So today was the next installment of the RCP kayak series. The weather was a little nicer than the last race, which was good. But i still wore long pants and a long sleeved shirt (it was a little cloudy at race start). Not a lot of people showed up today, I was wondering if there was another event this weekend, to account for that? The guys who beat me last month didnt show today, and the guys who beat me today werent there last month, so that kinda sucks.
So, did a little bit of a warmup, and the nice part was the race started right on time---11am. Which is a great time to start a race---it lets me sleep in a bit.
So my goal was to go out hard on the start, cause i really got trapped behind a lot of people last month. The start went well, i pulled into about 3rd place with a tandem canoe on my right. The tandem had a faster pace than me, and i tucked in behind it. So there were 3 boats in front of me. As we came to the Ranger Rick island, i was unable to hold the draft, and the group of three kept going. As I rounded the Ranger island, 2 boats came up on my left side (Gary Johnsrud was one of them). Now, the guys in the front, hugged the right side of the lake, trying to stay out of the faster water. I took a look over my shoulder and mike ammon and an OC2 began to cut directly across the lake. I began thinking that their line was better and said so to the two guys i was with. Gary cut over across the lake, and the other guy blocked me so that i could get over. The front of his boat was at my hip, i told him i wanted to get over but that didnt do anything. About 4 mins later i got in front of him, and began cutting over as well. When i finally came to the other side, Gary was now like 25 ft in front of me, and mike ammom and OC2 were just behind me, as well as the guy that had blocked me. At this point, i really tried to turn up the pace and pull gary back in. I was digging very deep and felt like i cut down his gap a little. what i really needed was for the guys behind me to take up the charge and come to the front. So i slowed down, but they didnt come around me. At that point, i decided that i could kill myself and maybe pull gary back, and then be dead and not be able to beat him OR the guys that just sat in and let me work, so i decided to race the guys behind me. I dropped my pace. It was about this time that we came up to china hat island. the oc2 kept going as did the guy that blocked me in (and kept hitting my tail in the draft) and who else but mike ammon was right on my tail at the turn around, just like last month.
However, last month, when i made the halfway point, i felt dead even though i got a good draft all the way out there. This time, i worked all by myself with virtually no draft at all, but when i made the turnaround i felt very strong. I basically did a time trail (with ammon drafting) the whole way back. 1st and 2nd place never made any more time on me after the half way point, and i got 3rd overall. More impressive to me is that my time was like 2 mins faster than last month (the current was stronger than last month, but that would have an ill effect on my time on the way out as well).
I felt stronger and faster, and i didnt even get a good draft. If i had been able to jump on gary's draft as he began cutting across the lake, i might have been in that front group. Because he really didnt make any time on me after the halway point.
Theres always next month----and maybe more people will show.
