Salem League 8/27/13: One Last Time

This was the 13th and final race in the Salem League 8th season.  It was a great year.  With the addition of some new racers (Matt, Bruce, Ed W) and the doggedness of the veterans, this was the best-attended season since 2008.  Matt, Ken, and Mary Beth managed to race every week that weather permitted.  And with 13 weeks to work with, rather than the 11 or 12 of a typical season, both the men's and women's point records were broken.

The day before the race, I strained my back slightly at the gym.  I had hoped to be able to paddle, but during warm-ups I decided that it'd be foolish to push things.  Normally, that realization wouldn't be nearly enough to stop me, but given that I had nothing to gain by racing, I heeded my body's advice and just watched the race from the water while doodling around the harbor.  It was actually fun to get a different perspective.

In a last-minute Yankee swap shuffling of boats, Matt took my V10, Bill took Matt's red-tip V8, Bruce snapped up Bill's black-tip V8, and I ended up the proud paddler of Bruce's Evo II.  We (well, they) would be running double-header course #5 - and out-and-back to Great Haste followed by an out-and-back to the red nun.  Conditions were mild, with a very slight breeze from the south against an ebbing tide.

I positioned myself a few hundred feet off the beach to watch the Le Mans start.  Rod McLain, who was joining us on his outrigger for the first time since the opening race of the season, hopped on and started paddling in one fluid motion, taking a huge lead out of the gate.  Mike, Matt, Ken, and Kirk all seemed intent on taking the 12 points for the night, pushing hard from the start.  It took all my willpower not to just jump in with the pack as they came by.

I followed slowly behind everyone for a half-mile or so, then stopped to wait for their return.  I watched as the indistinct racers disappeared behind Great Haste, reappeared on the far side, and turned back in my direction.  I couldn't make out individual paddlers until they got quite close.  Mike came by first, with Ken only three or four boat lengths behind.  Matt was another few lengths behind, but on a worse line.  After the first leg, it was Mike, Ken (26 seconds back), Matt (another 11 seconds back), and Kirk (7 more seconds back).  It was anyone's ballgame.

The second leg started in much the same way as the first, with Rod launching himself onto the water with abandon.  Everyone else seemed a little lethargic off the beach, but quickly recovered to fight for the win.  I got off the water to watch the finish from land.

Matt arrived first - several boat lengths ahead of Mike - but it was clear that it wasn't enough of a lead to beat Mike's combined time.  Kirk came in just after Mike, barely missing in his bid to slip past Ken into third place for the night.  Here are the full results:

Mike McDonough	Huki S1-X	0:40:05	12
Matt Drayer	Epic V10 (New)	0:40:33	11
Ken Cooper	Epic V10 Sport (New)	0:40:49	10
Kirk Olsen	Epic V12	0:40:55	9
Bruce Deltorchio	Epic V8	0:43:35	8
Bill Kuklinski	Epic V8	0:44:35	7
Mary Beth Gangloff	Huki S1-R	0:51:06	12
Sam McDaniel	Huki S1-X	0:52:00	6

Many thanks to Ed for once again sacrificing his Tuesday nights to supervise the League, and to Ken for keeping the New England Surfski site updated with the latest results.  Despite the pain of all those desperate sprints against Francisco, I had a blast this season.

Salem League 7/16/13: Deadlocked

With the Blackburn coming up 4 days later, nobody was particularly thrilled about expending too much energy on this warm and muggy evening.  Somebody used the word "tapering", which sounded like a great excuse to sit on the beach watching with a beer or three.  That's just what Francisco would want, though.  No.  I'd not go gentle into this good night.  Perhaps I wouldn't be raging, raging, but at least I'd be sober.
With high tide less than an hour before the start of the race, it was a good night for double-header course #5 - out-and-back around Great Haste Island, then out-and-back around the red nun in the inner harbor.  It was a night with very little wind and calm conditions.  I noticed quite a few patches of floating weeds during warm-up.  Given these factors, I decided to switch over to my new weedless rudder, hand-delivered by Ed moments before the race.  To this rudder I mounted my new V10 for its inaugural race.

