First up was the Open / Masters K1 500 meters. Technically I thought I had a better race than the day earlier, but finished in 5th place. This time I was positive that I did not make the final, and started to get ready for the K2 500 meters with Daryl.
We were going to use the Sagitta K2 in this race. Since we were going to go against some very fast competition, wash was going to be an issue, at least for me. Daryl said that we should just concentrate on being smooth, and I totally agreed.
The start was fast, but not for us. It is amazing to watch these guys race. when they start, it is like an explosion. The boats just jump out of the water and rocket away. Unfortunately they were rocketing away from us. Daryl and I got into a pretty good rhythm and were cruising down the course, watching the race in front of us. At the end we came in 5th place. We were head of the other K2s by a good amount, so I think our race was a good one.
Next up was the K4 500 meters, but because Daryl had to go, we had to make some team changes. At first we had Dion Maxwell paddling for Daryl, but he found out that he was actually in another boat. So we picked up Nick Foellmer to be our 4th. I asked Jim which boat we were going to use and he said the white and red one. I was a little concerned because I have never paddle in that particular boat before. I have been in the more stable Plastex K4. This was the real tippy (according to me) Lightning K4, which is similar to a Nelo.
This was the seating arrangement: 1st – Jim, 2nd – Nick, 3rd – Eliot, 4th – Darrell.
Well the race did not go exactly as planned. My balance was the subject of discussion after the race. I am used to a little "rolling" during a race, but the guys were not used to that kind of movement in a boat. So Eliot was doing some heavy duty bracing to try to compensate for the roll. This of course slows down the boat, and puts everyone out of sync.
We managed to come in 3rd place. Not bad, in my opinion. Nick, according to his mom, had a good time in the boat. He does not get too many chances to race with the older guys.
The last race for me at the regatta was the 5000 meters. this was going to be specially fun, because the notorious Green Lake wind had kicked up. There was about 24 paddlers in the Open / Masters class, and would make for exciting race. I had already decided that this was going to be a fun race, and would use it for training. We all lined up, and off we went. Right from the get go, Dion, Jim, Eliot, and the rest of the faster paddlers were gone. I was right behind Daryl and Brent for the first up wind leg. The waves were coming right up to the cockpit, and at times coming over. Without a spray skirt, I did managed to get a little wet. I wasn't really gaining on the two in front, but I wasn't losing any ground either. Around the top , and then the down wind section is where they I started to lose ground. I never really do well going with the wind, and would not catch them for the rest of the race.
At the bottom turn, this is were all hell broke loose. Side waves like crazy. I was coming out of the turn, and bang a wave push me all the way over, right to the cockpit rim in the water. I did a huge, boat stopping brace, and managed to stay out of the water. So here I was completely stopped in the waves. I quickly started paddling, to get moving or I was done for. Going up the course again, the two lead girls from the group behind had caught me. They were powering through this stuff. One of the two was Kirsten who has raced a many Tuesday nights in Deep Cove, so I knew she was going to do well in this stuff.
Going to the top and back down the course was pretty much the same as the last. Lost more ground to Daryl and Brent. As I came around the bottom, I heard a familiar voice, it was Steve in his Thunder coming beside me. I though good someone to paddle to the end with. We managed to stay together up to the top of the course, then as usual I started to slip back a bit. Just then Katja had caught us, and was motoring by. So I used her pace to set my own pace, and managed to pull in some distance on steve, who was about 5 meters in front of me by now.
At the end Steve got me by about 6 to 8 seconds. It was a fun race, and I really enjoyed my regatta weekend in Seattle.
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