Sakonnet River Race 2019

Fast, Flat and Furious

The largest crowd ever assembled(verifiable) for this race since its inception 11 years ago, were treated to the 2nd fastest times ever. Greg Lesher made his way quickly through the field and never looked back over a fast course due to outgoing tide, little wind, only heightened by a five minute fog bank that rolled in for many of us at the halfway point. Leslie Chappell won the women’s division taking the final lead at Black Point with three miles to go.

We had some new racers for this years race including, Jean, Beatrice, Melissa, John, Janda, and Andrew. Many of us will be doing the Blackburn so the fast grind of 12.59 miles gets us in the mindset of keep pushing. Matt Drayer was pushing hard to catch Greg as he does on their Tuesday night training races along with Coach Janda, Kirk and others. Matt keeps moving up in the standings every year with focused training, a faster ski. Mike Florio, fellow Rhode Islander took third. Melissa clocked a 2nd place victory and Jean took 3rd.

My race went well. As race director you always have the added stress and I also was up later than usual due to all the happenings at McCorrie Beach that night. Nevertheless, I was looking forward to racing on my home turf. Tim passed me just after we rounded McCorrie Point, and kept the blades in the water, to have an exceptional race.

I angled out into the river to take advantage of the outgoing tide(low tide 12.22 pm). I clocked my 2nd fastest ever only off by 20 seconds from my record in 2014. In 2014 I raced my SES Ultra on a hot, flat day and Chris Chappell pulled me around most of the course. Today in Ion 3G Ultimate with no drafting, my first six miles were my fastest ever in training or in my 11 years of this race. I averaged 7.5 mph and 2 of those were 7.8 mph. My Garmin Training Effect said “5.0, Overreaching). The second leg of this race was slower than 2014. I did not feel too bad after the race since I have been putting in quite a few 2-2.30 hours paddles for a few months now. Interval training is what I need more of and a 12lb weight loss!

I paddled alone for the entire race trying to held off Kurt Hadem who caught me at 3rd rock. Kirk Olsen was putting pressure on me the whole race. I thought I had a gap that was too hard for him to overcome but that proved false. I looked over my shoulder several times on the last 3 miles to find Kirk and realized in the last half mile, he was charging fast. Kirk was going to make me work for it, as he jokingly said after the race. I was able to put in a surge with three tenths of a mile to go and hold him off.

He pointed out to me what I know about my paddling but it was spotlighted at the race by Kirk as we chatted afterwards. When I get very tired in advanced lightweight skis, I tend to very genderly tap brace ever so often, losing a half a boat length on every tap. While I never feel like I will capsize, it is an annoying bad habit, sapping valuable time. Kirk said if I had not done this a few times in the last miles of the race, he would have never caught me. He did back up one time for weeds costing him probably 45 seconds so he may have well caught me.

A shout out goes to Bob Wright who had a super race. I see Bob quite often when I train in Jamestown. Bob’s pain threshold is amazing!

Thanks to everyone who came and made it a fun day being on the water and racing! Thanks to Bob Geenen, Greg’s friend for taking the photos which can be found on Greg’s facebook page.

PS. On Sunday I gave a lesson to Beatrice and Jen in Think Zens as we paddled the Ride the Bull Course. It was sloppy around the House on the Rocks Green Can with the tide race making it chaotic along with a racing sailboat turning on it just as we arrived. All great training for Ride The Bull Race in a few weeks!