2012 Blackburn Challenge: Course and Personal Records

The Blackburn Challenge is enormously popular event for the paddling and rowing community. For many years it has grown to be the benchmark race  here in the Northeast.  It is different in many ways from our other races.  First of all it is the longest race at almost 20 miles so it takes the fastest rowers and paddlers about 2:20-2:45 to finish, while some it takes over 4 hours to complete.  It also had been in existence for over a quarter century. The course itself offers different ocean conditions along the way around Cape Ann.

Course Map by Dana Gaines

The first three miles are purely flat water on the Annisquam River that leads out to the ocean.  Then for many miles you get typical New England ocean paddling conditions until you reach mile 14 through 17 where the water is undulating even in super flat super conditions like yesterday. This happens to be about the two hour mark for a lot of paddlers which only adds to the  physical and boat fatigue of most paddlers. It is here the course begins to really take its toll on most paddlers. After all, the Blackburn is really an endurance race for most. The fun really begins a half mile before the long jetty called the Dog Bar.  This section leading to the Dog Bar, past Dog Bar, and the turn into Gloucester Harbor can be the  roughest portion of the course with ocean swells, refractory waves, mega boat traffic and wind. Once you have negotiated that section, the last leg of almost two miles seems like five as you can see the landmark towers marking the beach for the greasy pole finish line.

Finish(photo Jen Lapierre)

The forecast was spot on with flat conditions and little wind.  It was the flattest conditions for any Blackburn I have done.  Even the Dog Bar Section was benign and uneventful. I was thankful for cloud cover like last year to make the long race more tolerable.  The HPK class(surfskis/unlimited) was the largest field ever and if you include the Surf Ski Doubles and V8’s and 18S’s, you had over 50 skis on the water.  Super!  The Blackburn Race Committee did another outstanding  job.  Everyone needs to thank the committee members for all their hard work and late nights.  We see Rich Klajnscek (President) and Bill Kuklinski at awards ceremony, however, behind the scenes Donna Lind is making it all happen along with many others that make up the race committee including Tom Lawlor and Chris Chappell to name the people I know who are on the committee.

Due to all the hard work of the race committee, the race start went off without a hitch.  The HPK’s went off at 8:30.  As advertised the top three registered paddlers took the first 3 places with Dorian Walters, Reid Hyle, and Borys Markin, all breaking the old course record set by Greg Barton in 2007 in an 18X with a time of 2:32:58. Beyond the top three, it was an ultra competitive field with Joe Glickman putting in another excellent time which he has done so many times at the Blackburn with a 4th place finish. We had some new racers for the first time, which included not only the top 3, but also Jakob Van Dorp, Chris Hipgrave, and Flavio Costa to join long time staple Brian Heath and more recently Hugh Pritchard.  This top group of paddlers consistently finishes under 2:50 which in my mind is one of the benchmarks of the Blackburn along with the sub 3 hour benchmark. It was nice that that Epic and Stellar were able to supply boats to Dorian Walters and Reid Hyle so they could compete in the races.  Also thanks to Charles River Canoe and Kayak who rented boats for this race. 

Dorian Walters(photo Shawn Burke)

Reid Hyle(photo Shawn Burke)

Boris at finish(photo Chris Chappell)

Joe Glickman(photo Shawn Burke)

Reid,Beata,Dorian,Boris

Other noteworthy performances was the effort Tim Dwyer and Eric McNett put in to crush the previous surf ski doubles record in 2:30:50. Tim broke the record last year with Mike Tracy. Dana Gaines and Bill Kuklinski dueled it out for 1st and 2nd in the FSK class which should be even bigger next year. Bill beat his personal record by a few minutes while Dana paddled a surf ski for the first time. I think Dana maybe the only person to finish in a sea kayak, surf ski, and rowing shell in the Blackburn!  Beata Cseke broke the 3 hour barrier in her 2nd ocean race.  Mary Beth Gangloff finished her first Blackburn in a surf ski transitioning over from sea kayaks like her partner Greg Lesher.  Matt Drayer won the Sea Kayak class and I hope will be joining the surfski class next season. We finally got  Dave Vandorpe in the ocean even if it was in a double with his long time training partner Bill Baker. Both Bill and Dave paddle flat water almost exclusively.  Richard Germain fresh off his 4th Molokai was able to drive down to the race. The Achilles Team was well represented with three doubles.  We had many new paddlers at this years Blackburn so I hope everyone will come back and join us and bring a paddling friend. 

