Wild Goose Chase Canoe Race

Sunday was Father’s Day and I was back to Pittsfield. Not that my bike racing readers care much, but there was canoe race only 5 minutes away! We’re talking a real deal, legit USCA race… the Wild Goose Chase Canoe Race! Catchy huh? Canoe racing is awesome.

A couple of notes about canoe racing from the perspective of someone that does 50 bike races a year:

1. Canoe racers are built upside down
2. My entry fee was $15 for a 90 minute race
3. I got a T-shirt and post-race meal for no additional charge
4. There were 5 specators
5. My 18 foot canoe cost less than the front wheel of my bike
6. I couldn’t measure my watts

I raced in a C-1 canoe. That means I was by myself. A lot of people race in ‘C-2’ 2-man boats or a K-1 kayak. When I last did the Run of the Charles I was told that C-1’s were a class that was fading away. That might make me old school, which sounds kinda cool, but I think you can only be old school if you’re fast. I’m not fast. My arms were tired just taking the boat off the car. Roadie.

Dad and Shawn registered as a C-2 open team. The nice lady at registration asked me what kind of boat I had, and I told her a C-1. Then she asked me how old I was and I said 28. She told me that I would be in the C-1 under 50 category. Interesting!

Canoe races start in waves. Today, the cheaters I MEAN ICF kayaks go first, because they are ridiculously fast and are like motor doping. Then 2 waves of C-2’s go off then it’s time for the C-1’s. Because we are slow and everyone else needs a head start to avoid a demolition derby. How boring.

So we’re sitting around waiting to start and there are 7 of us C-1’s. Two of us (including myself) have any color at all left in our hair and between the two of us, I was the only one with male genital. Guess what that means? C-1 male 50&under champion by default baby!

But there was still racing to be done. It was a nine mile race on the twisty Housatonic river in an out and back format. Lots of turns, which means lots crashing and lots of fun. Secretly I was hoping that my brother and Dad would swamp there but which would allow me to make up the 4 minute deficit on them so we could duke it out.

The whistle goes off and our wave of boats charged ahead for the holeshot. I did not get it. Of the 7 boats in our wave, I was 7^th. We stayed a pack for about 1 minute, then I was like OGM I CAN’T GO ZONE 6 FOR 90 MINUTES and I stopped “sprinting.” Then I got dropped by all the greybeards. I was not even close to staying with them. Boy those guys can move.

I kinda sorta kept the female in our wave in sight, but I think that mostly due to taking risks on the corners. I was taking a tight inside line as much as possible. The risk is that you’ll hit shallow water and come screeching to a halt in suck water. Or even worse you’ll hit rocks. She was being all conservative in her line picking while I was being mostly aggressive. You know, because I’m a competitive canoe racer. So I was actually close to not being dead last. Then we hit a straightaway and she was like CYA SUCKER. Then I was dead last and couldn’t see anybody and didn’t feel like I was racing anymore. Dad and Shawn are about as good as I am, which is not good at all, and I only caught a glimpse of them at the turnaround point. Otherwise it was like a canoe racing time trial.

My hands got torn apart before I could do too much damage to my upper body so I wasn’t even really that sore after the race. It’s just my hands that hurt with lots of blisters and even those aren’t all bad. Oh well, at least I’m the 2010 Goose Chase C-1 Under 50 Champion! (even though I finished 20 minutes back!)