A few months back (May) while I was out in Ontario, I got onto a Honda dirt bike, and within 60 seconds, promptly fell off. In the process of falling off, I broke my left collarbone.

The timing was awful, as I was all prepared to go kayaking on the Ottawa river with Liquid Skills. I have been wanting to do that course for the last 5 years. I had signed up for it, paid for it, and the week before going I broke my collarbone.

The recovery has been slow. Due to the fact that the bone was not splinted, exercise was pretty much out of the picture. Walking at a semi-normal pace was painful, and sleeping quite difficult.

It is later now, and the bone has healed. Still, my left arm is quite weak I have almost all my mobility back, but in certain ranges of motion my arm suddenly ‘tweaks’. For example, a few weeks back I was moving some furniture, I could feel the stress on my collarbone and the muscles. It was not pleasant, but not painful. Then, the other day, I picked up a cup of coffee with my left arm and felt terrible pain in my shoulder. I guess I just had the angle to make it hurt.

To top it all off I have been neglecting my Physio. So, last week I started it up again. I had hoped to run in some MOMAR races this year, but with my arm the way it is I can’t get trained up in time.

I will be ready for some trail races like the Gunner Shaw though. Well, that is if I don’t head off to South America during that time, but we will see about that.

Ok, so I have been away from the blog for some time. The trouble with addicting sites like facebook is that you tend to neglect sites like this one…

In my time away I have been kayaking a great deal. In fact, I went out and bought 2 new kayaks. A Bliss Stick Mystic, and a Bliss Stick RAD 195. I never would have thought I would buy new boats, but I did. I also picked up a new paddle, a new PFD, an Overthruster and a whole host of other gear.

I have since been to San Francisco, Toronto and North Carolina since my last post. I have also had even more fun on the Puntledge too. I hope to start posting on this thing more regularly! :p

This long weekend I only got out paddling on Sunday. However, it was good to take the free time to get my place more organized, and get things finally out of boxes. The Sunday paddle on the Cowichan was good, surprisingly, the water level was higher than the previous weekend.

I paddled the Super Ego again, and having done more outfitting work in it, I was more comfortable in it. I had to practice a number of rolls in the Super, as I figured out how it rolls differently from the Jive. The Jive has all the volume in the front, so a C to C roll (or any roll for that matter) works great. The Super Ego, having a wide base, no secondary stability, large volume in the center, and a very slicy front end is extremely difficult to roll with a C to C roll.

The solution was to switch from my favored C to C style roll, and finish with a sweep roll, and lean far back on the rear deck. While this places my shoulders in a weaker position for the finish, it is better in my opinion, to be able to breathe. I have to go far back on the deck because of the volume distribution in the Super Ego, and with an extreme lean backwards I am able to bring the Super Ego around in a roll with ease.

Still, I did forget to do this while playing around at one point, and had trouble when I tried to come up with a C to C out of instinct after a forward flip. I had to forcibly remember to sweep my paddle and lean back to get the boat upright on my second attempt. The upshot to all this is that I am less afraid of flipping in the Super Ego now. Given that I have swam out of the Super Ego about 5 times since I have owned it, and the last time I swam out of the Jive I was hand paddling on the Clearwater when I went into a whirlpool, I have much more confidence in the Jive. With the ability to bring the Super upright, I can play more aggressively in holes and waves, which is exactly what I did on Sunday. I dropped the Super into Bert’s hole without any reservation. Whereas, previously, I was only comfortable taking the Jive in that. Sadly, I got shot out violently, as it is not nearly as retentive as I would have expected it to be.

The wave below the Final Drop was quite good, although being at a higher level the Jive would have been more appropriate due to hull speed. Still, I was able to get some good surfing off of it. I realized I was tired when I blew of the wave and flipped. The need to roll clued me into being done on that wave for the day.

I am really looking forward to the Puntledge River Festival coming this weekend. The last time down the ‘Punt’ I felt uneasy as I did not know the river, and was not in my Jive. This time I will bring both boats. The Jive for running the upper Puntledge, or perhaps the Browns if the level is there, and the Super Ego for playing in the waves and holes once I have done an exploratory run in the Jive.

