Alafia Challenge

Lithia, FL
November 11, 2006

On a beautiful, cool and sunny morning, 204 boats with 316 participants started paddling from the Lithia Springs county park and continued 9.1 miles downriver to the Riverview Civic Center. The first three canoes started at 9:11 AM, followed every minute by another group of three boats. A total of 84 canoes and 120 kayaks took their turn in threes at the starting line beginning their journey down the narrow, shallow Alafia River.

Within the first mile, we came across several sets of rapids over rock formations right at the surface. Fortunately, we did not have to get out and portage, as we slid over and down the rapids. It did not take long before I started passing most of the boats in my category and many in the categories starting ahead of me. We paddled around many sharp tight turns, sometimes around downed trees, trying to stay in the current, to help propel us downriver most efficiently.

On the last three to four miles, the river widened out, so it was even more important to find the fastest current, not necessarily the shortest tangent. Finally, the finish chute came into view where we tried to put on a spirited sprint. The water shallowed out considerably, so it was like paddling in molasses.

The race was extremely well run with an abundance of volunteers helping racers with their boats at the start and finish areas. The food was great, with a live band playing and they even had very nice, one-of-a-kind awards. A dragon boat club showed up and did demonstrations and let racers and spectators join them for a taste of what it is like to paddle a dragon boat. Linda decided she wanted to try it, so we jumped in along with 20 others, about half members and half newbies. I thought it was great, but Linda will probably not want to join in and go to workouts, etc.

As for finish times and awards, I ended up 8th overall out of 204 and third out of 22 in my race category, which was masters men rec single kayaks. The two boats which beat me were kevlar Epics, which should have been in the elite category, so I felt pretty good, feeling I really finished first in a true rec boat. Next year, if the water is up some, I may try the elite boat category and see how it goes.


Alafia Challenge Race of November 11, 2006
Race Elapsed Time - Sorted by Overall Time

Number Name Name Time Place OA Place
1507 Mike Jordan James Bryan 1:11:16 1 1
1414 Karl Vogel 1:18:45 1 2
1408 Craig Fenner 1:23:43 2 3
503 Rod Price Ken Streb 1:24:29 1 4
1209 Peter Eichenberger 1:24:34 1 5
1218 L.K. Fink, Jr. 1:25:26 2 6
921 Robert Casey 1:26:00 1 7
1223 Brint Adams 1:28:20 3 8
1506 Edward Franc/Mike Melat 1:30:03 2 9
1413 Cindy Vogel 1:30:36 3 10
701 George GarnerButch Garner1:30:50 1 11
124 Roy Zweeres/Brandon Zwe 1:31:16 1 12
1216 Lewis Bayers 1:32:01 4 13
203 Nicole Garba/Rafal Garba 1:32:34 1 14
904 Michael Carlini 1:32:47 2 15
1402 Drew Scott 1:33:17 4 16
500 Michael Irving/Jeff Irving 1:33:21 2 17
911 Mark Taylor 1:33:43 3 18
918 Austin Hardy 1:34:24 4 19
931 Kurt Fisher 1:35:14 5 20

Suwannee River Marathon

Saturday, October 14, 2006

I hope to get back to some semi-regular blogging again, starting with this Suwannee race. Linda and I drove up to White Springs, FL Friday afternoon, the day before the race, to avoid an early morning trip. We arrived at the Telford Hotel around 4:00 PM. It is an interesting brick and river rock 3-story hotel built in 1903. This was back in the days when White Springs was a popular tourist stopover for Northeasterners traveling by train, on their way further south into Florida.

The hotel was newly renovated, adding a sprinkler system, etc., but not adding much to the rooms, which had high ceilings, wood floors, chipped paint and period decorated with handmade quilts and antique furniture. We ate in the downstairs dining area, which had a nice buffet and menu.

