Today I competed in the Bluz Cruz Canoe and Kayak Race for the seventh time, I believe. The race begins on the Mississippi River at Madison Parish Port, Louisiana, and finishes at the Vicksburg riverfront some 22 miles downriver.
Though the river appeared placid at the start, the wind picked up and the river became choppy in the early miles. They were nuisance conditions at worst, but still required increased concentration to keep the boat on course. Phil Capel of Sherwood, Arkansas, took the early lead as the C-4 paddled by Andre Pellerin and his triplet sons gave chase over on river left. Farther to the right side, I was part of a conservative wake-trading pack along with Kata Dismukes and Rick Carter. We labored along in the left-to-right beam wind, gradually moving into the lead ourselves, until we reached the big bend to the right; here, the river smoothed out considerably and the wind was at our backs. I managed to open a small gap on my competitors and threw in several surges in an attempt to lengthen it. As I approached the second big bend in the course, back to the left and toward the city of Vicksburg, I was beginning to feel some fatigue, but I guessed that the others were too after that long struggle with the elements.
I found myself paddling into a headwind on the approach to Vicksburg, but it was mostly a noisy mental distraction in my ears. Glances over my shoulder continued to indicate that I was alone in first place, and I tried to paddle as efficiently as I could to maintain the lead and conserve energy for the final stretch, a couple of miles up the Yazoo River to the finish line.
As I entered the Yazoo I was at about an hour and 52 minutes, and I knew then that I would not be breaking two hours (my PR in this event is an hour and 56 minutes and change). I attribute the slower time to both the bumpy conditions and the conservative early pace of our pack. Though quite tired I still seemed to have good strokes left in me, and as this long slog through flatwater wore on I became more and more confident that I would accomplish the item at the top of my to-do list--win the race. I crossed the line with a winning time of two hours, 7 minutes, 14 seconds.
At that point I had no idea where my closest competition was, but I quickly found out as I turned around and looked back: Rick Carter, the same guy who got the better of me at Ocean Springs two weeks ago, was not far behind at all. The South Carolinian crossed the line less than a minute after I had.
Kata Dismukes, a native Hungarian now living in the Memphis suburb of Cordova, was the fastest lady, finishing a very impressive third place overall. The Pellerin crew, hailing from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, was next, and Phil Capel rounded out the top five.
Other Memphians who made the trip down here to race were Terrance Strohkirch, who finished sixteenth overall, and Adam Davis, 39th.
The complete results are now posted here.
I plan to spend the next few days paddling and exploring a bit between the lower Mississippi and the bayou country of Louisiana, en route to a race next Saturday on Bayou Teche. I will try to post updates here as I can.
No comments:
Post a Comment