Start your engines!

On Saturday Dave and I hosted the first race of CPA's new series. This race was held down at Jack's Boat House where Frank B. was gracious enough to allow us to launch from his docks. The 2.7 mile course took us from Jack's up past Three Sisters to a turn around point and then back to the docks. This was a bit of a difficult event for me because I was not only trying to race and do well but was also wearing the race organizer's hat. Thank goodness Dave was willing to take over the timing duties so that I could participate in the race!

After some sketchy forecasts, Saturday morning turned out to be beautiful. Cool with very light winds. We had a total of 12 racers and split them into 8 classes. After all, we really wanted everyone to walk away with one of the cool new CPA medals or ribbons that I had made this winter.

We started in one "mass" start. Brian B. and David M. set the pace and soon left all the rest of us mere mortals in their wakes. I spent most of the time paddling with Dan and Barry. Of course it could be that the Silhouettes just wanted to stay together. At the finish Dan and I were neck and neck but he edged me out by 2 seconds. I'm going to demand a rematch!

The course was really short, shorter than any race I'd done before and actually not much to my liking (even though I designed it!). I much prefer longer races where I can get into a rhythm and just go. Sheer raw sprinting speed is not my forte but I have relatively good endurance and can go pretty fast forever. I didn't have to worry though. Since there were no other women in my class I pretty much had a medal in the bag. In fact, we had only three women in the whole race and we all ended up in our own classes and thus guaranteed a medal each. I hope to see some more women racing at the other events this year. The largest class was the Men's touring kayak A group with 5 paddlers.

After the main race we held the first "Rubber Ducky Relay". This turned out to be much easier than everyone expected. We divided everyone up into teams of two by drawing names out of a hat. Half of the paddlers went back up stream of the Washington Canoe Club and waited for their teammate to paddle them up the duckies for pass-off. Everyone had to keep the duckies balanced on their decks. If any fell off the paddler had to stop, retrieve the ducky and then continue. Turns out we must be one smooth bunch as not a single ducky hit the water! I was teamed with Mitch and we came in third overall behind the teams of Dave M./Barry M. and Brian B./Dan H.

A special thanks goes to Mutineer Dave, Dave S., Tall Tom, Todd (Angry Paddler), and Jennifer who proved to be a marvelous support crew. The Daves took dock duty, starting and timing all the racers. Tall Tom and Jennifer were on "rock" duty making sure that the racers didn't inadvertently hit anything in their haste. And Todd set the turn around buoy and kept an eye out for those who might try to cut the race a little short!

What a great start to the race season. Next week its off to Philly for an 8.5 mile race on the Schuylkill River!