We woke up to a partly cloudy, cool morning in the upper 40's, just perfect for a hard and long paddle. The starting line was just east out of town at the Hwy 41 bridge. The 25 participant 44-mile Challenge event racers started off in waves at 7:30 AM, while the 23-mile Marathon racers started in waves at 9:00 AM. There were 13 boats in the Marathon that took off in two waves, four minutes apart. The slower boats started first, while six of us took off at 9:04 AM.

Right off the bat, we found the water to be very shallow, as we slid over some sandbars and gravel spots. I took the lead right away and never looked back. It didn't take long and I started to overtake the group which started four minutes ahead of us. At about the two mile mark, I had overtaken all but one of the early starters, as we passed underneath the bridge coming into the west end of town, by the Telford and the Stephen Foster State Park. After that, there were very few signs of humanity, other than an occasional fish camp up on the ridge.

With so little water running down the river, we had little current to help push us along. In fact, I ended up having to quickly jump out of my kayak, start running and dragging it over sandbars and jumping back in, to continue paddling. I repeated this sequence about fifteen times. This added alot of time and severely reduced my pace in the early going. Some of my mile splits were over 13 minutes, such that I could not keep up a 5 mph pace through five miles. I finally was able to gain a little more speed and began to average over 5 mph at about the ten mile mark.

There were many twists and turns through the very interesting hole-pocked rock wall canyon. Occasionally, I would get to slide down a mild rapid. I paddled along with an otter playing out in front of one of the rapids for a few strokes. There were also all of the typical shore birds, including White Ibis, Great Blue Heron, Cormorant, Anhinga and Great White Egret. As I rounded a corner, a Cormorant was standing along the bank holding a fish almost as large as he was. He took off with the fish in his beak, trying to gain altitude, but had to drop it back into the river to maintain his flight.

In the second half of the race, I came across several groups of people camping and canoeing, as well as a group on horseback high up on the ridge. There were a couple of larger camps or parks with walkways down to the water, although all of their piers were high above the very low water level.

At about the 20 mile mark, I caught up with one of the racers from the Challenge race, who wasn't going to make the time deadline to continue, and would have to get out where our finish line was. I picked up the pace over the last three miles and was very happy to finally turn the last corner, to see the finish line at the Spirit of the Suwannee Park. As it turned out, I finished in 4:24, about 45 minutes ahead of 2nd place, with 3rd place another 20 minutes behind. The rest of my group trickled in over the next 2-3 hours.

I was not ready to be competitive over the longer course, but it would have been more fun to have a little competition, rather than just racing against the clock. The weather couldn't have been any better, as the afternoon was sunny and warm. I was even lucky enough to get a nice massage after finishing, which was greatly appreciated.

After hanging out in the sun for a few hours, we drove back to the hotel and waited for the others to come back, so we could have the awards ceremony and drink a few beers while relaxing our sore muscles and discussing the day's race.

BluzCruz in Vicksburg, MS

Saturday, April 22, 2006 brint.adams@us.army.mil

The weather this morning turned out to be cool and partly cloudy, providing ideal race conditions for a fast trip down the Mississippi River to Vicksburg. Yesterday, on the trip over from Mobile, we drove through a nasty thunderstorm with roughly 40 mph winds for a short time. We hoped the front would clear out by morning and we were not disappointed.

We got up at 6:00 AM to make the 35 minute trip over to Tallulah, LA and north to the put-in by a grain dock on the west side of the river. About 35 boats of various types and sizes carried a like variety of paddlers down the Mississippi on a 22 mile journey to the mouth of the Yazoo River and upriver to the finish. The scenery was a beautiful spring green with corn and other southern crops starting to come up in the rich, black riverbottom soil. We passed several large tugs pushing long triple wide barges fully loaded and riding low in the water.

The race started late at 8:35 AM, with the serious boats up front, including two Thunderbolts, four Seda Gliders, two Epics and two QCC 700's taking the lead. The water level was down about 13' from a year ago, so the fastest current was probably about 4 mph, down from 5 mph at last year's race. This meant it was even more important to find the right line and stick with it to get the fast water.

