I was recovering from a difficult semester, three years into my Ph.D program in ecology, and within 2 weeks of defending my M.A. thesis in philosophy (both at CSU and focusing on environmental ethics), so I went feeling mighty stressed out. I enjoyed the comraderie (sp?) at the beginning of the race but was back in my room zoning out, so I missed the end of the race and by the time I got there to pick up Marek everyone else was already gone. Bummer.

Well, at least I got the chance to cheer everyone on at the beginning, and then again about a minute later as Rob got his Spencer turned around and sprinted off nicely to catch the others. The dogs and I hopped in the car and tried to get to Saratoga bridge in time to cheer for them again, but I was just slightly too late and got there only in time to watch the paddlers go around the last turn of the river leaving Saratoga.

Marek took me to dinner with some of his winnings, at the popular eatery that’s right on Saratoga’s main street and next to the river. As Marek was paying, the waitress said, “Hey, weren’t you here with your boat during Memorial Day last year?” Yup, she remembered us from before, and you gotta love the people in these friendly small towns.

Marek had some nice paddling experiences the day before and the day after, with his latest crew, our corgie, Pixel. Pixel has been raised since puppyhood by our glorious and wonderful Newfoundland dog, Dax. She is a true water-loving newfie, so for Pixel it’s normal to love the water. He thinks nothing of swimming, wading, and will completely submerge his head to pick up things off the bottom of large water bowls, shallow riverbanks, etc. Yes, indeed, Marek, Dax, and I may have one of the world’s few water-corgies. Marek’s Sea Wind is plenty big and stable enough for himself and Pixel, and they seemed to really enjoy their trips together. On Saturday before the race they went from Saratoga to Pict bridge, and on Monday they went from, oh, somewhere (can’t remember) to Saratoga, Marek paddling, Pixel looking around and resting his head on Marek’s leg. Yeah, watching my boys paddling together was lovely.

So, all in all it was a fabulous and relaxing trip and we really enjoyed ourselves, and many thanks to the race organizers for putting it on again.

My race in a nutshell
It began with a botched start and caused me to lose more than a minute right out of the gate. As we were waiting to leave the side stream we start in, I didn’t notice that my stern was getting pulled into the current. So as everyone else began the race I was again facing upstream….arrrg.

As I began my pursuit of the rest of the pack and saw the other C1 paddler in our class flip while going into the first set of waves. When I last saw him he was on top of his boat and was flushing up into a yard just downstream. I can confirm that the boat is well lodged under a log jam above The Foote and they tied it off to return later after the water drops.

I was able to catch Marek a few turns above the Foote and we paddled pretty much together until Pick Bridge. I sprinted a little and made Pick just slightly ahead of him. We traded leads back and forth for many turns of the river until I got a sizable jump when Marek took a “scenic route”. Unfortunately, I made a worse decision just a few miles later and saw him pull out a wide margin by going around the West side of a large island. At that point we had miles to go and I assumed I would pull him back in well before Eagles Nest.

Well, it began to rain about 8 miles above Eagles Nest and I only had a thin layer on top. I decided to do a quick 30 second stop to pull up the rest of my wetsuit. I waited until I was within shouting distance of Marek and then pulled into a wide eddy. While exiting the cockpit, my foot caught in the skirt and I fell out of the boat while the current filled the cockpit with a bunch of water. That turned into an eight minute stop altogether and now I felt I was in a weird “no man’s land” between chasing Marek and trying not to let the chase boats get me, as they should only be about 5-10 minutes back.

I got back in and picked up the pace in an effort to try and catch Marek. I paddled alone for quite a while then saw him in the last turns above Eagles Nest going just out of view as I came onto the stretch. He was minutes ahead but I hoped with no errors I might still catch him at Eagles Nest. Last summer I ran Eagles Nest on the left without issue but was sick of making bad decisions so decided to play it safe and drag around. It was totally run-able but I felt much better by being cautious on this very remote course.

The last ten miles to I-80 were not too bad. There was some wind on a few stretches but nothing like I have experienced in year’s past. I even had a tailwind coming into the last two miles. I finished with a sprint of well over a mile and it felt great to be back with the rest of the pack. I felt really good with the effort I put in this year. Even though my body was fighting me much of the race I still had my best finish ever!

After three years of competing in the Wyoming Outback Challenge I feel like it has taught me something different each year. 2007 – The first year I learned how to finish a long race (the longest paddle I had ever done to date) even after my gunnels snapped and I had a demoralizing DQ. 2008 – The second year I learned how to prepare for a big race by focusing on eating, drinking and steady high intensity paddling. I had a faster boat and felt ready to take on the challenge. I used my first place winnings (Thanks Canoe Colorado) to feed and house my crew in Saratoga over the 250 mile Big Moo Canoe for Heifer International that happened in Saratoga just two weeks later. 2009 – This year was just about showing up and doing the best I could. I felt comfortable in my boat and have come to really enjoy this weekend spending time around other paddlers.

I am bummed that the Outback Challenge is going away and hope that something of its length will take its place soon. It has been my first real racing experience and with little kids and a family, the most convenient race to fit in my schedule. I feel kind of jealous of those Texas and KC paddlers because of their close-knit and dedicated racing communities and I wish we had something like that in Colorado. I hope to someday compete in some of the longer ultra-marathon events around the country but until then I will focus on long personal paddling challenges. Thanks again to Canoe Colorado for putting this on and for all of the paddlers who competed in the event over the years.