Because there were bathers on our beach, our starting arrangement was a little denser than usual.  Matt and Francisco got away cleanly from the pack, with Ken and Mike and I maneuvering behind for position.  Having disabled higher cognitive functions in preparation for the race, I was sloppy coming out into the harbor and received a few well-deserved jostles from behind as I started my turn with too great haste.

A minute or two later, I was on Matt's wash, Matt was on Francisco's wash, and Francisco was laying track for our little train.  After a short while, it seemed like Matt was in danger of dropping off of the draft, so I moved around to the right and caught up with Francisco.  Dreading the inevitable will-he-or-won't-he be able to pass drama that was about to unfold, I tried to pull around him on the right.  The rest of the way to Great Haste we see-sawed side by side, sprinting to catch the unexpected little waves which kept popping up, and swerving to avoid the worst of Winnebago-sized patches of weeds.

Francisco had a slight lead as we started to round the rocky island on our left, so rather than taking the longer outside path, I dropped back onto his draft until we were safely heading back towards Lynch Park.  This time I broke left and started working to regain the lead.  Even though we had gotten quite a few little rides on the way out to the island, there was plenty of help heading back as well.  Francisco took a line far off to the right so it was difficult to tell our relative positions at first, but as we approached the beach it seemed that I had a lead of a boat length or two, as well as having a more direct line to the finish.  I ended up with an 11 second advantage for the first leg.  Francisco was followed by Ken, Mike, and Matt in quick succession.  Matt had a bad weed night.  We've all been in that boat.

For the second leg, I got the boat in the water cleanly with only Matt ahead of me.  To the extent that you can call my confused and feeble thoughts a "strategy", my strategy had been to make sure to hang with Francisco until the nun, then try to take him on the return trip.  Finding myself in front of Francisco after the start, my revised strategy (ahem) was to paddle like hell and try to keep him behind.  Taking an inside line to avoid the worst of the outgoing tide, I was surprised after a few minutes to find that there were some small waves to work with.

At the nun, I think I had a boat length or two lead, but I'm not sure because I had my eyes locked on the finishing beach the second I started to come around the buoy.  I was pleased to find that there was a nice current in the channel to help carry us home.  Halfway back, I threw a quick look over my shoulder and verified that I had a solid lead on Francisco.  I maintained my pace, however, in part because I wanted to build some confidence in the speed of my new V10 going into the Blackburn, and in part because I sensed that I might have an outside shot at the course record.  With help seemingly available in every direction you paddled and minimal wind, it was a very fast night.

I ended up well shy of the record (Ken's seemingly unassailable mark of 37:09, set in 2006), but Francisco and I turned in the 2nd and 4th fastest times for course #5, and the 1st and 4th fastest recorded times for the beach-to-nun leg shared by courses #4 and #5 (take that with some grains of sea salt - we're missing leg times for four past races, including the races that yielded the records for both double-header courses).  Ideal conditions had indeed set us up for some excellent times.

Mike had a solid night to handily take third place, with Ken nipping Matt (by 1 second) for fourth.  Bruce, trading boats like baseball cards, debuted his new Think Evo II (Honus Wagner edition, I'm guessing) for sixth.   Here are the results for the night:

Greg Lesher	Epic V10 (New)	0:37:54	12
Francisco Urena	Stellar SE	0:38:35	11
Mike McDonough	Huki S1-X	0:40:54	10
Ken Cooper	Epic V8	0:41:25	9
Matt Drayer	Epic V8	0:41:26	8
Bruce Deltorchio	Think Evo II	0:44:30	7
Bill Kuklinski	Epic V8	0:45:12	6
Chris Chappell	Epic V10 (New)	0:46:10	5
Mary Beth Gangloff	Huki S1-R	0:54:08	12

With 6 weeks left in the season, Francisco and I are tied for the lead.  Is there a tie-breaking protocol for the League?  If not... Shotgun!  Dibs!  Not it!