I felt good from the start and decided, if I could, to hang with Keith, in another Glider, for 3/4 of the race. I knew he was probably the most knowledgeable at reading the Mississippi, so I figured we would not make many mistakes, stay close to the frontrunners and give us a chance at the end. The strategy worked well, as Wim, the frontrunner in a Thunderbolt, put some distance between himself and the next four of us. Keith and I were actually about 100 meters behind another Glider and an Epic, paddling together in 2nd and 3rd.

Once we all got to the grain depot on the right at about five miles above Vicksburg, I decided to split away from Keith and try to chase down the two guys out in front of me. Actually, they did me a favor by hanging along the west bank a little too long, while I moved over to the middle of the river into faster water. Once they figured out I was rapidly gaining on them, they cut sharply over and ended up right in front of me. So, in about 2 miles, I was able to close a 100 meter gap and pull right in behind them.

As we made the turn up the Yazoo and into the current, the other two boats were side by side, which gave me the chance to tuck my nose right in between them and ride their double wake for maybe a half mile. It made all the difference, as I was really able to cut down my breathing and heart rates, paddling with less effort in the "sweet spot". When we got to within 100 meters of the finish line, I pulled around to the right and we all sprinted in side by side, vying for overall spots two through four. I was able to overtake the Epic, but not the other Glider. It was still very satisfying to finish this race only a second behind Richard, who had beaten me soundly in the last two Phatwater races. It was equally exciting to finish ahead of another Glider, an Epic and a Thunderbolt as well as both QCC700's, all of which I would consider faster boats than mine.

The group in front all finished in around 2:15 with the remainder of the competitors finishing in 2:20 - 3:30. I was able to talk a nice contingent of other Mobile paddlers to come over for the race and all performed magnificently, taking away a good percent of the hardware given out later during the awards ceremony. Roland, Juli and the tandem of Dick and Marilyn all took first place awards in their boat categories. We all hung out in Vicksburg for the rest of the day with a nice street fair, Riverfest taking place over the weekend as well.

Results:

1 - 2:14:47 Wim Nouen 21' race - Thunderbolt
2 - 2:17:36 Richard Savoie 19' fast tour - Seda Glider
3 - 2:17:39 Brint Adams 19' fast tour - Seda Glider
4 - 2:18:03 Phil Capel 18' fast tour - Epic Endurance
5 - 2:22:40 Keith Benoist 19' fast tour - Seda Glider
6 - 2:24:58 Andrew Balogh 21' race - Thunderbolt
7 - 2:26:57 Christoper Murphree 18' fast tour - composite
8 - 2:27:13 Don Chesler 19' fast tour - Extreme
9 - 2:27:16 Doug Cousineau - C1 fast - outrigger
10 - 2:28:07 Greg Jacob - 18' fast tour - Epic Endurance
11 - 2:31:30 John McDaniel - 18' fast tour - kevlar
12 - 2:33:22 Roland Bodt - 17' tour2 plastic
13 - 2:34:07 Dave Genzler - 17' tour2 plastic
14 - 2:41:53 Sam McLemore, Mel McFatter - C2 fast tour - kevlar canoe
15 - 2:42:12 Clyde Atkinson 18' fast tour - composite
16 - 2:42:34 Melissa Morrison 19' fast tourF - Seda Glider
17 - 2:42:45 Roger Dunaway 19' tour2 - wood
18 - 2:45:05 Bryan Stephens 18' tour2 - plastic
19 - 2:46:35 Dick Becker, Marilyn Craig 16' touring mix - plastic
20 - 2:48:02 Chuyler Freeman 15' tour1 - plastic
21 - 2:51:08 Alan Katzenmeyer 15' tour1 - plastic
22 - 2:58:10 Wayne Pratt 14' tour1 - plastic
23 - 2:58:11 Heather Zack 17' tour2F - plastic
24 - 2:59:02 Juli Day 14' tour1F - trylon
25 - 3:00:10 John Gorman 12' tour1 - plastic

Wakulla River Race, St Marks, FL

Sunday, January 29, 2006 brint.adams@us.army.mil

I just cannot stay away from a good race and the FCPA stages well run races with very tough competition. So, after last week's misunderstanding long forgotten, I loaded up the SUV and took off Saturday afternoon for the Wakulla. I rolled into St Marks around 7:30 PM, parked by the main intersection and walked across the street for some seafood and beer.

