Time for me at this race was going to be limited, and I didn't think I was up to doing the 19 kilometer long course, so I signed up for the short course. I was hoping that the short course, would turn into a good race, turned out to be a 10.6 kilometer time trial. (more on that later)
The course(s) was going to leave Deep Cove and proceed south to Grey Rocks. From there it would continue south to the Cates park light house. This is where the two courses would split, with the long course going west toward the Iron Workers bridge, and the short course going east toward Port Moody.
The short course would then go over to the east side of Indian Arm, where a large yellow turn marker was. Then from there it went to the north side of Boulder Island, across the channel to the south end of Grey Rocks, and back to Deep Cove.
The long course would go to the turn marker near the bridge, before turning back east, and going to the yellow marker. From here the long course would go to the south side of Boulder Island, go up the wet side, and continue all the way to Jugg Island on the east side of the arm. they would go around Jugg, and then head back to Deep Cove.
At the race meeting, Bob indicated that some of the racers doing the long course, might jump ship at the Cates light house turn, and do the short course instead. This was good news to me because it did not look like many people were going to do the short course. So I was hoping a couple would bail on the long course, but that was not to be.
We all grouped together for the start of the race. this time my GPS was reset long before the line. I pushed myself next to John and Ben in the Huki double, because I knew they were going to hammer from the word go. Jeff paddling a Think Legend move up to my left. Humm, this was going to be a fast start for sure. There was little fan fair, and the race started quickly. Right off the bat, everyone was hammering away to get up to the front. I thought I was moving up ok, until I looked to my right and saw a huge line of skis rocketing past.
As I was coming up to Katja, something weird happened. As we were side by side, our boats just instantly came together. I thought I was going straight, but it sounded like Katja saw things differently. I do apologize if i was the cause of the bump. With the added adrenaline from the incident, I hammered up the side wakes as quickly as possible.
I got to the point where I wasn't catching anyone, just maintaining pace. Jodi and Colleen in the XT double were coming up hard on the left, as we approached Grey Rocks. As we came around the point, they were passing me, so the only thing I could do was to get on their wake. I rod their wake for about half way to the lighthouse, before dropping off. I managed to keep them close, but I could not get back on.
As we came closer to the lighthouse and the turn for the short course, I started to look to see who was going to turn and do the short course. As I got closer to the turn, and saw that no one was making the turn, I was getting worried that my race was over. I made it to the turn, and I was the only one going east. Everyone else in front of me was going west and doing the long course. I could see the yellow marker in the distance so I started to hammer. This direction had actually some waves / boat washes to ride. So I started to look for some rides.
As I got closer to the turn, there were more boats coming out of Port Moody. There was a large boat that gave off so good sized waves, as they came closer, I handled the first set, and then put the power on to catch the ones going the direction that I was going. I caught them and away I went. This was fun. I reached the marker, and looked back to see was behind me, and saw Brian and Bridget in their double surf ski. They were back a bit, but I knew I should not take them lightly, because they can really go.
I turned towards Boulder Island, and upped the pace. There were currents running in the channel, because my GPS would read 11.6 and then shoot up to 12.4, then back down to 10.8. The goal now was just to keep my GPS reading above 11.0 for the rest of the race. I managed to do this most of the time to the end of the race. I crossed the finish line at 58:36ish. I won' know exactly until the results are posted by Bob.
I quickly got my ski up to the van, and got changed. I did not have a lot of time before I had to go, and I wanted to get some picture of the long course finishers. After I got pictures of the first ten or so finishers, I had to go. Unfortunately I missed the barbecue and the awards. John was nice enough to stop by my place afterwards to drop off my first place ribbon.
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