June 14 - ARC 9 Miler
May 18 - 'Round the Mountain
March 22nd - The Icebreaker
Fall/Winter - The Offseason
 

June 14 - ARC 9 Miler
 

Another great day for racing. Last year was a miserably cold rain, this year was great. The water was high, the current strong, and the wind nearly non existent.

I read last year's account, and I was determined to keep my head in the race the whole 9 miles. At least I had a plan.

A disappointing start left me in second place, watching the back of the 'Round the Mountain winner. He looked as strong as the last race, and I had only one long paddle this season - and that was the last race. A small field of recreational kayaks meant there would be a high likelihood of no one to draft.

This was one of the strangest races I can remember. It seemed to go by really quickly, but as a class there was no interaction. First place was wire to wire. I finished second (more than 5:30 off the pace) and was there for the whole race. Third was another 3:30 behind me.

As expected, not enough racers this time to split us by age, so second would be just fine. My time this year was 1:09:12 compared to 1:15:09 last year. I'm pretty happy about the finish.
 

 
May 18 - 'Round the Mountain
 

Well it definitely started out better than last year. I was up on time and remembered my wallet and money. A very good start. Of course, when you are part of a car pool, you need to be a little more organized. Other differences from last year included a tremendous improvement in weather. This year was near ideal conditions, blue sky, mild temperature, and just a little bit of wind.

The Ampersand Bay Resort and Boat Club, on Lower Saranac Lake, hosted the race start.

As usual, I put forth a great deal of effort at the start. You can't over emphasize the importance of a fast, clean start. I was in a small group of kayaks - three to be exact; and was not either of the first two. The guys had a good cadence, so it wasn't too hard to stay with them. I was hoping to make it question of conditioning. I had a good amount of time on the water since the Ice Breaker, and was looking forward to the challenge of 10.5 miles. Truth to tell, I didn't have any paddles in over 5 miles this season, but I was still feeling pretty good about things.

The problem I was having is that both boats were of considerable faster design. Both were composite not plastic (strike one). Both were longer than the Voyager (strike two). And both looked to be a couple of inches narrower (strike three).

The first three miles were close. I don't think I was off the lead kayak by more than three or four lengths. They weren't doing much lead sharing, so the number two boat was still pretty fresh. Every few minutes, one of them would turn around to see if I was still around. At the half way point the number two boat had taken the lead - and not in a "I'll pull for a while" kinda way. He passed and put several boat lengths on in a very short time.

I was betting on one of a number of  long shots. One - both these guys would fade. Two - both these guys were over 50 and they would do an over/under for places. Three - somehow I would be able to out draft them to a win. The reality of course was closer to I wasn't racing for first, but maybe second if I could just keep it close.

I kept it close. Mile after mile. Close but never even or ahead. Attack and recover. Attack and recover. Attack and recover. It was a good race, but I would not win this duel either.

I was the third recreational kayak to finish. 12 seconds behind the second place finisher and a full 2.5 minutes behind the winner.

On the plus side, I was almost a full five minutes behind the winner of the Ice Breaker, and that was only a 5 mile race.

As luck would have it, this year had an Under 50 and an Over 50 category. The first first place finish of the season.

After further review, I see that I was considerably slower than last year (1:49:50 vs 1:53:09). Not good when it looks like most of the other racers from the previous year were a couple of minutes faster. Oh well...
 

March 22nd - The Ice Breaker
 

I'll skip the usual long boring intro and just say, it was an early start, there were hot cakes, there were racers, there was snow and for some inexplicable reason, I failed to review notes from the previous couple of years and loaded an MI-415 in the morning. Always thinking about the three miles down river, but conveniently forgetting about the two miles back up river. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Once again, kudos to the organizers and all the volunteers at the  Icebreaker:
It is one of the best organized races. The registration takes place inside the Town Hall and it is quick and easy. Also, racers have access to bathrooms and plenty of room to change into and out of gear. There are plenty of safety people present, hot coffee and chicken broth are available at the finish line (thanks to the Blue Moon Cafe), and the Waterhole Upstairs hosts the awards ceremony with more soup and bread from the Blue Moon Cafe.

Here's what happen this time...

With no offseason training or conditioning, it wasn't pretty. I have this mental thing about fast starts, and so I was off the line quick and hammered for quite a while. Seriously, a good 10 or 12 minutes of hard paddling; after which I was promptly over taken by a small number of kayaks. This wasn't good. Eventually I did get into a decent rhythm. Not fast enough or hard enough to overtake any kayaks mind you, but decent.

Once again, it was the up river run that really took its toll on me. That's what makes this race so grueling. Not that it's early in the season, or freezing cold, or snowing, but the last two miles paddling up river. I was getting caught by all classes of boats at this point and caught myself wondering why I do this to myself. I finished with lousy form well behind the leaders and not too surprising behind my new paddling buddy and his Voyager.

I placed sixth out of 9 in the K-1 Recreation / Sea Kayak Men  with a time of 44:22.

Ironically, in 2002 I finished third out 10 with the exact same time. Weird huh ?
 

Now for a new feature - Tom gets cynical (no more excuses)

Yes, I really like the people. You can't beat the sense of community with these racers.
Yes, the soup, coffee, chili, bread, cookies, etc. are great.
But at the end of the day it's about the hardware.
Early wake up, four hours of driving, 44:22 of "fun", two and a half hours of laughter, four more hours of driving, then I have to tell my wife I got nothing.
I think it was Jimmy Connors that said "I hate to lose more than I love to win. I hate to see their faces when they beat me."

This was the first race of season, I can only hope it gets better. Once the weather warms up, I expect to have back a little more 10 or 12 minutes in the tank.

NOTE TO SELF - USE THE VOYAGER NEXT YEAR !!!
 

 
The Offseason :
 

This offseason started with long days at work followed by long nights at the hospital. Maria and Alex were born on September 26th and were both home by Thanksgiving. This meant less driving to the hospital, but considerably more work for us since the hospital failed to send home any staff members from the NICU.

So, there was no lifting - other than kids and bottles.

No cross country skiing.

No snow shoeing.

No running.

Do you see where this is going ???

On the plus side, all the late hours and running around had a dramatic effect on food consumption. It was way down. And without any of the normal stuff I had done in previous years, I was starting the season more than 25 pounds lighter than 2001 and about 15 pounds lighter than 2002. And to be honest, at 175 pounds, you would need to go back to the start of the 1997 season (when I paddled C2) to be even close to that weight at the start of a season.

This will be a different year for a number of reasons, but the most dramatic difference on the water would be having someone to train with and race against. It's a great feeling when someone else gets into the same kinds of activities and challenges. Last year I sponsored three teams in the Great Race in Auburn. The other two kayakers had never raced before. One got the racing bug, so this should make this racing season all the more fun. We'll be racing in the same class and the same boats (Voyagers).