After I got my fill and traded stories with a couple of locals, I went a mile further to the San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park, parked under a palm tree and stretched out in the back of the 4Runner. When it was light enough in the morning, I noticed a couple of other vehicles with boats on top had come in during the night as well.

The morning weather was not nearly as nice as last week. The temperature was fine at 63 degrees, but there was a strong southerly wind blowing in some sporadic rain, while the tide was just past bottoming out and starting to rise again. After some last minute instructions, about 25 boats, half racing canoes and half kayaks tried to avoid the low muddy shoreline and lined up for the start.

After we made the right turn from the St Marks to Wakulla River, I made a tactical error. There were alot of boats all starting out at pretty much the same pace, so I got boxed in a little close to the west shoreline where the water was shallow and which slowed me down. It took me probably a half mile before I could get away from it and into deeper water where I could keep up and try to catch up with some of the frontrunners. At the Hwy 98 bridge at the 3-mile mark, I caught up and passed one canoe and was hot on the tail of a kayaker. There were only about two others within sight, while maybe five more were further ahead.

We worked hard trying to find the best combination of deeper water, but into more current versus shallow shoreline water with less current. The canoes tended to opt for the shallows while the kayaks stayed out in the deeper water. It wasn't until I got almost to the second bridge turnaround that I could see who was in front and by how much. The two clear frontrunners had a big lead on the next group, who were not too far in front of me and the two others in my group.

My splits on the way upriver were 10:02, 10:38, 10:54, 11:29, 10:54, 11:41 and 10:25 including some on the return. About four boats had just made the turn when I was about 50 meters away, so I had a glimmer of hope I might keep them in sight once I made the turn. On the way downriver, I was able to make up a little distance and caught up with the two near me and we stayed right together for the rest of the race. When we got back into the wider, but shallower water, we were paddling straight into a stiff headwind. The canoe headed for the inside turns which were shallower, while I went wider, looking for deeper water with a little more downriver current. In the end, it did not make much difference as the three of us were still very close together.

In the last mile, we caught up to another kayak and canoe and the three of us blew right on by, as all five paddlers made the final turn and sprint to the finish line. I was lucky to have a little more left in the tank and finished in front of the group. What was more gratifying was mine was the only touring boat paddling against much faster and lighter hulls. My splits on the return were 8:32, 9:08, 9:36, 10:43, 11:10 and the last 0.83 miles in 9:21 for a total race time of 2:14:40 at5.7 mph over the 12.83 mile course. With the better conditions last week, I finished six minutes faster, but you just have to deal with what you have at racetime.

So, I was very happy with how the race turned out and my finish among all of the racing hulls. I will post the complete results here as soon as I get them. We were lucky to finish when we did, as the rain started up again right after we loaded up and took off.

Phatwater Biyak 2005

Sunday, October 9, 2005 brint.adams@us.army.mil

The first annual Biyak race was definitely a work in progress and will hopefully improve and grow in future years. When we woke up Sunday morning following the strenuous 45 mile kayak race the day before, I surprised myself by actually feeling pretty good without any major aches or pains. Linda and I arrived at the Under The Hill Saloon at 8:30 AM to check in and get my gear laid out and transition area set up. The weather was beautiful, with sunny skies, 72 degrees and no wind. The race was supposed to start at 9:30, but due to a lack of volunteers, the gun did not go off until 10:00 AM. While we were waiting, I was able to get a ride with the race director to tour the bike course, which helped me to mentally prepare for it. From the bike finish and transition area, the kayak course turnaround was marked with a large buoy, visible off in the distance 1.5 miles up the Mississippi River.