Robin and Ricardo (One of theAchilles team)(photo Dave Lind)

Tim Dwyer, Eric McNett(Photo Chris Chappell)

Bill K and Dana Gaines in FSK Class(photo Shawn Burke)

Bill Baker and Dave Vandorpe(Photo Chris Chappell)

Greg Lesher and Mary Beth

Matt Drayer, 1st Sea Kayaker

Bill K and Rich K.

My Race

This brings me to my race. Leading up to this years Blackburn, I had considerable more rough water paddling having done the Double Beaver Course much more than previous years but not quite as much interval training. I was disappointed the course was so flat this year since I tend to do better in moderate to rough conditions. I felt much more relaxed at this years race knowing I had done the training and barring something unexpected I hoped to be in the 2:48-2:53 range. I turned in a 2:51:47 for a 12th place finish. I wanted to finish in the top ten but that did not happen due to the depth of the field. 

My strategy was to stay close to my friendly rivals Greg Lesher and Franciso Urena since we all finish similarly in most races.  At last year’s race, I edged out both Francisco and Greg by mere seconds.  So after the gun went off and within the first mile, Greg was paddling like a man on fire. He already had a 30 second gap on me.  It seemed like everyone was ahead of me for the first 3 miles out the Annisquam.  I checked my heart rate monitor and I was where I wanted to be. However, I did not want to be dropped off the back off a two man pack Francisco was leading. So I rode wash beginning about mile 1.5 until we were out of the river. At this point I either dropped Francisco or he took a different line because I don’t remember seeing him again until half way across Sandy Bay when he silently pulled up beside me and said” get on, lets go get Greg”!  Before that point I managed to catch 3-4 tiny runners and opened up a 50 yard gap on about 5 surf skiers.  When Francisco caught back up to me, his pace was too fast and he dropped me heading to Straitsmouth.

Francisco(photo Shawn Burke)

 At this point before Straitsmouth, I could see I was making ground on Greg and holding steady on Junior Prates.  As we went through Straitsmouth,  I saw Greg on an outside line while Francisco took a direct line.  I managed to catch Junior Prates and made a decision to follow Greg’s line wanting to be in direct contact with him. It is was about mile 13. Greg could not match my pace and said” have a good race” as I passed him.  So at that point I headed closer to shore seeing a group of two paddlers which turned out to be Joe Shaw and Jesse Lishchuk.  I was making up time on them when Jesse fell off the pace. We paddled about 2 minutes together, when I put in a short surge and began focusing on Joe. I caught Joe with a half mile before the dog bar. Here is where I wanted some wave action but none was too be found.  Joe and I hugged Dog Bar and were dead even going for the last leg home. I could see Francisco in the distance and made up some time on him in the harbor with Joe and myself pushing each other. Joe in my old boat, got a 2 boat gap and on me and opened that up to a 17 second lead as we finished. Francisco, Joe and myself finished within a minute of each other, and Greg finished another minute behind. So after 19.4o miles of racing around Cape Ann with many lead changes, race lines, and overtaking many other skis to get to the finish, I completed the race with my buddies within my goal. I hope to see them at the next race so we can do it all again! The Double Beaver Race is in two weeks and almost always promises to be anything but flat.  

Wesley and Joe Shaw(photo Chris Chappell)

Wesley at finish

PS. Reid Hyle will be writing a summary of his race so stay tuned for that. 

Reid at finish

Full Results:

http://www.blackburnchallenge.com/CARC_Race_Results.asp

 Results for FSK, HPK and Doubles