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 -