fitness paddling: exercise, train, race by kayak & canoe

Split time results from the Colorado River 100 Race in Texas were just posted, so it was occasion for me to look at that race again.

I was paddling in a solo competitor class in my Spencer X-treme canoe. I think I had a decent time to the first checkpoint: I reached Smithville (26 miles) at around 10th place in my class. After that checkpoint I was still paddling with a group of fast C1 racers for a while before I started to slow down. I arrived at the second checkpoint at La Grange (61 miles) at 14th position and after really slow night paddling I eventually finished as 18th at Columbus (100 miles). So, I have some room for improvement. I am looking forward to the next year race. After all, I got a free entry for CR-100 2005 in a random drawing during the award ceremony.

It may be a curse or rather side effect of heavy use of Accelerate and Endurox as sport drinks during the race. The same problem as in my two Texas Water Safaris happened again. After 12-15 hours of the race I am getting some stomach problems and diarrhea. During WaterTribe Everglades Challenge in March of this year I was using much more regular food and only 3 liters of Endurox per day in addition to pure water. No stomach problems. However, I paddled Everglades Challenge in a rather relaxed mode including shooting video.

There were some interesting out of state entries. Carter Johnson and Sally Mason from California finished the race in a great style paddling surfskis with under hull rudders. There were two more surfskis in the race but with over stern rudders. I was wondering about performance of WSBS Thunderbolt and Sisson Evolution both from Illinois, but they didn't finish. Also, my paddling friend, Jerry Nolan from Grand Junction, CO, dropped out at the first checkpoint. Bummer! He spent a lot time in training and rigging his X-boat for the race (old K2 with outriggers). I had a temptation to try my Sisson Nucleus 100 kayak, but the remains of my common sense prevailed and I paddled more comfortable Spencer canoe. It seems that I finished as a second out-of-state racer in our class. Well, I was more than 4 hours after Carter Johnson ...

I really enjoyed the race, especially, that I couldn't paddle Texas Water Safari this year (Safari was postponed twice due to flooding).

Related posts:

• Is Ultra-Marathon Kayak and Canoe Racing Growing?
• My Racing in 2005