Silver Springs, FL December 9, 2006Last night was supposed to get pretty cold, but the temperature never got down as projected. As I drove up to Ocala this morning, the temperature was in the upper forties and by race time it was sunny and in the sixties.
There were probably 30-40 boats of all types, shapes and sizes, with a variety of competitors as well. There was even a contingent from the Slovakian Olympic kayak team, who brought along their identical Vajda kayaks. The start was interesting, as we tried to organize the faster boats to the front, to get them out of the way before converging on the visible bottleneck only 30 meters ahead. The start was smoother than I thought it would be, with no casualties or flippers.
After paddling down a narrow side channel for 300 meters, we turned upriver into about a 1.5 mph current. Most competitors stayed out of the main current as we snaked our way around the many twists and turns of the narrow channel. The water was extremely clear, with a blue-green tint offering a quite beautiful setting.
There were numerous shore birds of the typical species found in Florida, along with a few monkeys hanging around in the trees. I did not spend any time looking up, so I did not see any, but a few of the others toward the back of the pack, said they saw some. We will definately have to go back for a leisurely paddle to take a longer look at all of the flora and fauna to be found along this striking river.
As for the race, on the way up, I mainly tried to draft off of others, occasionally braving the current to pass and fight my way up to the next racer and settle in for another draft. On the return, Carl in his K1, took a wrong turn ahead of me and upon getting turned around and back ahead of me, gave me a great target to try and stay with while we raced back with the current. I was able to hang with him, while we caught Larry in his C1.
Once out of the channel and on the homestretch, it was a mad dash for the three of us, as I just beat out Larry while not being able to overtake Carl. My overall time was 1:28:55 over the 9.6 mile course. I will post more complete results when I receive them. By the way, one of the Slovak men was the overall winner.
