[dciframe]http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/375634626,465,548,0,auto,border:1px solid blue;align:left;[/dciframe]Today was the first long race I’ve done since coming back from my surgery. BayCreek Paddling Center sponsored a race up and down Irondequoit Bay, starting and ending at their dock. Mostly I avoid the bay because its usually a horrendous mess of conflicting boat wakes, and the first kilometer and a half from BayCreek is shallow, which is very slow if you’re in a long boat, especially if you’re heavier than the average paddler like I am – we call it suck water because it feels like its sucking the boat down. Fortunately today the cold and the lateness of the season kept most of the power boaters away except the fishermen, so the wakes weren’t a problem. This allowed me to paddle my Thunderbolt, which is a tiny bit faster and lighter than my v10 Sport, which is what I’d use if waves were going to be an issue.
We lined up in front of the dock. I took the far left because almost as soon as you start you go under the Empire Blvd bridge which is low and dark and in the darkness under the bridge there is a hidden obstacle just below the water on the right side. Bill was to my immediate right. Bill always starts really fast and fades in a km or so. To his right were my coach, Dan, and then his son Tom, and a couple of others.
At the start, Jim M and Tom took off incredibly fast, as expected, followed by the Canadian guy (sorry, forgot his name, but he drove down from Toronto today) who was being tailed by Matt, then Dan with Bill and I tailing him. Half way through the suck water Bill starts to drop off, and Dan decides to leave the channel for a direct route. Gutsy move considering its even worse suck water out of the channel. I put in a huge effort to get onto his tail wake and latch on. It’s cost me – by pulse is up to 163, which is my max and not sustainable for very long. After I caught his wake I tried to recover a bit but he was pushing pretty hard and I think I got it barely under 160. By about the third kilometer or so I was feeling a bit better so I came up into his side wake. By the fourth kilometer I was actually able to take a turn in front. By that point Jim had put a big gap over Tom, and Matt had dropped behind so we really only had to think about trying to catch the Canadian guy if we could. The great thing about Dan and I is we didn’t really need to talk things over, but Dan said I should pull to the Bay Bridge, and then he’d pull to the marker. But I was fading again and he had to take over before we reached it. He led to the turn, and then at the turn he held off accelerating out of the turn until he knew I was with him, which was a really nice thing for him to do since he could have gapped me there.
At the turn you get a chance to assess where you are in relation to the people behind you. Matt was about the only person behind us we had to worry about, and he was pretty far back. We weren’t catching the Canadian guy either.
Soon after passing the Bay Bridge, the Canadian guy seemed to turn to parallel a moving fishing boat, and then cut in front of him. After the race he’d said he’d yelled at them to slack off their speed so he could go in front of them because they were trailing long lines so he couldn’t go behind them, but at first they’d just stared at him stupidly and not cut their speed but he managed to make himself understood after he turned alongside them. That problem made me think we had a chance of catching him, but he was just too strong and he continued going fast as we got more tired and slowed down.
Both us were slowing down a bit, but I felt like Dan was fading faster than me. For one thing, he seemed to have a slight problem with a couple of boat wakes, and then he dropped onto my stern wake and then went off to the leeward side into what he said was some faster water. He came back up to me after a few hundred meters and we resumed switching leads. He said to switch leads every thirty seconds or so, but it felt like when it was my turn to lead I accelerated to the front but when it was his turn to lead I’d have to slack off and let him come up. From about the 9 kilometer mark I decided not to bother letting him come through and just lead. That lasted up until the 10 kilometer mark where the suck water started. Both of us were totally in the bag, and trying to put down power in the suck was hurting my shoulder. Dan said to take it easy, we weren’t going to catch the Canadian and nobody behind was going to catch us, so we should just relax and get home. 500 meters from the finish, Jim, who is out warming down, says hi to us then yells just behind us saying “Come on Matt, only 500 meters to go”, and sure enough Matt comes by over my right shoulder. Where the hell did he come from? He powers by, Dan and I both try to hold on to him but he shakes us and finishes a couple of boat lengths ahead. Dan and I don’t sprint, but I make sure to finish a few centimeters ahead of him just so I can say I finally beat him. Back in 2009 Steve B challenged me to some day beat Dan, and today I did. He helped me on various spots on the course, and I helped him on a few spots, but overall I felt like we were incredibly evenly matched.