On another note, it looks like I should be able to have my truck on the road fairly soon, so I will have to get the Tercel all fixed up and ready to sell. It will be nice to have a vehicle again that I can sleep in on kayak trips, and of course, carry a whole host of boats with. Granted, it is not nearly as good on gas as the Tercel, but give that I don’t need to drive to work - or even for shopping now - I can get the 4Runner back on the road. It probably won’t be licensed in time for the Puntledge, but should be road worthy by the next weekend.

In other news, the Gold River is getting to good levels, and I really hope to head out there. I have a feeling that I will be making a stop at Home Depot to pick up all the materials to build a collapsable bed for the back of my 4Runner to make it even more comfortable to sleep in. Nothing like a 4X4 camper.

I got back on the Cowichan today, it was a much smaller group of us. Jessica, Matt, Rob and myself. I brought my Super Ego out after working on the outfitting the night before. Instead of going all crazy with the contact cement (which I was considering!) I made a bunch of layers for my seat so that I could sit higher in the Super, and take out layers as required.

I fit better in the Super Ego than in the Jive, but due to the different design, I feel far less secure in the Super Ego. I did a few bow stalls in the current, and that meant that I had to roll of course. I tweaked my right arm rolling up. I always seem to do that in the Super. I need to work my back deck roll, and other rolls in the Super as it is so different to roll from the Jive.

The Cow had dropped again, but was still fairly similar to yesterday, and it was a good day out. I helped spot Jessica with her roll a few times, and really like the drypants for standing in the river to help with a rolling session. Nobody swam this day out, and everyone was on target.

Running final drop was a bit spooky as I was not in the Jive, so I was not nearly as lazy as before, and I went over with a good amount of speed. I leaned a bit too far back - as I am always concerned about the bow diving in the Super. I got squirted again, just like when I went over in the Jive. But, I did not have to roll.

The wave below Final Drop was great, and Matt had the best surfs of the day as he brought out his Fore-Play, and being in a long boat, he had the easiest time of getting into the sweet spot. I had a few good surfs in the Super, and while it was hard to work up and into the wave, once on it, the super surfed well. It kept trying to ride high on the wave, and I could feel the hull getting very loose and bouncy. It kept trying to flat spin of its own accord. I worked to keep it from doing that, while I like flat spinning, I knew there was a good chance of a window shade, or just general dunking if I tried to flat spin. I need more rolling sessions in the Super Ego to really get dialed in.

It was a good day, and I will be heading to the gym to do more training for next weekend and the Puntledge Festival coming up soon. After that, I will probably have to head off to the Wenatchee and Clearwater to get my whitewater fix in, so it will probably be back to Mountain Biking for the rest of the summer, or just lots of sea-kayak touring, and flatwater K-1 Paddling.

Driving to the put in:

I just got back from Paddling the Cowichan River. It was a good day. There were a ton of paddlers I have not met before out on the river, and most of them were brand new! There were also a bunch of Beavers, Cubs and Scouts holding some sort of ceremony at the put in, I have been so far out of Scouts all these years, I could not tell what it was.
Paddlers at the Put in:

The weather was great, which probably explains the high turnout. On the river were, Larry, Ian, Jessica, Matt and Myself. The Cowichan has dropped since last week, but it is higher than it was mid week. S-Bend was fairly tame, as were most things before it. In fact, before S-Bend it was mostly a float. I helped Jessica with her roll, she has it, but she still thinks a bit too much. Otherwise, she is progressing from being a beginner paddler to an intermediate paddler extremely fast. She has a Jive like me, and it will suit her well.
Jessica running past Bert's Hole:

Bert’s hole was good, but a bit flushy, hard to stay in, and I went back up for another run. Below it I managed to get a Pirouette, but that took a great deal of work. Down double whammy I took a bad line, with Jessica close behind - and she took the better route on hard river left, while I went over to center throught the chop and the sideways hole. Oops. Still, no flipping.

