But the tipping point came at a National Physique Committee national qualifier, in which he lost a championship tiebreaker to a guy on steroids. The next week, that guy finished second in his weight class at NPC's Mr. USA.

"I was thinking, 'I'm this close,'" said Goodin, the guest of honor Saturday, Nov. 10, during the 2007 NPC Alaska Ironman Championships at Centennial Hall. "If I just took a little (amount of steroids) and added 10 pounds of muscle, this guy wouldn't touch me."

A friend talked Goodin out of it. And ultimately, that brought him to where he is today - a three-time Pro Natural Mr. Universe; a two-time Pro Natural World Champion; and a two-time Pro Masters Cup Champion.

One of the best natural bodybuilders in the world, Goodin posed and spoke during Saturday's tournament. Sponsored by Pavitt Health and Fitness, it was the first drug-free bodybuilding contest in the state of Alaska.

Michael Penn / Juneau Empire   Muscle masters: Cinzia Clapp, of Chugiak, left, and Deborah Harney, of Ketchikan, practice poses in the hallway of Centennial Hall as they ready for judging of the 2007 NPC Alaska Ironman Championships.

Steroids are a part of the sport for many bodybuilders - both amateur and pro - at the community level and worldwide. Many professional bodybuilders are, as tournament organizer Corey Pavitt put it, "chemical factories."

"It's unfortunate that we live in a society where there's a drug for everything," Pavitt said. "If being big is what you want, a lot of people don't have the patience to go through that naturally.

"What could be more wonderful than eating right and training hard and improving your physique and improving your self-confidence? When you throw the drugs into the mix, it becomes something totally different," he said.

"We're trying to send a message to young people: That hard work and perseverance will get you where you need to be," Pavitt added. "You do the right thing long enough, sooner or later it catches up with you."

Natural bodybuilding has grown exponentially in the last 15 years. Though nontested competitions are still the marquee events, there are a handful of worldwide organizations that host drug-free competitions.

"Often promoters are more interested in having well-developed people in their contests and having a successful show," Pavitt said. "Not everyone is as concerned about steroid and drug use as I am. But I always felt that if I was going to organize a contest, it would be a natural contest."

Michael Penn / Juneau Empire   Corey Pavitt organized and MC'ed the event.

"What's surprising to me is the lack of guys from Juneau who are entering," Pavitt said. "I have heard from some people that it's because it's a drug-tested contest."

Pavitt said he wasn't sure how widespread drug use is in Juneau.

"It's not something a lot of people talk about," he said. "There's no question that there are people in Juneau who are using."

Fairbanks bodybuilders Jack and Vicki Phipps flew to Juneau to enter and show their support for natural bodybuilding in the state.

"I see (drug use) in gyms everywhere I go," Jack Phipps said. "When you see a guy, and six to eight months later he's 20 pounds heavier and it looks like muscle, you know it didn't happen from eating good vitamins.

"There's something else going on there," he said. "But that's their choice. I don't judge."

Phipps, 57, started training seriously five years ago and entered his first master's show in 2006. He won the overall men's bodybuilding title Saturday.

Michael Penn / Juneau Empire   Juneau's Jamie Miller, left, and Chugiak's Shawn Clapp prep in the hallway before judging.

"I like to see a show where I don't have to compete against them, and everybody's on the same playing field," he said.

Saturday's competitors had to fill out a questionnaire and pass a polygraph test to prove they weren't juiced. Lie-detector examinations are common at drug-tested bodybuilding events.

"The logistics of doing anything else in Juneau are impossible," Pavitt said. "It would be virtually impossible to get (a specimen) to an Olympic lab."

Even with specimens, testing for steroids is problematic.

"There's not a blood or urine test for growth hormone, and there are a lot of steroids that you can quit taking seven days before doing a urinalysis and they won't show up," Goodin said.

"The only way to test for that sort of thing is to use a polygraph test, which is not 100 percent foolproof," he said. "But I don't see what would be the satisfaction of being on steroids and winning a drug-tested show."

As drug-free shows have grown, nontested women's bodybuilding has faded away, Goodin said. Many female athletes have moved into fitness and figure competition - a sport that combines a toned, muscular look with agility and beauty.

"In women's bodybuilding, the best in the world end up looking like really good male bodybuilders in drag," Goodin said. "I was out at the (Mr.) Olympia (bodybuilding's biggest title), at the end of September, and the pro women there were bigger and more muscular than me. How many women want to look like men?"

Many natural bodybuilders do take nutritional supplements such as creatine or protein powder. The latter is made from milk whey.

"When you're using growth hormone or anabolic steroids, and there's this whole array of other drugs that are associated with keeping the receptor sites open on the muscles, that's a whole lot of pharmacology," Goodin said.

"You're putting hormones in your body that you're not going to come close to producing naturally," he said.

When Goodin first started professional bodybuilding, there were no drug-tested shows. Physicians could even prescribe steroids for nonmedical reasons. He stayed away, due to the side effects.

"I decided I was going to see how far I could go without using them," Goodin said. "I was going to give myself five years."

That led to the crucial moment in his career - his second-place finish at the NPC qualifier to a guy who was clearly on the juice.

"I was married at the time, and I talked it over with my wife," Goodin said. "We decided that if I were to go any further, that was what I was going to have to do to be competitive."

A friend - a world-class powerlifter in Beaumont, Texas - talked Goodin out of it.

"That was the nudge I needed to stay on the good side," Goodin said.

"People see me and often ask if I use steroids, and I say, 'No,'" he said. "Usually the second question is, 'Have you ever used steroids?' And with a clear conscience I can still look them in the eye and say, 'No.' I'm very thankful for that."

Goodin competed in two shows this summer that were not drug-tested and won both of them. Some of the people he beat were steroid-users half his age. But these weren't world-class caliber shows.

"When you look at some of the guys who are taking steroids, they outweigh me by 80 to 100 pounds," Goodin said. "I look like a child standing next to them.

"They have, in the industry, what's considered good ratio and good symmetry, and they're ripped," he said. "Those are the guys who are competing in Mr. Olympia - bodybuilding's biggest title. Somebody my size doesn't have a dream of even stepping on that stage."

Pavitt, too, has competed in nondrug-tested events.

"When I'm competing, I'm really competing against myself," he said. "I can't control who else is going to be at the contest. I can come in, and I can be in my lifetime shape. Someone can come in who looks more awesome than I did. But that's neither here nor there, as far as I'm concerned. The fact that I'm second rather than first doesn't take away what I did."