As many of you know, I got into kayak racing last year. Since then, most of my trips have either been races or training run for races. (Lately I haven't been out paddling because of river cleanups.) I have very few images from these events. Here is a brief summary of the races I've participated in since the Texas Water Safari.

location ........................... distance
Wacissa River ........................ 12
Suwannee Marathon .................... 26
Santa Fe / Suwannee Challenge ........ 33.5
Wakulla / St. Marks Challenge ........ 34
Wekiva Challenge ..................... 30.5
Rainbow / Withlacootchie Challenge ... 34
Ochlockonee River Marathon ........... 27.1
Yellow Fly Paddle Challenge .......... 58.5
Wild Hog Race ........................ ~12
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races ................ 267.6
cleanups .............. 33.3
cruising .............. 42.5
total through TWS ... 1409
total ............... 1752 (through August 13, 2011)

Santa Fe / Suwannee Challenge: November 13, 2010
This was a brutal race with two up-and-back sections, the first of which was up the low but fast Suwannee River. I had mild hypothermia by the end of this race, which took me over 8 hours to complete.


racers "lined up" at the start. I was in my slow and heavy yellow kayak, which was one reason it took me so long to finish the race. David (closest to me in the picture) offered to let me borrow one of his spare lighter-weight sea kayaks for future races, and I've been using it for marathons ever since.






rapids where the Ichetucknee River meets the Santa Fe.


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Grameramera wrote:

location ........................... distance
Wacissa River ........................ 12
Suwannee Marathon .................... 26
Santa Fe / Suwannee Challenge ........ 33.5
Wakulla / St. Marks Challenge ........ 34
Wekiva Challenge ..................... 30.5
Rainbow / Withlacootchie Challenge ... 34
Ochlockonee River Marathon ........... 27.1
Yellow Fly Paddle Challenge .......... 58.5
Wild Hog Race ........................ ~12
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subtotal............ 267.6
total ............. 1676 (through May 7th, 2011)

Yeesh, I may not be an expert at aquatic racing but those numbers look pretty brutal, even moreso when I consider the fact that you actually managed to do all these races. Still, must've been quite an experience in the end.

I was in my slow and heavy yellow kayak

Kayak Hull of the Feather, anyone?

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Relle the Ice Prince wrote:

Grameramera wrote:
Yeesh, I may not be an expert at aquatic racing but those numbers look pretty brutal, even moreso when I consider the fact that you actually managed to do all these races. Still, must've been quite an experience in the end.

The Suwannee Marathon was brutal; 26 miles was just half of the main event, the 52-mile Suwannee Challenge, but I had to tap out at the halfway point because my heavy yellow kayak was getting hung up on every sand bar. The river was ridiculously low, flowing at 10cfs; the race was moved downriver because the normal course was un-kayak/canoe-able, but it didn't help me much. It took me 8 hours to make it to the halfway point.

Wakulla / St. Marks Challenge - David and I did this in one of his tandem kayaks. took us a little over 6 hours as I recall; we were hauling ass.

Wekiva Challenge - nice course, but I found that David's loaner boat is nowhere near as maneuverable as my slow yellow one. wore me out in the sweeping turns coming back upriver to the start.

Rainbow / Withlacootchie Challenge - The Rainbow River is beautiful and crystal clear. The Withlacootchie is confusing with its finger-lakes, and I got lost at one point, adding another mile or two to my total distance.

The Ochlockonee River Marathon and Yellow Fly are two races that I organized and directed. Turnout was low, so I decided to participate as well. The river's an obstacle course, and it was a blast.

Wild Hog Race - a competitive time trial on a narrow-ass river where you have to strategically pass people as you come upon them (if you're a racer, like me). One canoe wouldn't let me pass them for about 15 minutes, and I got hung up on 2 attempts. I passed a lot of boats at the many liftovers; while they stumbled across, I hopped out and hurled my old 12' boat over and hopped back in - about 6 seconds per liftover. The very last obstacle is a river-spanning tree ~2 feet above the water that, according to the rules, both you AND your boat have to go over. It was a fun race.

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