I woke up yesterday feeling stiff in my midsection. I couldn't really think of an explanation other than maybe having sat in the car for six hours the day before. I hoped it would loosen up once I was in the boat.
Nick and I made our way to the waterfront by the Gulf Hills Hotel where the race would begin. A good-sized collection of racers had gathered, though race director Mike Pornovets said registration was down. The likely reason, he said, was the rainy forecast. But as the nine-o'clock start time approached there was no rain in sight and the sun was even trying to peek through at times. The Fahrenheit temperature was in the mid 60s.
We got in our boats and assembled at the starting line in a cove near the east end of the Back Bay of Biloxi. When the gun went off we all sprinted for several hundred meters toward a point where we would turn left up into Old Fort Bayou.
A couple of team boats were among the fastest starters. One of them was a tandem kayak paddled by Mike Herbert and his daughter Savanna from Rogers, Arkansas. Another was a 3-man rig powered by the 16-year-old Pellerin triplets of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. And then there were a few solo paddlers vying for the early lead. Along with yours truly, there was Christian Massow of Cypress, Texas; Bruce Poacher of Isle of Palms, South Carolina; and Andy Capel of Maumelle, Arkansas.
Mike and Savanna opened a lead of several boatlengths once we were headed up the Bayou. I'd raced this tandem team once before, and in that race they'd jumped out to an early lead as well (you can count on any boat with Mike Herbert in it to have a fast start). But I was able to reel them in with some help from a couple of other tandem boats, and I was hoping maybe I could do the same yesterday.
Part of the early-race excitement was a series of waves created by motorized boats nearby: they were about as perfect for surfing as I've ever seen in a non-downwind race. We tried to get whatever we could from them before they petered out and the mid-race pecking order began to take shape.
Bruce Poacher and I found ourselves riding the wake of the triplets' boat. I was a bit surprised to see all three Pellerins competing yesterday, as Peyton had spent the winter dealing with a wrist injury and his grandfather Ray had told me a few weeks earlier that he wasn't expected to race at all this year. But there he was manning the stern, with Conrad in the bow and Carson in the "engine room" amidships. As we navigated the first half of this 8.5-mile out-and-back course the boys were moving their boat with authority and I was having to fight hard at times to hold onto their wake. It felt as though we were slowly closing the gap on Mike and Savanna and I figured it was about the best place I could be.
The race course wends its way up the bayou for about four miles before it rounds an island and sends racers back to where they'd started. Bruce and I continued to pursue the triplets, occasionally moving from their stern wake to their side wake or vice-versa. When we reached the island we had to follow a narrow channel around one side of it, and this channel was shallow due to the low tide. It was in these tight quarters that the Pellerins faltered: I don't know exactly what happened, but their usual smooth, perfectly-synced paddling rhythm gave way to some confusion and bickering. I saw my chance and threw in a big surge to open up a gap.
At this point I was feeling good despite the hard paddling I'd had to do so far--a good sign of my early-season fitness level. The bad news was that I was now on my own in the effort to run down Mike and Savanna, who were looking strong some thirty or forty seconds ahead of me. I tried to stay relaxed and focus on taking the sort of strokes I'd been practicing all winter, and keeping my stroke rate down like Morgan House had instructed last fall. As the second half of the race wore on I could tell that Mike and Savanna were extending their lead a bit, and this sign that I might be dropping off the pace made me fret about the boats behind me. But I stole a couple of glances back there as I rounded the tight turns just above the Washington Avenue drawbridge, and I saw no close pursuers.
When I pass under the drawbridge I feel like I'm almost done, but in fact there's at least a good 2000 meters still to go at that point. By this time yesterday I was pretty sure catching Mike and Savanna was a lost cause and I just tried to stay as efficient as I could to ensure my strongest possible finish. As I rounded the turn into the long approach to the finish line I could see Mike and Savanna making their final sprint, and I told myself that anytime I actually see Mike Herbert finish a race, my own performance can't have been too bad. The Herberts stopped the clock at one hour, 12 minutes; I crossed the line just over a minute later at 1:13:02.
Bruce Poacher claimed third place overall with a time of 1:14:35. About two and a half minutes later the Pellerins came in; they were understandably less than thrilled with their result, seeing as how they'd looked truly dominant at this same race last year. I have no doubt they will be back to that kind of form soon enough.
Andy Capel took fifth place overall, just one second ahead of Christian Massow. I later found out that Andy had flipped just after the start, and he must have done a textbook remount to keep himself in contention. Christian, whose surname is spelled Maßow in German (the German letter ß is like the English double-s), had been dealing with some injury problems for several years, and it was good to see him back on the water.
Susan Jordan of Lucedale, Mississippi, was the fastest overall female finisher (not counting Savanna Herbert). Competing in a fast touring kayak, Susan clocked 1:31:40.
In the end, 90 boats completed the race. That's definitely down from this event's peak participation level of more than two hundred. The racers who'd stayed away fearing bad weather missed what turned out to be a lovely morning for racing. The complete results are posted here.
Racers all over the Gulf South region owe much gratitude to Mike Pornovets, Ed Hornsby, Jessica Watters, and all the volunteers who kept this event going for another year. When the day was done, I knew I couldn't have asked for a better way to get a new race season started.
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