I’ve participated in more regional canoe races this year than any past year. I got the last minute call from JoJo about this one and said yes. Told her I would take care of the details and transportation.
Early Saturday morning JoJo showed up at my house and I drove us out to the race. This is a local race on a backwater pool of the Mississippi river. There wasn’t any current to deal with, so basically a lake. As always, we dealt with pre-race jitters getting the boat set up and ready. This is always a fun time to mingle with fellow paddlers.
The format was 6 laps around buoys. While JoJo and I are “fast” racers when it comes to long distance races, we’re no match for the race boats on this short course. When the starting signal went off, we were part of the sprint to the first buoy. With the congestion, there were several near crashes and we pulled ahead in the confusion, but that didn’t last long. By end end of the race, we were lapped by many racers. Shorty and Dylan got us 2 times. While it isn’t nice to be lapped, it was a fantastic opportunity to watch the best paddlers form as they glided by.
We joked after the race that we should have handed each other $50 and paddled somewhere else. Without a faster boat, we don’t stand a chance in these shorter races!
Hogan Haake