My Race

Monday, 5 March 2012

This is how I saw the race yesterday.. Apologies as it's rather long winded. If you'd rather go and update your Friendface status or surf the web for pictures of kittens instead I totally understand....

Despite having to work all the weekend I thought I’d have a crack at the Ocean Paddling State Titles on Saturday afternoon.   The course length was really set for the big boys who are in a different league to me, but I just had to suck it up and think of it  like a marathon, if you are slower, you just have to run for longer, you don’t get to run your own ‘ladies’ marathon length.  Of course I think this is possibly the sort of thing that puts off other women from paddling but that’s another story.   Anyway – I dragged myself from work and out to the orienteering heartland of five mile beach where we started from.  

Immediately it was clear that whilst the division one paddlers had shown up,  the race description had in fact put off all but the hardiest of division 2 paddlers – i.e. there was me and two others.  On the plus side  I had the women’s class sewn up.  Sweet.   As I’d already won my division and my race preparation was  rather half baked I decided to think of it as just a ‘paddle’ not a race but as soon as the starting hooter went off I paddled as fast as I could just like everyone else.    

Now of these other 2 division two racers, one, let’s call him 'Dilbert Pickles'… No.. Let's call him 'Dr Evil' instead..  Oh ok then.. we'll just call him 'J'..   had previously declared that he would like to beat me in at least one race this year.   So far though I’d kept my head-to-head racing slate clean (mostly by avoiding racing) and I had recently beaten him by a minute or so in a short race recently although in the longer slogs I wasn’t so sure I had such an advantage – although I did have my recent Bruny Island experiences to draw from training wise. 

Anyway – 10 or so  minutes into the race I had ‘B’, (the other div 2 guy who generally beats me in the twilight races) out next to me on my left and ‘J’ somewhere behind me. Perfect. Although I was dissapointed that I hadn’t managed  to catch the wash of anyone in front of me (there’s an advantage in sitting right behind someone like drafting in cycling) so I was slogging it out by myself.   Or so I thought.  Suddenly I heard a splash behind me.  I looked back and annoyingly Dr Evil  'J'  had tacked on to my wash.  Sheesh – lucky for some!    Still I was comforted by the fact that I wasn’t out there in the grey old sea paddling completely by myself although  I really wanted to lose  him before the course turned around an island and went from upwind to downwind as it becomes a different game and the one thing I did know was that his boat was going to be more stable in the long downwind section.  Anyway – after a strange wind affected conversation where I was asking him which way we should be going (as the field had split up a bit ahead of us) and he replied by babbling something about boat lengths or bunny rabbits I settled on a course for the island.

So –  how to lose him?   I remembered that at Bruny Island the only other div 2 paddler there was faster than me but I could hang onto his wash for a while at the start of each race.  His tactic was to look back, see me there, surge, and if I couldn’t go with the surge (which eventually happened),  I’d be dropped off the back and very rapidly lose contact.   The thing was I always knew he was about to surge as he’d look back first to see if I was still there, then go, so I had a chance to get ready for it.     I didn’t want to do that with ‘J’, I figured I might be able to catch him napping instead..  So every time I felt that I could, I put in 30 or 50 hard strokes then try to recover as hopefully  the ‘elastic’ between our boats had snapped and he’d be on his own by then.    But clearly my strategy was failing as what felt like moments after each surge I could still hear him splashing along behind me which was really heartbreaking.  I tried to avoid looking back but I think now that if I had looked back at the END of each surge, I might have found the energy to keep it up for a few more minutes to make sure the connection really was lost.    I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing me look back and see him though – so I kept my peeks to the minimum, and I could generally hear him anyway.

So this pattern (me surging, him hanging on) continued until the island and we turned around it together   Oh well.  Plenty of time to surf ahead of him in the downwind I decided and it was certainly going to be every paddler for themselves as wash–riding wasn’t an option.      

After a few ks this plan seemed to be going fine – I could just see him out of the corner of my eye a tad behind me but it was hard to look anywhere but straight in front of the boat as it was really lumpy.   I had a few close calls falling in wise, then the safety boat came up to me to take some photos. The driver yelled out some positive comments about my surfing ability and some advice about picking up my tempo even more when a wave surged underneath me which gave me extra confidence and some really fast rides but unfortunately I got hit by some side swell soon after as I was zooming down the front of a wave and I was suddenly in the drink.   I haven't practised my remounting for a few months so it took me 4 or 5 tries to get back in and I recon I easily lost 4 minutes. By this time the safety boat was back with me to make sure I got on ok.  It took ages for me to get my surfing mojo back once I got going again especially as I knew how much time I'd lose if I came out again. (I must add that I've seen Dilbert Pickles 'J' come out in very big swell and get back in the boat in a flash) . Also by the time I was back in the boat my leg leash was wrapped around my ankle awkwardly making it difficult to steer.  There was no way I was going to flap my leg around and fix it without falling in again so I just had a go with it. By then 'J' was way ahead of me but I just kept on going although more conservatively than before the spill.  

I'm sure I got a little ground back on 'J' before the finish but as I mentioned to Jon afterwards, I would have needed another 5 k or so to actually catch him.  Ultimately he finished a couple of minutes ahead in a well deserved win. He claims that this race victory doesn't count as I capsized but I recon it totally does – part of the skill of a ski is getting back in quickly – it's as important as being able to paddle effectively, and I didn't have it.  But anyway it was a good race,  I was really pleased to have survived,  I still won the women's  (or should I say woman's division) and the big boys still slaughtered us both by more than 25 minutes.  So until next time Dr Evil….   Sorry I meant  'J'.