I'm home from my whirlwind trip to Little Rock, site of a big morning of racing. Three of the paddlers I mentioned Thursday--Carlos Garcia, Cedric Bond, and Austin Schwinn--did not make it yesterday, but there was still plenty of competition. When it was all over, Mike Herbert, 51 years old and still going strong, was the fastest overall male paddler, while Kaitlyn McElroy, fresh off the World Cup series in Europe where she won two medals, was the fastest female.
From my perspective, the race unfolded like this: Mike Herbert, Dylan Puckett, and Andy Guirardina (another flatwater racer with the Oklahoma City group) sprinted out to a commanding lead almost immediately. Kaitlyn McElroy also got a good start and was quickly a few boatlengths ahead of me. That left me paddling alongside two other boats: Bill Cains and Phil Capel were in a tandem to my left; Anatoli Yarshon, paddling a high-kneel ICF canoe, was also to my left; and Katy Hill, who I predicted Thursday might be good competition for me, was over to the right.
I elected to sidle over toward Katy for the purpose of trading wash-rides with her. We settled in for the long haul, dropping Anatoli after a mile or so. Meanwhile, Bill and Phil had their sights set on Kaitlyn, and as she steadily pulled away from us, so did they.
I felt quite good the entire way and was confident that I would be able to surge away from Katy with 800 meters or so to go. What I failed to consider was that this girl trains full-time for 200-, 500-, and 1000-meter races. With 300 meters to go we were still dead even, and slowly she inched into the lead. My final flurry of furious desperation strokes couldn't prevent Katy from edging me out by about a third of a boatlength.
The finish times were quite a bit slower than last year's due to low water and practically no downstream current. Mike's time was 37 minutes, 46 seconds--more than seven minutes slower than his 2011 time. Puckett and Guirardina took second and third, respectively, in 38:06 and 39:40. Kaitlyn McElroy led all ladies in 40:08, followed five seconds later by Cains/Capel. Katy Hill was credited with a one-second margin over me, 42:22-42:23. I was exactly ten minutes slower than I was last year, and that's probably because I settled for a tactical race with Katy rather than push the pace from start to finish.
And I guess that's why I feel a little less than satisfied with my performance. After all the training I did in anticipation of a really intense race, I feel like I might have held back a little. If I had gone after Bill and Phil and ridden their wash for the first couple of miles, I probably would have ended up in sixth place overall and a good bit faster. Then again, seeing as how I had never previously lost to Bill and Phil when they had raced tandem (they were outstanding yesterday), going after Katy seemed like the most aggressive possible thing to do at the time. I guess I should stop second-guessing myself and move on to the OICKR, coming up on June 16.
In any case, I always enjoy seeing the other folks who turn out, some of whom I saw yesterday for the first time this year. I'm looking forward to having the canoe and kayak racing world descend upon Memphis in two weeks.
Yesterday's race results are posted here.
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