Down at Final Drop, I was so lazy I just floated to the edge, with zero forward momentum. I really should have been paddling somewhat… I went nose down and deep, and then the spoon on the back of my jive caught the pour over, and brought the deck up fast. So, I was squirting my boat… while under water. All that went through my mind was: “Oh, damn, I am going to have to roll now.”
Running Final Drop:

However, as the boat surfaced, I was able to level the Jive, and come up without a roll. Funny really, as I was totally immersed when I went into the foam. I am pleased that I did not have to roll!
Hamming for camera on wave:

Further down, the unamed wave below Final Drop was in good shape. Not as good as last weekend, but nothing to scoff at! I surfed and surfed like crazy on it. Ian had good surfing on it too. The longer boats did very well on it. Gerald had a great drop-in surf too, but then he got out and took photos that I hope to upload soon. I lent my boat to Matt as his short boat had trouble getting past the eddy fence into the wave. He ripped it up in the Jive. Switching back to his Bliss-Stick, he got in the wave and had a wicked ride. Afterwards, we hit up the pub for beer and food. Don and Rose stopped by to say Hi as well. It was a good time all around.
Hands free surfing:

I was watching other people in the little boats, thinking about my Super-Ego, and how I am happy to paddle the Jive. However, I am making some changes to my Super-Ego now so that the seat is much higher. I opted for paddling the Jive because I am just so confident paddling it. But the Super-Ego has always been very hard for me to roll. Watching Ken Whitings Video he notes that raising your seat can make the boat easier to roll, but not so high you are rolling all the time! After looking a newer Drago Rossi, I noticed that the seat in it was considerably higher than the one I have in the Super-Ego. Therefore, I have bought a foam sleeping Pad from MEC, an I am currently cutting it into bits for lifting my seat. Looks like there is a group of us hitting the Cow tomorrow, so I hope to try it out!
Left Rudder:

The pictures arrived via email, and as you can see, Gerald did a fantastic job of taking pictures! I owe him a few beers!
Hip steering to the right to carve:

I have had a busy past week.

On Saturday I headed out to paddle the Nanaimo River again. On the river were Tim and his daughter Cara (or Kara?), Larry, and Jessica and myself. The level was good, but much lower than before. The level was dropping off fast. I had a good time, and did not have to roll once. In fact, in my last 5 runs out, I have not flipped once at all! (That includes Sunday).

Jessica did great for a relative new paddler, even after following me down a bad line at the A-Frame drop. I chose what was a good line at high level, not knowing that there was a massive pillow and rock in the center of the river. I boofed it, and the rock below, but turned back to wave her off, but she boofed it as well. Pretty good for someone who is just getting her roll dialed in on the river! Cara was paddling amazingly well - especially given her age. She gets to go to Montreal soon for Kayak Slalom racing. pretty impressive.

I was set to head out to Vancouver on Sunday morning, but my paddle on Saturday was so good, I elected to head to the Cowichan as well! On the river were a whole bunch of people. I did not get to know all their names. There was Gerald who took a picture of me just coming out of final drop. I look a bit weird in it as I am just recovering from a face full of water. There was also Jessica, Cara, Tim, and about 10 or so other people. I am meeting more and more paddlers, and this is just awesome. I hope to get involved in a subset of the VI club for the Victoria area so I always have people to paddle with.

The Cowichan had dropped considerably, and there were not many features around on it. Not for me in the jive anyways. Or i thought so. As we got lower down the river, I found a few fast surfing waves that I had to work to ride. Most everyone else was in the new smaller boats. Tim was in a kevlar C-1 Cara in Kevlar kayak, and Jessica and myself in Jives. So we had the biggest boats on the river.

After I ran last drop (as seen in the photo) I continued on down to try the wave below final drop. It was unbelievable. It was just a phenomenal wave. And because it was running so fast, and I had the Jive as opposed to the Super Ego, I could surf up a storm on it. It was a great ride. But then a guy swam, and I had to break off to go rescue him. Unfortunately I did not have my river booties (I thought I had lost them, but I had just left them in my car) and I had a long walk back to the take out after the rescue with no footwear. No big deal, except the rocks on the Cow are very sharp. Fortunately, the guy I helped rescue (I also helped him swim by encouraging him to try the wave - my bad!) came back down and carried my kayak back for me, because the walk back was taking me a long time.

