The USCA National Championships were held in Northfield, Massachusetts this past weekend. I competed in the K1 Unlimited class on Friday. Although I finished well, I felt about as lousy as I've ever felt after a race. It's been a tough week to put together this blog entry, what with work, family commitments and having to watch all the team handball consolation matches. And, honestly, this isn't a race that I'm eager to write about. Through poor decision-making and boat handling, I inadvertently knocked a competitor from the field. I'm embarrassed. And sorry, of course. As a result, this is going to be a quick-and-dirty summary in "just the facts" mode. I'll return to my standard "facts optional" mode for the next report. This will be dry, so remember to hydrate frequently.
There was an impressive field of more than 50 kayaks on Friday, including many of the Northeast's best ocean and flatwater paddlers and a healthy infusion of racers from further afield. This latter group included two former Olympians (Mike Herbert and Roei Yellin). Although the Unlimited class is open to all kayaks, the vast majority of the competitors were on surfskis. That being said, several of the fastest paddlers - including Mike Dostal, Mike Herbert, Jim Mallory, and Hugh Pritchard - chose to race in their ICF boats. The 13 mile course on the Connecticut River would send us downstream for
0.5 miles before turning on a pair of buoys, then upstream 6 miles to
the Route 10 bridge (passing to the right of Kidds Island) before
returning to the start. To add a bit of technical challenge, we'd make a
counterclockwise curlicue around Kidds Island on our downstream route.
From the starting line, the first turn buoy looked to be disturbingly close to the left shore. Fortunately, there was just enough distance for me to overcome my typical leisurely start and get into a respectable position entering the queue for the turn. A pack of four paddlers - Mike, Mike, Roei, and Jesse Lishchuk - had quickly separated themselves from the field and were threatening to salt the race away in the first mile. Chasing were Hugh, Steven Rankinen, Jim, myself, and Dave Thomas (and presumably others behind Dave that I couldn't see).
With the lead group continuing to pull away, 1.5 miles into the race I figured it was time to push the pace of our pack. Fresh off a clinic in which Sean Rice discussed the superiority of riding side wash over riding rear wash, I decided to pull up along the right of our line, catching side drafts along the way. I made it past Jim, but struggled to move up to Steve. Obviously, what I should have done was to move well outside of Steve's wake to the right, pull up into drafting position, then ease my way back onto the draft. Or just have sucked it up and moved past both Steve and Hugh to take the lead of our group myself. What I actually did was bounce around sloppily off Steve's rear quarter trying to climb onto his side draft.
This wouldn't have been an issue if Steve's stern draft was unoccupied, but of course Jim was sitting in that spot. As I veered to the left, Jim's paddle nicked my boat. I apologized but stupidly kept to my plan. Unsurprisingly... same action, same outcome. This time our paddles hit, then Jim's paddle hit my boat (or, rather, vice versa), then our boats thudded together.
While such negligent maneuvering would have normally earned me a well-deserved upbraiding before we both carried on with our race, the repercussions of this collision were more serious. Having suffered a pothole-induced bike crash last summer, Jim required surgery to repair his wrist tendons. While he's now able to paddle without pain, unexpected flexions - such as having your paddle jammed by a boat - are trouble. Although I didn't realize it at the time, the crash caused enough ongoing discomfort that Jim was forced to withdraw from the race - the first DNF of his long paddling career.
Naturally, I'd feel terrible about knocking anyone out of a race - let alone a legendary competitor who had a shot at the title. In gentlemanly fashion, Jim left my name out of it when explaining to people why he didn't finish the race. We spoke afterwards and he graciously accepted my apology. I also promised to avoid risky maneuvers until I have enough skill that they're no long risky. I'm relieved to report that Jim's weekend wasn't entirely lost. He downshifted to a V8 and dominated the K1 Sea Kayak class on Saturday (winning by over 7 minutes) and paired with Matt Skeels to take the K2 Unlimited crown on Sunday. Those wins underscore what a threat he would have been in Friday's race.
Back on the water, I offered an embarrassed apology, slowed to let Jim get on my wash, and resolved to pull him for as long as I could as a kind of penance. I thought he was with me over the next mile, but obviously it was someone else (perhaps Dave). Although the flow of the Connecticut River was anemic, everyone was sticking to the river racing game plan - bouncing from bank to bank to stay out of the current. Cutting across from left shore to right in preparation for a rightward bend, I took a shallower angle than Hugh and Steve. With a hard interval, I was able to merge just ahead of them. The four leaders continued to pull away ahead, while Hugh latched competently onto my side draft.
Over the next couple of miles we picked our way through the women's C2s
that had started a few minutes prior to our heat. At times the leaders
were out of sight around bends in the river, but at one point when they
reappeared in a straightaway, I noticed that Roei had dropped off the
back of the group. With an obtainable goal ahead, I put in another strong interval to drop Hugh. With a little under a mile left to the bridge
turnaround, I caught Roei and we commenced working together. We had no
hope of catching the lead group, but perhaps we could limit threats from
the lurking horde behind us.
At the bridge turn, the Elites were roughly 2 minutes ahead of us. They'd add another 4 minutes to that gap before we were done. I had been looking forward to turning downstream so that the slight breeze would be in my face. It was some relief but wasn't as invigorating as I had hoped. I had been forced to tap into my strategic vigor reserve to catch Roei in the stifling heat, leaving me with nothing to work with in the second half of the race.
I wasn't aware until after the race that Roie was such an accomplished paddler (competing in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics), but it was obvious at the time that he was operating in a different realm of efficiency. In one stretch I measured our cadences from my GoPro. He was at 72 strokes per minute, while I was at nearly 100. And this was when he was pulling me. I didn't like my long term odds of staying with him.
