Re Post from 2013 Narrow River Race: Who was training over the winter?

We had a great turnout of 16 paddlers and several others on the water taking pictures(Tim H), video(Dave Grainger). Others paddled but did not race opting to enjoy the paddle and enjoy the event. The coarse has a lot to offer due to its length of almost 10 miles, some shallows, some wind, a super tight slalom turn stick complete with current. Yan missed the turn stick and found himself looking into the ocean, not where he wanted to be in a K1. Some paddlers made it a family event like Gary Williams(race director of L2L and Achilles). Gary also was sporting a new trailer to haul all the Achilles boats this year making his job much easier. He also loaded my demo Stellar tandem to practice with Robin for the upcoming Sakonnet River Race in June. Junior showed up in his truck and another car complete with his parents who are visiting from Brazil.

: 2013 Narrow River

: Greg, Tim, Wesley with State Soaps by Tim H(Natures Lather)

: Borys

This was the first race where many paddlers got to see how their winter training paid off. Boris and Yan went out quickly in their K1’s. Boris used the race as a training paddle for the upcoming season where he has an aggressive K1 and Surf ski race schedule. Robin changed up her winter training with gym workouts all of us would envy. Greg realizing the importance of an off season program after last years Wickford race where Tim and I were well ahead of Greg. This year Greg’s program included the best workout possible, the Concept 2 erg!! Greg turned in a 6.43 2k time at the Crash B’s in February. You don’t turn in that kind of erg time unless you have been training, I mean training hard. Couple this with some on water interval training and you can smoke the competition as Greg did. Greg came in first in the surf ski class with a time of 1:27:40. I came in second with a time of 1:31:52, that is a huge gap. Congrats to Greg. During the race, Greg passed Chris and I in our sleek Mohicans at the 2 mile mark like were in a pair of 60 pound sea kayaks. My training program has been excellent this winter and I will be running more to augment my paddling.

Tim’s training has gone well this winter with us paddling on the weekends doing intervals of all distances and Tim doing some quality erg work during the week. Tim finished just a few seconds behind me coming in third. Chris having gotten on the water a few times this winter before yesterday, turned in some impressive PR times this winter on the kayak erg that paid off yesterday with a fourth place finish. Francisco has been putting some serious endurance paddles of 20-30 miles while in training for the Molokai in May. Bob Wright has often joined Tim and I on our training paddles and is looking fitter than ever.

UPDATED: Video Downloads by Dave Grainger.
Click on the name to download the video. Thanks Dave!!!
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Borys, Greg, Yan, Wesley, Tim & Chris, Francisco, Bruce, Bob, Matt, Robin, Josh

Everyone who raced yesterday got in a quality workout. We were all out there enjoying the our time, connecting with friends on the water and now looking forward to the Run of the Charles in a few weeks, then Essex, and then the Sakonnet. After the race many of us got together for lunch and shared in the desert. The desert being unwrapping the hidden Vadja Hawx Elite that was on my car that I picked up from KAS immediately after the race on my way to lunch. I will be paddling the Hawx over the next few weeks and posting my review. I actually paddled it when I got home for about 45 minutes.

Green Machine, the Hawx

This was the first race in the SurfskiRacing.com Race Series sponsored by Stellar. Francisco and Greg tied for second in the 2012 series, while Borys came in first last year. Borys will be paddling the SES ultra in this years ocean races as part of the Stellar Team and will be paddling the new Stellar Apex K1 in the 19 mile Rotc where Borys owns the record. Thanks to Tim H. for taking these pics and more and for the donation of the soaps in the form of states. See more at Tim’s H. web site http://natureslather.com/