As the 10:15 AM start time for yesterday's Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race approached, it appeared we had lucked out with the weather: even though the Fahrenheit temperature was climbing toward the 90s, the humidity wasn't nearly as bad as it had been Thursday and Friday, and a pleasant northwest breeze caressed us as we warmed up and took our positions on the starting line. The river was a bit low--7.6 feet on the Memphis gauge--but somehow we found enough room for two-hundred-plus boats in the mouth of the Wolf River up at the north end of Mud Island.
I was feeling about as good as I could ever hope for: I was rested, my strokes seemed to have a nice "pop" to them, and my left hip was virtually pain-free thanks in part to the adrenaline flow. I think a part of my psyche was still smarting from my struggles of a week earlier, but in general I felt ready to get out there and mix it up with what I knew would be a competitive field.
The gun went off, and I got off the line as well as I have in a long time. In the first 50 meters the only boats in my peripheral vision were the single surf ski paddled by Mike Herbert over to my left and the tandem surf ski paddled by Eric Mims and Waylon Willis on my immediate right. Those two boats were the pre-race favorites and I wasn't at all surprised as they quickly moved out ahead of the rest of us.
As we navigated the squirrelly water where the Wolf gives way to the Mississippi, things got a bit crazy as the boats I was counting on for my main competition began to assert themselves. The Pellerin triplets--Carson, Conrad, and Peyton--propelled their K3 out onto the main river with a confidence beyond their 14 and a half years. Rick Carter was close behind, trying with all his might to take control of the "second pack." Kata Dismukes nudged in from my left and I briefly got my bow hung up on her stern while trying to stay on her wake. To my right, the rapidly-improving Shane Kleynhans surged ahead of me.
It all happened so fast that I can't even begin to pinpoint the critical moment, but I found myself a couple of boat lengths behind this four-boat pack and I would spend the rest of the race sprinting in vain to get up on their stern wakes.
Up front, Mims and Willis pursued their bid to take down the defending-champion Herbert. Herbert sat on their left-side wake, and bow paddler Mims waited for an opportunity to break away. Finally, between the Hernando DeSoto Bridge and the southern tip of Mud Island, it came: the Mississippi's swirling currents kicked the tandem ski far enough to the right to leave Herbert teetering on the fragile outskirts of the wake, and Mims threw down a ferocious flurry of strokes. Willis followed Mims's lead, and the pair began to pull away as they headed up into the harbor.
Meanwhile, the Pellerins continued to lead the second pack with Rick Carter, Kata Dismukes, and Shane Kleynhans in tow. I attempted sprint after sprint after sprint, but simply couldn't attain Kleynhans's wake. I finally saw an opportunity to close the distance when the four boats ahead of me went wide around the tip of Mud Island. Knowing just how tight I could make the turn without scraping the muddy bottom, I moved within a boat length of Shane's stern as the finish line came into view some five hundred meters away.
Fully aware that they were dealing with a three-time Olympian, a winner of three world championships medals, a Pan American Games champion, and an almost-winner of an Olympic bronze medal--all in the person of one Mike Herbert--Mims and Willis kept the pressure on all the way to the finish line, winning the overall title by 24 seconds. After Herbert clocked in, more than a minute would pass before the chase pack would sort itself out. Rick Carter swung to the right of the Pellerins confident that he could outsprint them in the closing meters, but the triplets refused to give an inch and finished three seconds ahead.
Exhausted from all my surge attempts out on the river, I figured Carter and the triplets were beyond my reach in the harbor and I focused my attention on making a run at Kata and Shane. Each of them was bent on beating the other, however, and even my most valiant efforts couldn't prevent them from pulling away. Shane sprinted furiously in the final 50 meters to overtake Kata right at the line, clocking in less than a full second ahead of her. Mercifully, my own race came to an end thirteen seconds later.
Mims and Willis both live in the Charleston, South Carolina, area, where they work for Epic Kayaks. Herbert calls Rogers, Arkansas, home. The Pellerin brothers hail from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, while Carter lives in Eutawville, South Carolina. Kleynhans is a native South African now living in Brandon, Mississippi. Kata Dismukes grew up in Hungary, but just this past week she was awarded her United States citizenship; she lives in an eastern suburb of Memphis.
Paddlers competed in dozens of boat classes Saturday, and many outstanding performances were put forth on our majestic river. Dale Burris (Russellville, Arkansas) and Don Walls (Dover, Arkansas) were the fastest overall canoe. Bill Cains (Altus, Arkansas) and his daughter Amanda (Dallas, Texas) won the tandem kayak (sit-inside) class. Phil Capel of Sherwood, Arkansas, was the top finisher in a non-race-boat kayak. The complete results are posted here. (Note: "Murray Ortega" is in fact Rick Carter.)
This morning I went out to Shelby Farms for the annual post-race boat demo, where I tried out a couple of the other surf skis on the market. I had a chance to talk to Kata Dismukes out there, and she told me she doesn't feel like she's racing particularly well so far this year. That's not what I wanted to hear from her, seeing as how she had just beaten me for the first time ever, but it's a worthwhile topic of discussion because I'm not feeling in very good form either right now.
The fact is that it's very difficult, if not impossible, for an athlete to be at the top of his game year in and year out no matter how hard or how wisely he trains. I've met many Olympic hopefuls over the years, and many of them have told me that in a given quadrennium it's not a bad idea to back off from the sport a bit for a season--you can still race, but you should take it easier in training and not have such high expectations every single season. That sort of makes sense to me because it seems that my body chooses to have "up" years and "down" years even if my brain doesn't want to make that choice.
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