My left leg goes numb often in my Jive because I am too tall for it. It was numb for a long time on Saturday, on Sunday I think I pulled my calf muscle while paddling, but because my leg was numb I could not tell I had cramped it up. I found that out starting Sunday night…

After heading back home, cleaning up my gear, I shot off to the ferry to get over to Vancouver (where I am as I write this) for my VMWare ESX/VI3 course. I have been so terribly busy out here. My brain hurts from VMWare information and the labs. I have had lots of requests to visit friends, but I sadly don’t have the time to see them all. I did get to visit Christine, but then I had to drop off her computer system! The VMWare course is great, I should be able to take the exam in Victoria soon. But I will have a good amount of study before the test to become VCP certified.

Other than that, because I finally have my first real cash flow card, and because I feel I have worked so hard, and made so many sacrifices, I dropped $1650 at Ikea today. You know you are an adult when you are exited about buying furniture at Ikea… What ever happened to wanting toys? At least I did it smartly, I got it all on credit for no interest, and I am taking the money I would have used to buy the stuff outright and putting it in a GIC so I earn interest, and pay off the card before the end date.

I hope there is more water to paddle this weekend… The island is drying up fast. Still, I can head out to Wenatchee and Clearwater to get my Whitewater fix on long weekends! Provided that I can walk normally once my calf heals up…

On Saturday I got up to the Nanaimo River. Tim told me that Larry and a few others would be paddling the Nanaimo, and since it had been raining, the level should be good. I drove up - with no contact info - just basically blind, in the hopes of meeting paddlers around 10:30 at the river.

I got to the Bungy Zone, and saw no one was there, but fortunately I knew the area as I had paddled the Nanaimo a few times before. I drove up the road, and just looked for paddlers. I came across 3 at a different take out than what I normally knew (but I did not realize that at the time). At that take out were Larry, whom I had paddled with before, Martin, whom I think I have paddled with once or twice, and Ian, who I have never paddled with before.

We got all organized, and set off for the put in. The water was high. VERY high. In fact, none of them had ever seen the Nanaimo that high before. It had rained the night before, and the day was hot and free from clouds. Thus, it was probably a large amount of snowmelt. The guages for the river were broken on the government site, so nobody knew the height before hand.

I had made some modifications to my Jive the night before. I removed the Perception thigh hooks that had been in my boat since I bought it. They tended to put my left leg to sleep, and made the fit fairly uncomfortable. Still, I was always able to control the jive very well.

It turns out that the lack of thigh hooks do in fact make the jive more comfortable, but I found my performance went down. I did not feel as assured as snapping the boat from edge to edge without the aid of the thigh hooks was considerably more difficult. This made me less self assured in the dependable jive. That, and everyone was a tad concerned by the level of the river. I had forgotten what the drops were like, and I could not remember most of the lines. That, and the character of the river had changed.

So, when we got down to A Frame, Larry (who unfortunately had a swim) and Martin opted out. Ian and I had a discussion about where we would paddle to, and agreed to go down 2/3 of the run and take out. I did not realize it at the time, but I would have been fine to paddle the whole thing, but I did not feel comfortable having only 2 of us on the river, as a swim by either of use would have resulted in a yard sale…

After A Frame, Ian and I happened upon a fairly nice wave with an eddy right next to it. We played around in that, then rode through one of the more difficult rapids. There were certanly some scary spots in places, but the lines were obvious, so you could easially skirt the bad stuff if you knew what you were doing. Coming around another corner, we found a huge eddy, and a good wave, and further down stream, out of the eddy zone was a beautiful big green wave. We surfed on the one next to the eddy, then Ian gave the green wave a shot, and had a good surf. I headed down after, and thought I had missed it, but the Jive being the dependable surfing machine it is, (combined with quite the ab workout!) I was able to get on the wave and I got one hell of a ride. It was probably a 5 min surf. In fact, the only reason I came off was I no longer had the core strength to get my stern rudder fully planted while carving as my abs just gave out, and I blew off the wave. It was a fantastic surf.