Salem League 6/18/13: Two Legs to Stand On

After missing a week due to weather, the prognosis for this week's race was also sketchy, but the scattered thunderstorms of the forecast chose other destinations and we had a fine (although gray) evening for racing.  Conditions were very mild, with a light SE wind and slack high tide.  Course #5 was being served up.  This would be our first double-header of the year, a category of race devised in the rankest pits of hell.  On the first leg we'd circumnavigate Great Haste Island and return to the beach.  Five minutes after the last paddler finished that leg, we'd restart and circle the red nun in the harbor.  In that dread five minutes between the two legs, many a paddler has contemplated throttling Ed to put a stop to the insanity.  He's pretty big though.

Francisco and Matt jumped out to their typical fast starts.  Seemed like I'd be following my normal script - spend the first few minutes trying to catch Francisco, rest on his wash for a while, then work the rest of the race to push past him.  There was a last minute rewrite this week however.  Instead of dropping off the pace after his impressive initial sprint, Matt latched onto Francisco and stayed there.  I was recast in the role of hanger-on #2, tucked in behind Matt.

Five minutes or so into the race, Matt seemed to be slipping off the draft, so I made a move to bridge the gap to Francisco.  Matt wasn't quite done fighting to keep his V8 above hull speed, however.  For several minutes we struggled to determine who would settle in the prime real estate of Francisco's wash.  I eventually won the bidding war and Matt slid in behind me.

As we continued toward Great Haste, I was red-lining just to stay with Francisco.  Passing him seemed out of the question, so I set one of those arbitrary deals you make with yourself when you want to torpedo your chances at winning - I'll just draft him until we turn Great Haste, and then I'll make my move.  Unfortunately, my move turned out to be gradually falling further behind.  On the positive side, the mild downwind conditions seemed to have finally convinced Matt that he was in a drastically slower boat than us.

Francisco continued to widen his lead to six or seven boat lengths, but as conditions flattened out near the beach, I managed to gain a little ground.  I ended up 10 seconds back after the first leg.  Matt was about 45 seconds back, followed by Ken, Kirk, Bruce, Ciro (in an FSK) and Mary Beth.  I wasn't optimistic about my chances of making up the gap on the second leg.  I'd probably give up a few seconds more to Francisco's habitual fast start, and there wouldn't be much chance to make up time in a 15 minute leg.

The five minute period between the arrival of the last racer (all of 90 seconds after the first) and the start of the next leg is a study in contradictions.  On one hand, you greedily suckle on the teat of recovery.  On the other, you know that even if fully nourished, the next leg is still going to make bacon out of you.  You just want it all to be over.  We approached the starting line like men condemned.

Ed counted us down to the start and we trudged reluctantly to our boats.  Matt had another excellent start, but I caught a break as Francisco fumbled getting into his boat.  I hadn't lost time on the start after all.  Matt and I took a direct line towards the nun while Francisco stayed closer to shore to keep out of any currents in the channel.  With the smooth waters of the harbor undulating under a soft swell, I passed Matt and cast nervous glances over to Francisco trying to judge his relative position.

As I rounded the nun, I was encouraged to find that I was several boat lengths ahead of Francisco.  If we had been even at this point, I'm pretty sure my competitive spark would have been doused by the improbability of picking up 10 seconds in less than a mile.  With a bit of a lead, however, I managed to convince myself I had a shot at overcoming the net deficit.  Resisting the constant urge to look back and assess my changes, I put in a solid push to the finish.  I had gained 22 seconds on the second leg - enough for the win.  Matt easily took third place.  Kirk managed to make up a 6 second first leg deficit to Ken for fourth.  Here are the final results (skis only):

Greg Lesher	Epic V12	0:39:45	12
Francisco Urena	Stellar SE	0:39:57	11
Matt Drayer	Epic V8	0:41:35	10
Kirk Olsen	Epic V12	0:42:29	9
Ken Cooper	Epic V8	0:42:32	8
Bruce Deltorchio	Epic V8	0:43:44	7
Mary Beth Gangloff	Huki S1-R	0:55:36	12

After four races, Francisco and I are tied in the lead at 46 points, followed by Matt at 38, Ken at 33, and Bruce at 25.  Mary Beth continues her dominance in the women's division, with a perfect 48 points.  We'll have our second biathlon of the season next week, as low tide coincides with the race finish.  Look for me running wind sprints through the mud flats this coming week in preparation.