There were a total of six bikes and kayaks racing today. I was one of three competing solo, with three relay teams. The race was set up to allow the team kayakers to be already positioned in their boats when their bikers crossed the finish line. An official signaled to the kayakers, so they did not have to be concerned with any transition time.

The race started from in front of the Under The Hill Saloon and went uphill heading north to the downtown area. We continued north along the top of the river bluff into a residential area, at which point we turned into a cemetery. We toured and wound our way around the single lane road for a couple of miles, exiting the cemetery and returning back to downtown. The final turn by Fat Mama’s Tamales took us downhill, past the Isle of Capri and back to the saloon. The bike distance turned out to be five miles, which I did in 14:30.

The transition came next, where I quickly changed shoes, grabbed my PFD and ran down the boat ramp to the boats waiting at the water’s edge. On the bike leg, I finished tied with one of the team bikers in third place, following a team in first and a solo in second. So, the kayaker of the team I came in tied with, started right away while I was changing shoes and running about 50 meters down the ramp to the kayak start. On top of that, while I was getting into my boat, the next team also started kayaking ahead of me, even though their biker finished a minute slower. As I jumped into my boat, I noticed the buoy, supposed to be 1.5 miles upriver, was only about a half mile away, which seemed strange.

Anyway, I started out the kayak leg in fifth place about 100 meters behind third and fourth. Since we started paddling upriver, it was imperative that I stayed close to shore, out of the strong current, but not too close to get into the shoreline shallow water effect. After the first half mile, I caught up with the one solo ahead of me. This was at the point where the buoy broken loose and drifted downriver out of place. The solo thought he was to turn there, even though the three paddlers ahead of him continued upriver to the real turnaround. The safety boat saw what was happening and went upriver to act as the turnaround point.

I continued upriver and caught the next paddler at about one mile in, well before the turnaround and was closing in on the two frontrunners. After making the turn, I went wide to get out into the river current and sprinted to try and make up more ground. At about halfway back, I caught up to the second place relay team and stayed even for the next half mile. Finally, I put on a final burst of speed and pulled ahead, finishing about 30 meters ahead at the finish. Although I was still gaining on the front running kayak, I ran out of water and was unable to catch him.

It was a fun race and well worth sticking around the next day for to participate in. I understand there will be alot of tweeking to the event, but it will continue next year and the director certainly hopes with more racers. The bike portion may be lengthened to something like 18 miles, which will make it much tougher on those going solo the day after paddling the Phatwater.

Overall, I finished first in the solo category and second overall to a relay team.

The finishes and times were as follows:

1st – - team
2nd – 14:30, 30:00 Brint Adams - solo
3rd – - team
4th – - team
5th – - solo
6th – - solo (short kayak course)

Phatwater Kayak Challenge 2005

Saturday, October 8, 2005 brint.adams@us.army.mil

The second time down the Mississippi was just as memorable and exciting as last year! The water level on the river was a little lower this year, but the weather was absolutely magnificent and we had a great paddle. Again, Linda and I traveled from Spanish Fort over to Natchez on Friday afternoon, arriving around 5:00 PM. This year, we left Linda's mother, who has been our recent house guest, behind to watch after the house. Upon arrival, we made a quick stop at the motel to check in and stopped at the Under The Hill Saloon to check in for the race.

The weather was already cool with a cold front coming down from the north, as we headed off to Pearl Street Pasta for dinner. Once again, the food was excellent and a good carbo load for the next day. This time, race organizers made arrangements to shuttle the boats up to Grand Gulf the night before, so we could ride buses to the start area Saturday morning. Linda was particularly happy she did not have to get up at 4:30 and drive up and back.

We arrived at the Claiborne County Port boat ramp at 7:00, having passed right next to a nuclear power plant on the way in. The air was crisp and the mosquitos were out looking for an early morning feast. Our boats were lined up and following safety instructions, we loaded up and got into the water to warm up. A newly added touch this year was using a large civil war era cannon for the start. We could not even see it up over the top of a hill, but the shot was deafening as it reverberated around the small bay, scaring a number of shore birds into flight.

