What a Glorious Day

What perfect weather for the last winter series race. I got down early to help set things up and bring the food and coffee. We had a lot of helping hands so I could duck away a little early to rig my boat and make sure I had everything together and situated for the race. I even asked the mother of a club member to take some snaps with my camera. We had our pre-race meeting and then I made my way down to the water for a little bit of warm up. On my way over to the start line I got lots of complements on my new boat. Most of these folks didn't race the Sound Rowers race a couple of weeks ago so they hadn't seen it yet. Ross, from Open Ocean Outriggers, said I looked very comfortable on it. I was feeling pretty comfortable on it as well.

Everybody got lined up for the start of the race, the horn went of and so did we. I tried to paddle hard for that first bit as Doug had taught me a while back, but it just didn't feel right. I settled into my pace and tried to keep up with the back of the pack but realized I was feeling very tight in the chest, my breathing wasn't coming as easily as it should have. About 1.5 miles in I was really wondering whether I should just turn back, call it a day. Then I saw a boat huli (flip over), I wasn't too far away so I pushed myself to get up to him, he looked like he was having a little trouble getting back on board, the water is still pretty cold. As I got there I saw he'd let go of his paddle, I scooped it up and held his ama (the outrigger) while he climbed on, waited for him to adjust his seat and then passed him his paddle. The chase boat had arrived shortly after I did and since we seemed to have things under control they stayed off a little ways. Then we were off again, I got moving a little quicker than he did but he soon overtook me. That breathing thing was becoming rather problematic, fortunately I'd packed my inhaler in my hydration pack before I left. It occurred to me this was precisely the situation for which it was intended so I stopped and took a couple pulls.

I kept going nice and steady and shortly my breathing came a little easier. By this time I had fallen so far behind I started to think of the race as just a regular cruising paddle on a bright sunny day. I made it to the turn around and headed back. I was keeping a pace slightly over 5 miles per hour, which, since I wasn't working too hard, seemed pretty respectable. I saw Alice was still heading towards the turn point which made me feel pretty good, it meant I'd meet all three of my minimum goals, don't huli, finish, and don't finish last! I think the goals should be slightly modified for Alice, she paddles in the 70+ category so instead of not finishing last we can call it finishing strong, because she always does. I want to grow up to be just like her, paddling for many, many years to come. I finished in 1 hour 21 minutes, not my best time ever but not so bad considering I stopped to help someone and couldn't really breath. Also, I had wanted to go easy to preserve my back, it would be a real drag to tweak that again.

We waited for the season results to be tallied and for the cumulative season I came in third overall in the master women category, the master category is 35 and over. It was a pretty good day over all. I then went home to let the dog boyz out and decided it would be perfect a day to take them out for a swim. Back down to SSP and they did some swimmin' and fetchin'. I think a good time was had by all.

Note: The photo of me with Mt Rainier in the background and of Alice looking strong were taken by club member Ryan Parfait, who rode along in the chase boat.

Oh, The Humanity

My bedroom and living room windows overlook a sidewalk to an exterior door to my apartment building. It can be troublesome during the warmer months when I have all my windows open, the dogs hear anyone walking past and feel the need to let me know there is someone out there, Gus with a low moof, Llelo with a more assertive and higher pitched WOOF! People will go out there to smoke, eww, or are talking loud and drunkenly coming home from a night out. During the colder months it's much less an issue, until Friday night. Someone was knocking on the door and calling out, it was 5 am and I still had a couple of hours before I needed to get up and ready for the race on Lake Sammamish. I get rather testy when people wake me like that, I generally have trouble falling back asleep. I stuck my head outside and politely asked him to keep his voice down. Turns out it was a kid (both in actions and age), under 25 or so, who used to live in the building. Seems he'd had 'entirely too much fun' that night and couldn't remember where he lived. I can only speculate that he was dropped off by a taxi, thankfully. He claimed he'd moved back into the building and since we were acquainted from when he lived here I tossed keys to him. When he brought them up to me I asked how he was getting into his unit only to discover he was so hammered, still, that he didn't know anything and didn't live here, he was whining about how cold he was, it was so cold outside (dufus was wearing shorts and a t-shirt). Since he was obviously no threat, he couldn't stand upright and steady at the same time, and I did kind of know him and I really wanted to get another couple hours of sleep but didn't want him wandering the halls of the building I brought him into my apartment, pointed to the couch and handed him a blanket. I could smell the stale smell of alcohol wafting off him from the other room, gag, I opened my window so as not to be knocked out by the fumes. The dogs thought this was great fun and Llelo kept jumping off my bed to go jump onto him on the couch. I finally closed the baby gate to keep the dogs in my bedroom and was able to go back to sleep. I got up around 7:30, took care of the dogs, had some breakfast and coffee. Around 8:45 I started trying to wake the kid up. It was more challenging that I anticipated and I didn't think it would be that easy. I finally pulled the blanket off him and told the dogs to jump up on him and give kisses, Gus even got into the act. Finally got him up and out of my apartment, kid was still so drunk he had no idea where he lived. I got him outside the building and headed down to SSP to load the boats for the race. I've done my mitzvah for the day.

I headed down to SSP to meet Minnie to load boats for the Lake Sammamish sound rowers race. We were there a little bit late but in plenty of time. This was my first race in the new boat. I made sure to have my protein shake before I left the house as well as my emergen-c drink. They made all the difference. I felt pretty good during the race. It was a little frustrating, they had started the pre-race meeting early so I'd missed the part detailing the course, I knew I'd be far enough behind the race leaders to see where the turns and things were, it just would have been nice to know in advance. Conditions were ideal, sunny, cool, only a hint of breeze, essentially flat water, a perfect day for racing. I started out pretty well, perhaps not as fast as I should have, I did maintain a pace over 5 mph for the entire race except the tight turns. I finished in 1:04:24 and it was 5.8 miles, took first in W OC-1, there were two of us, Minnie was behind me. I crossed the line 38 out of 47. It was neither my best nor my worst race, generally a pretty good race. Sound Rowers races are fun because there are so many different type of boats participating.

Next week I'm off to Portland for another PNW-ORCA winter series race.

A new race on the schedule

There is an organization called Sound Rowers, they sponsor races of human powered craft. I did the Mercer-Medina Sausage Pull last October on OC2 with Ed. The conditions were aggressive, windy and got more windy during over the course of the race and there was some chop, too. It was my first small boat race and I was pleased to be able to do it with Ed, who has quite a lot of experience. Since then I've done most of the PNW-ORCA winter series, I've purchased my own OC1, and I have gained a tremendous amount of experience in the small boats.

I just found out they have a race scheduled this Saturday in Lake Sammamish. Guess who's racing this weekend! How could I pass up a race so nearby? And with such a reasonable start time? The short course (6 miles) starts at 11 am, with a pre-race meeting at 10:30 am. I am so there. If you'd like to come out and see what small boat racing is like the weather sounds like it will be cooperative, too.

Then the following weekend is another race in Portland, the next to last winter series race.