long-distance event, let alone be on the cusp of winning one, but Agostino somehow manages to get 16 or 17 hours of training done every week, stay employed and remain a supportive husband and father. Most days start at 5 am and he hits a pool close to his office four days a week. Two lunch hours are spent running. Add in a few quick evening bike sessions, a brick workout on Saturdays and a run on Sunday (before taking over the child care duties so his wife can get out for her run), and you have a jam-packed work and training week.

Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

The Norseman race isn’t the only big event on Agostino’s schedule this year – he’s also hoping to qualify for the 2026 IRONMAN World Championship at IRONMAN Maryland in September, and he’ll be heading to the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Marbella, Spain in November.

First things first, though – Agostino is focussed on recovering from his experience with the bear on the weekend. Yesterday he was able to ride his bike on a trainer, and he hopes to be back running and swimming soon.

“I am going day by day,” he said. “There’s no time to whine – five weeks (until he heads to Norway) comes fast. I have to move on and control what I can.”

In addition to his impressive time management skills, Matteo Agostino can also show the rest of us how important a positive attitude is.

“I’ll be back stronger,” he wrote in his Instagram post. “Maybe not as strong as a bear, but I know I still got that dog in me.”