2021 Blackburn Challenge Goes On.

Despite Covid 19 restrictions, a scaled-down version of one of the most popular races on the East Coast went off albeit at your leisure. With advertised no timing, just a safety check, the time you got on the water at the dock, and the time you got off the water, many paddlers made the circumnavigation of Cape Ann in Gloucester, Massachusetts while others decided to forgo this year’s event for hopefully a normal race in 2022.

I drove up with my friend Tim Hacket who was doing the race for the first time. We met at my house at a prompt 4:20 am and left at 4:30 on the money. Tim lives about 3 miles from me by road, and 1.5 miles by water, the Sakonnet River. I have been paddling with Tim off and on since I first saw him off Sandy Point a few years ago in his black tip V8. Once we drove into the Gloucester High School parking lot, a familiar face was there to greet us and let us know where and where not to park. I don’t know her name but she has been volunteering for over 30 years, longer than I have been racing the Blackburn, seventeen years. She rules the parking lot with an iron fist of a shieldmaiden.

Since it was advertised that there were no official start times, I figured many of the surf ski racers, would like to start at the same time and have their well-earned results posted. However, thanks to the efforts of Chris Chappell, who recorded the start times and finishing times of all paddlers, the results are on the Cape Ann Rowing site for all to see. Chris manually put them in a spreadsheet and posted them. Chris also maintains the Blackburn website. So many thanks to Chris for all his work and to Susanne Sweeney and others for all their work with coordination and smoothing out the details of this race. The times on this site are the paddlers who all started at the 8 am group start.

This is a good time for me to advocate for a few changes to the Blackburn Challenge.

#1 For such a major race, registration and results should be integrated with chip timing for accuracy and safety. I know there are timing programs that can accommodate a race like the Blackburn. This should be the priority of the race committee moving forward.

#2 Can we please get a nice, appropriately sized race shirt of good quality(not cotton). For the seventeen years, I have done this race, I have only had one nice cotton shirt. It had Dana Gaines’s iconic design of the chart of the race on the back. I vote for this design again. While I enjoy my hats of 2018/2019, I want a quality shirt to proudly wear.

#3 Why not have sponsors? There are many ways to include them. They will gladly pay and this will increase the revenues, exposure, and help with the promotion of the paddling community by buying their products that we all use. Without the surf skis, Sups, paddles, pfds, etc, we could not paddle.

https://www.capeannrowingclub.com/results

Glen Tines photos were taken at Straitsmouth. Thanks Glen!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tE0ZOSeAV2xANJY8xZ1QK7aEZDOqJuae?usp=sharing

The Race Goes On

So at a predetermined 8 am start time, I counted the 20 surf skis down to a one minute than GO GO GO. After they finished the course at the Greasy Pole, racers emailed me or Greg Lesher their times and we cross-referenced those with Chris. We run all our Rhode Island races like this, simple and on the honor system. So the results posted on this site are the skis that started at 8 am. Other racers like the famed Blackburn paddlers, Dana Gaines (29x), Al Pierce(30x), and Jay Appleton(20x) started earlier. I spoke briefly to all three as I was getting ready. I feel like I am in elite company when I see these guys knowing just how hard this race is. As your get older, it gets even harder. I was reminded of that this year.

Having raced kayaks and surf skis for over 26 years along with numerous road races, and indoor rowing races, I have a lot of miles on me. I have more miles on me now having picked up cycling. Over the last year, I have enthusiastically been enjoying shaving seconds off my Strava segments as I get faster and comparing my times on the roads of Portsmouth and Newport with the local cyclist like Tim Hacket, my neighbor Jon(an extraordinary runner cyclist, and others I have met on the roads or in the Grit cycling group.

So my paddling training hours compared to previous years were cut in half due to cycling. So I approached this year Blackburn with some reservations. There are a few of this year’s Blackburns top paddlers that I am connected on Stava with. The training load of these top paddlers is massive leading up to Blackburn.

Not too surprising, Tim Dwyer, long-time top 10 Blackburn finisher, and I put in these kinds of miles for many, many years. A few months ago Tim Hacket told Tim D. and myself that he was going to do the Blackburn so my advice was to get a few 2-3 hours paddles in, and in rough water. Tim and I did a 13 mile paddle on the Sakonnet that had both of us focusing intently not to capsize. Tim H put in many miles of paddling(some with Tim D) and cycling that paid off. Tim H finished with an excellent time of 3:10:27 less than a minute behind training partner Tim D.

My race was one of disappointment. I knew going in it would be a long race for me, battling fluid in my inner ear for a month that manifests as an earache, and off and on dizziness, and malaise. So I approached this year’s race as a long paddle. Don’t get me wrong, I trained with consistent 90 to 135-minute paddles with Tim Hacket and on occasion, Tim Dywer raced and rode my gravel or road bike. I was just off on race day contending with this and at mile 9, my seat pad that I taped in my stable SR, became dislodged and torn leading to tailbone pain. Ugh! So at Straitsmouth, I had to make a decision, turn back now, or face the second half of the race with limited take-out points. So shortly after Straitsmouth, I turn around notifying the race boat I was turning around, and headed to Rockport which was about a mile back. As got into the harbor, I asked a sea kayaker, Paul, where I could take out. He said it was all docks and the best place was Little Garden Beach just outside of the harbor. He escorted me to this beach telling me he had done one Blackburn, the “Big One” in 2015. It was on his bucket list. I said yes, I remember that one well. Having never been to Rockport, I was able to enjoy the scenic views of Sandy Bay from land.

I called Chris Chappell and later Tim Hacket to let them know where I was and to have Tim come pick me up after he finished. I knew in the morning I may not complete the race so i gave Tim an extra set of keys so he could in fact pick me up if need be. I drove home much fresher than I have ever been from a Blackburn and knowing I made the correct decision.

At the pointed end of the lead pack was Rob Jehn the winner of this year’s race followed by Matt Drayer, Greg Lesher, John Hair, John Costello, Tim Dwyer, and Tim Hacket to round out the top 7. Mary Beth, took the honors of the first female and only surfski solo female to tow the line. Mary Beth has completed more New England races than any other female competitor and ranks up there in the overall category too. So congratulations to all the finishers, and especially the “experienced” racers like Al, Dana, Jay and others who put in all the training time and completed this year’s race. As we get older the Blackburn and all the training required gets harder.

See Greg Lesher’s post on his view of the race.