After we'd finished the race at Batesville last Saturday, Andy Capel and I spent a few minutes in an eddy catching our breath, and we chatted about how the race had gone. I remember one observation of Andy's that I thought was interesting: he remarked that whenever we encountered chop or motorboat wakes, I paddled right through it while he had his rhythm interrupted by moments of instability. "Each time you'd gain a little on me, and I'd have to sprint to catch back up," he said; "Over time, that added up and took a lot out of me."
That kind of insight on Andy's part is exactly why I take him seriously as a competitor. He recognizes that canoe and kayak racing is full of subtle skills that each racer can practice and improve. His attitude stands in stark contrast to the one I see way too often in racers who are not getting the results they want: "I need to go get a faster boat."
To me, that's just intellectual laziness. When I look at the racers who are competing at a higher level than I am, the athletes I see are not just faster and more powerful that I. They are better paddlers. There are dozens of little things that they are doing better than I am. Their boat control over the full range of water conditions is better than mine--sometimes a little better, sometimes a lot better.
To raise my own competitive level, I have to work on all those little things and try to make myself better at them. I don't know if I'll ever be competing with the world's elite; at 51 years old, I'm thinking that's not likely. But I can always strive to paddle a little bit better each day than the last, and that's a big reason that I continue to find this sport interesting and fun after all these years.
Based on the few chats I've had with Andy, I sense that he gets it, too. He's asking the right questions and noticing the right things. That's why I have a feeling sooner or later he'll be beating me if I don't stay on top of my game... or even if I do.
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