This image, generated by the G.P.S. device on board Bob Waters and Bruce Poacher's tandem surf ski, shows the path taken by them, Pete Greene, and I during Saturday's race on the Apalachicola River. It looks like we were doing just fine until we inexplicably veered off to the left ("Lost"). The other note scrawled in red indicates where we were supposed to make our turn up into Scipio Creek. As you can see, we ended up way, way off course.
The G.P.S. measured our distance traveled at 8.4 miles. Scott Cummins, who ended up winning the race, went 7.8 miles. I often can't beat Scott even when we cover an equal distance.
The "most astute racer of the day" award should go to Lee Droppelman of Louisville. He and Scott and Ted Burnell were in a pack together and could very easily have made the same mistake my pack did. But Lee had done his homework before the race and knew that the turn up into Scipio Creek should come somewhere around the four-and-a-half-mile mark. When he saw that distance registering on his G.P.S. device he alerted his fellow racers to start looking for the turn. "He saved our pack," Scott said later.
I've always been sort of a Luddite in my training, believing that these G.P.S. devices and stuff aren't quite as indispensable as some racers seem to think they are. But the next time I go racing in a thick fog I think I'll break my device out.
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