This was my first Blackburn and I really looked forward to the race. I worked in Danvers for 9 months about 3 years ago, so I did a bit of paddling on the Salem Sound and just absolutely love the area. It was probably one of the most scenic races I have ever done and would definitely be back.

The start was a typical sprint and jockeying for position. I was warned the day before that Sean Brennar (who I got to meet after the race) will be fast at the start, and I experienced it first hand. I was on Sean’s wash for probably the first 5-10 minutes and decided that the pace was a bit hot for me and pulled back a bit. I was soon caught by Joe Glickman and Eric McNett and two other guys paddling very fast looking ocean kayaks… I later met Brian and Hugh.The five of us stayed together until we got out to the ocean and I was struggling getting any rhythm going, so I dropped back a few boat lengths and after some bad lines I was probably a good minute behind the foursome. Sean was nowhere to be seen. At the five mile mark on my Garmin I had a quick PowerGel and I don’t know if it was the rush of caffeine waking me up or just getting to grips with the boat, but I got a good grind going and started catching the four guys.
I first caught up to Brian and Hugh and then set my sites on and Eric and Glicker. My goal was to catch them by the halfway checkpoint and I managed to overtake Joe and were a few boat lengths behind Eric. Joe caught up to me and we started taking turns pulling and were able to open a gap between ourselves and the 3 guys behind us.
My left pedal slipped some time before that and with my left foot being down lower than the right I started cramping pretty bad in my left leg and the padding was chewing me up on the left side. Glicker was a real gentleman and allowed me to lean up on his boat so that I can rip the padding out.
That help a little but the damage was done and so when we made the turn around the jetty for the last 2 miles to the finish, Glicker picked up the pace and I just didn’t have much left in the tank to stay on his stern and had to settle for 3rd. I was happy with my time of 2:43.
It was an amazing race and hats off to the organizers. Like I said, I’ll be back next year.