Once we cleared the bay, the current swept us out into the river and we were off on another wild ride down the Mississippi. Roland sprinted ahead and was one of the frontrunners for the first 400 meters. He backed off a little and settled into a normal rhythm, which was still much faster than any of the other plastic boats. The breeze out of the north kept the chop down, so the paddling was pretty smooth. It did not take long and we came across our first barge coming upriver putting off a surprisingly small wake.

As it turned out, we passed probably about five barges coming upriver, and this year some of us caught up to and passed a barge slowly moving downriver. I finally caught the barge at around the 30 mile mark and slowly made my way alongside the three wide and five long long and then out in front of it. It was a good motivator for me, in that I was really out by myself, as the frontrunners had gotten away from me and were no longer in sight. This made it especially frustrating for me, as my GPS would not start up, so I had no way of gauging the river speed to make adjustments in finding the optimum current to help propel me downriver.

Before I knew it, I came around a bend and there were the high electric line towers off in the distance, about 20 minutes paddle time away. Once I cleared the towers, and with the finish in sight, albeit still 5.5 miles away, I bore down even harder, as I could see I was in reach of beating last year's time. I did not have anyone close around me this time, so it was not an all-out sprint, but I came in with a strong finish of 4:41:00, just two minutes slower than last year. So, I am still perfect in sub-five hour finishes, which was a special goal of mine.

Interestingly, I finished in 6th place overall, but in the popular composite long kayak category, I was only 4th in my group. As last year, there were only nine finishers who had sub-five hour times, so that was gratifying to be in the elite group. Win Nouwen repeated as champion this year, followed by fellow Memphian, Joe Royer. The top finisher were as follows:

Male:1st - Win Nouwen, Memphis, TN
2nd - Joe Royer, Memphis, TN
3rd -
4th - Richard Savoie, Des Allemands, LA
5th - Keith Benoist, Natchez, MS
6th - Brint Adams, Spanish Fort, AL
7th -
8th -
9th -
10th -

Female:1st -

Suwannee River

Sunday, July 24, 2005 brint.adams@us.army.mil

Popularized by Stephen Foster's song which became Florida's state song, the Suwannee River in the area of the Suwannee River State Park, is a beautiful and historic area to visit, hike and especially kayak. I was drawn by the Florida Competitive Paddlers Association's weekend twelve mile kayak and canoe race called the Mere Mortals Race.

I drove over on Saturday, arriving at the heavily wooded campgrounds around 1:30 PM. It was very hot and humid, so the only thing I could think of to do was to get out on the water. The boat launch was close by, so I carried my equipment from the campsite down to the water.

The water was high for this time of year and the current was probably 3 mph. I eased downriver, past the park and around the corner, where the Withlacoochee River was flowing in at an even faster rate. Ahead were the railroad and vehicle bridges and also the remains of the civil war-era bridge, which was an important strategic stronghold for the Confederacy.

I turned up the Withlacoochee against a 4 mph current and tucked in as close to the shore as I could, to find some calmer water to paddle in. There were several turns on the way up, so I had to cross back and forth to find the calmest water, being able to paddle only 2.5 mph at times and up to 4.5 mph along the shore. Once I turned and shot back down the middle of the river, I was able to hit some areas at 9 mph. The Withlacoochee was somewhat muddy, while the Suwannee was pretty clear, although a dark coffee color.

The rest of the afternoon was spent staying out of the sun and trying to keep cool. In the campsite across the road from me, were a family also in for the race. I hung out with Mike, Rea and Michelle for awhile in the late afternoon and again in the morning. We checked out each others rides, with Mike in a C1 and Rea in a shiny new OC1.

Later, around dusk, I hiked a couple of the marked trails around the fortified earthen berm area, where Confederate soldiers defended the bridge, as well as off to a civil war-era cemetary, around where an old sawmill town used to thrive.

