The Hawkesbury caught me a bit by surprise this year,
sneaking up on me round the back. I hadn’t done a lot of training, half a dozen
20k’s and a single 30k flogging up and down the Lane Cove River. I did almost
all my training alone, not by choice but because scheduling to meet others just
didn’t work out with my family obligations. Back in the trusty 580, with the
Novorca GP again. The only mod was to
raise the pedals a bit so it didn’t fishtail quite as much as last time.
Landcrew were novices: my brother David, and my son Sam. We
only got together the Tuesday before the race, so it was all a shade ad hoc as
well. Worked out bloody well, though. They were interested and eager all long
night.
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| My trusry crew, never better sailed the sea! |
The car we had was a Jazz, a small city car about
a third the length of a 580, jammed with gear and three big blokes. Tight
getting everything in. Tight getting everything out.
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| Made for each other |
A bit scattered at Windsor. Lots of paddlers from the NSWSKC
but almost all paddling under another flag. Found Rae and Neil Duffy , and Cathy with her new bloke, and a couple of
others but it never came together the way it did last year.
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| They fluffed the 5.00pm start - five minutes waiting at the front line. |
Came out of the start quickly, rhs of the river. Two trains
developed, with me at the front of one ticking away like an eveready bunny, and
another very strong looking bloke on the other. We stayed neck and neck for the
first 12km but frankly by then was starting to feel the pace and decided to
drop to the back of the peleton. Ooops. Never quite caught the tail… and watched as the two trains gradually pulled away from me.
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| Moments before the gun: the last bridge of the race |
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| Just after passing under that bridge. My lonely stick. |
Just as I was reconciling to not getting a place this year
but instead just trying to beat my PB , I passed a checkpoint with Mark
Schroeder hanging off it , who called out. Buoyed my spirits no end, glad to
see Mark again too after all the grief he’s been through with his bike prangs
recently. He looked no worse than usual.
Lovely balmy afternoon shaded into evening. I was feeling
pretty flat when I nosed in to the Sackville mud to put my fleece on, and discovered
the torch didn’t work. As it turned out, that wasn’t a problem, but I sent a
fair while mucking around trying to get it to go.
Out into the night, and cruising on to Wiseman’s. Because
the torch was crook I didn’t bother looking at the maps at all, kinda hoping I
wouldn’t miss a checkpoint ( and in truth they are pretty hard to miss, though
wish they would get rid of those hopeless strobes).
Sailed in to Wisemans, pulled into the bank to get fresh
water and change the GPS batteries. Sam and David very attentive, just a couple
of minutes (stayed in boat) and on. The paddlers thinned out, more than I had
noticed in the past. Managed not to hit either the tree or the rock I have
clobbered twice before, and was keeping up 9km/hr moving average until the last
turn down the reach after Spencer, straight into wind and tide. The GPS dropped to 8.9, then 8.8. Momentary speeds
fell from 9s and 10’s to 6’s and 7’s. disheartening, and I had to dig deep to
accelerate the last few K to the finish.
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| Still smiling. Note the redtip 'nanas untouched. |
Clocked 11:44. Somewhere in the night I had passed almost
all my class, as I came second in class again. Pretty pleased with the time, with
a GP and in my Mirage, but of course wondered how much faster without the silly
stick.
I didn’t eat any solid food apart from a banana and still
felt full the whole way. Put way only three or four litres of water the whole
night, but three protein drinks,
numerous snakes and gels, and my new fave boat food, salmon jerky : salty as
anything, pungent, just the go. I didn’t need the torch at all, and didn’t use the
maps. A few hours of music was good but not the whole way. And I
wore a hole in the outer coat of my epoxy paddle with my hand! The GP this year
felt muchmore ike an extension of my body: another’s year’s near-daily use of
it had really improved my forward stroke and rotation.
Next year is number ten. After that I run out of fingers.