Roei and I remained together until we hit the bottom of Kidds Island. On the upstream paddle I hadn't even noticed the island, making me eventually wonder if I had DQ'ed myself by failing to pass to its right (Hugh and my GoPro verified after the race that I was weaving through canoes at the time, apparently filtering out such trivial details as the "river" narrowing to 1/10th its former width). As we started our counterclockwise turn of the island, Roei and I took different lines. By the time we rounded the upstream end, he had a clear lead that he would never relinquish. I had gotten several glimpses of Steve close behind me while circumnavigating the island, but was able to narrowly hold him off to take fifth place. Of course, if Jim had been able to continue in the race, there's a good chance we'd be looking at a different top five.
Up
ahead, realizing that he couldn't out sprint his rivals closer to the
finish, Mike Dostal made his move with a mile still remaining, separating
himself from Jesse and Mike Herbert. He held on to win by 20 seconds,
with Jesse nipping the other Mike by a half boat length. The top 10 was
rounded out by Doug Howard, Joe White, Hugh, and Dave. Congratulations
to age group champions Mike (Open), Steve (Senior), Joe Shaw (Veteran
1), Bob Capellini (Veteran 2), Dave Grainger (Grand Veteran 1), and John
Stover (Grand Veteran 2). In the women's K1 Unlimited race on Sunday, champions included Hype Mattingly (Overall, Senior), Sara Jordan (Open), and Jen Kreamer (Master). In Sunday's ICF race, Jesse dispatched the Mikes to take the overall crown.
That's it. Nahant Bay next.
 |
| Bottleneck at the launch. |
From the starting line, the first turn buoy looked to be disturbingly close to the left shore. Fortunately, there was just enough distance for me to overcome my typical leisurely start and get into a respectable position entering the queue for the turn. A pack of four paddlers - Mike, Mike, Roei, and Jesse Lishchuk - had quickly separated themselves from the field and were threatening to salt the race away in the first mile. Chasing were Hugh, Steven Rankinen, Jim, myself, and Dave Thomas (and presumably others behind Dave that I couldn't see).
 |
| Start of Open, Master, and Senior groups. |
This wouldn't have been an issue if Steve's stern draft was unoccupied, but of course Jim was sitting in that spot. As I veered to the left, Jim's paddle nicked my boat. I apologized but stupidly kept to my plan. Unsurprisingly... same action, same outcome. This time our paddles hit, then Jim's paddle hit my boat (or, rather, vice versa), then our boats thudded together.
While such negligent maneuvering would have normally earned me a well-deserved upbraiding before we both carried on with our race, the repercussions of this collision were more serious. Having suffered a pothole-induced bike crash last summer, Jim required surgery to repair his wrist tendons. While he's now able to paddle without pain, unexpected flexions - such as having your paddle jammed by a boat - are trouble. Although I didn't realize it at the time, the crash caused enough ongoing discomfort that Jim was forced to withdraw from the race - the first DNF of his long paddling career.
Naturally, I'd feel terrible about knocking anyone out of a race - let alone a legendary competitor who had a shot at the title. In gentlemanly fashion, Jim left my name out of it when explaining to people why he didn't finish the race. We spoke afterwards and he graciously accepted my apology. I also promised to avoid risky maneuvers until I have enough skill that they're no long risky. I'm relieved to report that Jim's weekend wasn't entirely lost. He downshifted to a V8 and dominated the K1 Sea Kayak class on Saturday (winning by over 7 minutes) and paired with Matt Skeels to take the K2 Unlimited crown on Sunday. Those wins underscore what a threat he would have been in Friday's race.
Back on the water, I offered an embarrassed apology, slowed to let Jim get on my wash, and resolved to pull him for as long as I could as a kind of penance. I thought he was with me over the next mile, but obviously it was someone else (perhaps Dave). Although the flow of the Connecticut River was anemic, everyone was sticking to the river racing game plan - bouncing from bank to bank to stay out of the current. Cutting across from left shore to right in preparation for a rightward bend, I took a shallower angle than Hugh and Steve. With a hard interval, I was able to merge just ahead of them. The four leaders continued to pull away ahead, while Hugh latched competently onto my side draft.
At the bridge turn, the Elites were roughly 2 minutes ahead of us. They'd add another 4 minutes to that gap before we were done. I had been looking forward to turning downstream so that the slight breeze would be in my face. It was some relief but wasn't as invigorating as I had hoped. I had been forced to tap into my strategic vigor reserve to catch Roei in the stifling heat, leaving me with nothing to work with in the second half of the race.
I wasn't aware until after the race that Roie was such an accomplished paddler (competing in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics), but it was obvious at the time that he was operating in a different realm of efficiency. In one stretch I measured our cadences from my GoPro. He was at 72 strokes per minute, while I was at nearly 100. And this was when he was pulling me. I didn't like my long term odds of staying with him.
Roei and I remained together until we hit the bottom of Kidds Island. On the upstream paddle I hadn't even noticed the island, making me eventually wonder if I had DQ'ed myself by failing to pass to its right (Hugh and my GoPro verified after the race that I was weaving through canoes at the time, apparently filtering out such trivial details as the "river" narrowing to 1/10th its former width). As we started our counterclockwise turn of the island, Roei and I took different lines. By the time we rounded the upstream end, he had a clear lead that he would never relinquish. I had gotten several glimpses of Steve close behind me while circumnavigating the island, but was able to narrowly hold him off to take fifth place. Of course, if Jim had been able to continue in the race, there's a good chance we'd be looking at a different top five.
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| Tight finish between Jesse and Mike Herbert. |
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| The once and current champions. |
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