The night never cooled off much, so sleeping was uncomfortable. Next time, I will bring along an electric fan, as the campsites had hookups available. Finally morning arrived, so I could sweat outside the tent and wait for the arrival of the rest of the race crowd. The first to arrive was Shawn, who came over from New Orleans with a sleek new Nelo K1, weighing in at about 24 lbs. Then the rest started to show up from all over Florida, one as far south as Miami, with a wide array of fancy racing canoes, kayaks and surf skis.

Soon, it was 9:00 AM CDT, with me thinking I had another hour to warmup, while the others were gathering in the water. As I was bringing my boat down to the water, Michelle told me the others already took off. I couldn't believe it, but rushed to get in and going. As I turned out of the launch area, no one was in sight, so I rushed off to try and catch up. The starter/timer was up on the hill in the park and had seen me come up to the start line late, and noted my start time as 3:20 behind the true start.

I frantically paddled down to the turn and up the Withlacoochee River, where I could still see a couple of boats ahead, off in the distance. I tucked in along the shore again, and soon caught up to the rear of the pack. We continued up for 1.5 miles to the turnaround buoy, so I was able to see all of the frontrunners coming back down, long before I got to the buoy. Along the way, I was able to pass a few more paddlers, as we turned back down towards the Suwannee. Once there, we turned upriver on the Suwannee, paddling for another 3 miles to the second buoy. As the paddlers were faster and more proficient, I was not able to catch up to many others quite as quickly. I did manage to pass a few more, but was still far behind the leaders.

This morning, the current on the Suwannee was almost as fast as on the Withlacoochee, so it was hard slogging along at a slow rate, trying to cut in and around low branches overhanging and trees fallen in along the banks. I watched others ahead to make sure I was timing my cuts across the river at the right times, in order to find the slowest water on the way up. Once we finally made it to the buoy, the return was again very fast, but just as fast for everyone else as well. The key was to find the fasted current, sometimes in the middle and sometimes crossing back and forth to the outside of the turns.

We finally came back down to the park and had one more upriver segment, on the same Withlacoochee leg we started off with. After the final turn, we raced back the final 1.5 miles to the finish. As it turned out, the 3:20 made no difference in my race position or in the awards.

Once back in the boat launch area, I spotted Michelle and asked her how far her mother paddled, since I did not see her after the first Withlacoochee leg. She said her mother was still on the water, although no one had seen her or another man for about 1.5 hours. It turned out, they took the wrong turn and ended up way downriver on the Suwannee, before figuring out their error. It took them another two hours after we finished, to make it back upriver, so they were out for almost 4 hours on the water.

After loading up our boats, everyone relaxed in one of the park pavilions for a great lunch of burgers, many salads, pastas and desserts. I pigged out too much as usual with such a fine array of food. Awards were presented and everyone broke up in the afternoon to head off home. It was an exciting event for me, as I had never seen anything like those racing boats before. I took a number of photos of just the boats, as I wanted to remember just what I was up against that day. It was a fun race, where I learned alot about how to race up and down a swift moving river and about how much faster some of the other boats were than mine. I may have to do something about that before the next time I enter a race with them!

Race Results:

1:39:26 - K1 ICF Men Open - Shawn Wilber
1:40:45 - USCA C1 Men Open - John Edwards
1:51:22 - USCA C1 Men Senior - Tony Bond - Melbourne, Australia
1:51:35 - K1 ICF Men Open - Karl Vogel
1:55:37 - K1 Touring Men Veteran - John Keaveny
1:56:07 - USCA C1 Men Masters - Rod Price
1:58:14 - K1 Touring Men Open - Brint Adams
2:03:38 - Standard C2 Mixed - Pat & Lewis Bayers
2:05:40 - USCA C1 Men Open - George Blakely
2:07:31 - K1 Sea Kayak Men Senior - Edward Francaville
2:15:51 - USCA C1 Men Veteran - Mike Sieber