I got up at 4:15 AM CDT yesterday. The Gator Bait Race was scheduled to start at 9:30 AM. I like to get to a race site an hour and a half before the start so I can go through my whole pre-race routine--readying my boat and gear, stretching, warming up, and so on--at a relaxed pace. So eight o'clock was the goal. It typically takes me three hours to drive to Jackson, so I wanted to be on the road by five.
I made some coffee, ate a bowl of cereal, prepared some fruit to eat in the car, and pulled out of my driveway at 4:55... right on schedule. Unfortunately, my digestive system wasn't being entirely cooperative: my body is used to being fed two hours later than it was this morning. So I had to make a lengthy rest stop south of Batesville. Then, as I entered the northern outskirts of Jackson, the warning light came on telling me I needed to refuel. I'd thought I had enough gasoline that I wouldn't have to get more until after the race, but now, with at least 20 miles still between me and the race site, I didn't want to push my luck. So I stopped for gas, and visited the restroom again while I was at it.
In the end, it wasn't until 8:30 that I finally pulled into Pelahatchie Shore Park near the southeast corner of Barnett Reservoir. So I had just an hour to get ready. But I would be fine. I'm a cautious guy who always overestimates how much time he'll need, and the fact is that an hour was plenty. The nice ladies at the registration table got me checked in without delay, and I went through my stretches during the pre-race competitors' meeting. Soon I was in the water getting loose and ready to start.
The gun went off at 9:30 sharp. I sprinted off the line and spent the first few hundred meters with Jeb Berry of Gulfport, Mississippi, on my stern wake and Seth Garland of Brandon, Mississippi, off to my left. The course crosses a stretch of open water before entering a network of backwater channels, and by the end of the open-water stretch I was alone in first place.
Barnett Reservoir was created by the construction of a dam on the Pearl River, and like most reservoirs in non-mountainous regions it's a vast, open body of water. But this race takes place on one of the more interesting parts of the lake. Pelahatchie Bay is the inundated bottom portion of Pelahatchie Creek, and it's a smaller, more intimate place with a trail through a marshy area behind some islands (there's a good course map posted on this page; racers proceed in a clockwise direction). So the race course, 5.5 miles or about 9 kilometers in total distance, has a nice mix of open water and secluded channels to engage and challenge the participants. The drawback is that the water is not particularly deep. It was never hit-the-bottom-with-your-paddle shallow, but in those back channels it was shallow enough to create some bottom-drag ("suck water," some racers like to call it).
And so as I made my way through that back part of the course I was feeling the strain in my arms and shoulders and upper back. This stretch is maybe 2000 or 2500 meters and I yearned to be out of it and back on deeper water.
Finally, I got my wish: I emerged from the back channel and entered the course's second open-water crossing. Now I had a new challenge: to find the buoy at the end of it (the one in the bottom right corner on the course map) and point my boat at it. I looked and I looked, and could spot no buoy. My long-distance vision has never been very good, and I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm now in my second half-century, but I was hoping I could at least find a color that contrasted with the water and the surrounding landscape. Most of the previous buoys I'd seen on the course were pinkish and that's what I hoped to see now.
But I never saw a thing. So I paddled toward where I thought the buoy should be, based on my past participation in this event. I drew closer and closer to the bay's southern shore, and still saw no buoy. Finally, convinced I was veering much too far to my left, I made a hard right turn and started the last leg of the course, toward the finish line. Moments later I saw the buoy: it was a green alligator pool toy (purchased several years ago in keeping with the "Gator Bait" theme). My feeling was a mixture of relief that I hadn't cut a corner of the course and annoyance that I'd added a couple hundred meters to my distance. Over my right shoulder I could see my nearest pursuers, who had seen my mistake and were now gaining some distance on me. I still had a comfortable lead and didn't really think they would be able to catch me, but nevertheless I spent the last two thousand meters of the race plagued with nightmarish visions of being run down just before the finish line (hey, it's happened to me before). By this time my muscles were severely taxed from the shallow-water paddling and any kind of late-race surge would be a tall order.
Stroke after stroke I pulled myself toward the finish, trying to paddle as efficiently as I could. The nightmare never came true and I finished in first place with a time of 47 minutes, 21 seconds. It was my first overall victory in two years. I won the 2015 edition of this race, and since then victory had eluded me until now.
96 seconds later Jeb Berry came in to finish second overall. Jeb has been a tough adversary for me this year, pushing me hard at Ocean Springs in March and then edging me out for the win at Pascagoula in April. I learned that he was dealing with some acute tendinitis in his elbow and that's the main reason I was able to build a cushion on him yesterday.
Adam Davis of Memphis took third place; Henry Lawrence of Brandon, Mississippi, was fourth; and Mike Womack, who lives just over the Mississippi state line from Memphis, rounded out the top five. Camille Richards of Ridgeland, Mississippi, was the top overall female finisher. The complete results are posted here.
I told the race organizers that they really ought to mark the end of an open-water crossing with a more visible buoy, and they very kindly said they would in the future. Fortunately I don't think the buoy issue caused any major trouble yesterday: once the leaders had figured out where it was, the rest of the field was able to follow them.
We were all treated to a lovely catered lunch and a chance at winning some door prizes. Awards were handed out and we parted company in high spirits after a good morning of competition and camaraderie.
Back here at home I woke up this morning remarkably less sore than I'd expected. Yesterday's course was quite similar in character to the USCA Nationals course I raced on in August, and I was sore for days after that race. Of course, I raced 13 miles on that course, compared with just five and a half yesterday. In any case, a recovery paddle was in order today, and I went down to the riverfront and stretched thoroughly on the dock before getting in the boat and paddling a mostly-easy 40 minutes.
Congratulations!
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