We ran down to the next rapid, where there is a “boof” section. We ran the boof section - which had no boof! Just a big green tongue into an eddy. Quite a cool drop - especially on this bright and sunny day. We rode more of the rapids before pipeline, and then took out at pipeline. I suddenly realized that we were taking out where I had always taken out when doing the Nanaimo! Ian explained that the river was still really cool down the “ledges” to “house rock” and I wished I had opted to keep going, as I have never seen the route from Pipeline to the House Rock. Still, I hope to get another chance. After a very long portage back, we met up with the other guys who had hitched a ride to the pre-planned take out, and had managed to get vehicles. Ian gave me a lift back to my car, and after checking out my place in Nanaimo, I headed back to Victoria. I did try to take a swing by Tugwell Creek Meadery, but I did not get there in time - I made it into Sooke at 5, so I just missed getting there. Oh well.

Last Sunday, 15 of April, I was driving through Duncan, and I saw a bunch of kayaks being loaded on to Vehicles on the side of the road by the Koksilah. I thought for a moment, and then turned my car around and decided to drive over and say hello. I am so glad I did. I spoke with Tim Marks who is a Lake, Moving Water and Ocean Navigation instructor - he paddles Open Canoe and C-1. He offered to take me with him on the Cowichan on Saturday as the Vancouver Island Whitewater Society was having their annual general meeting at the Warm Rapids Inn near Lake Cowichan. That name sounded familiar to me for some reason…

I followed Tim up from Goldstream Park on Saturday morning, and we went to the put in on the Cowichan river. Turns out we left really early - I was up at 7 am, but due to the way paddlers are, we did not get on the river until noon! Not Tim’s fault though. As it was, scores of other paddlers showed up. There were open canoes, kevlar kayaks, playboats, and even an NRS 6 person raft on the river! I had a blast. I was a bit nervous heading down the river as I did not know it, and my hip pads were not glued into my Jive. I elected to paddle the Jive as it is a rock-solid boat for me compared to the Super Ego. The water was cold, and my left leg kept going numb, but my body remembered how to paddle, and paddle well. I remember fireing into an eddy, thumping the hull of my boat and announcing to Rose, Steve and Wes: “This, THIS! Is where I belong! What the hell was I thinking not being on a river like this!?”

It was a near religious experience, and for those of you who know me you know that is saying something. All my moves came back, and I found despite being very out of shape, that my training in flatwater K-1 racing had dramatically improved my forward stroke. I was able to properly apply massive amounts of power to the blades, despite my abdominals screaming in protest. There were some unnerving spots at first, as I did not know the river, S-Bend, Double Whammy and of course Final Drop. However, as I approached each of these my experience took over and I thought “You have paddled much much worse than this”. And I had.

After paddling, there was the Annual General Meeting out in the cold, where various topics were discussed. Then a BBQ and beer. I sat around talking to everyone, and during the course of the day I met many paddlers. Don and Rose run the Warm Rapids Inn, and I had paddled with Don before - in fact, we both got our ACA instructors at the same time from Jodie Dixon near Castlegar. Sean Plecas was there, and I have paddled with him as well. There were others too who were new to me: Shane, Jessica, Georgia, Rose, Tim, Wes, Steve, Will, Christine, Mark, Kelly… And others who will have to forgive me for forgetting their names right now. I was impressed at how many of us on the river were certified instructors, and how many were newbies. I like paddling with a diverse group - people of every level. I find I have more fun that way. I certainly had fun!

I headed home that night as I had not planned to be there until 10 PM, everyone else camped out, but I was not planning on that and had none of my camping gear, so I headed back home to get some rest. The next day I was up early, firing back up to the Cowichan. I had to make some interesting stops along the way - such as WalMart to get contact cement for my hip pads. And we hit the river again. The second time around was better - although I did not get in as good of a surf at S-Bend as my muscles were starting to complain. I could feel little aches all over - in places like my rotator cuff, pecs, wrists, shoulders, and of course, my abs. Nothing was going to stop me from paddling though. I remember giving myself tendinitis on the Clearwater because of my refusal to stop paddling good water.

Other than missing a few good surf waves, the second day was as good as the first. We did a much longer run, which had some very long floaty bits. That required me getting out of the Jive a number of times as my left leg kept going to sleep. I still did not flip once. My low braces are on target from K-1 training as well. Goes to show you cross-training is a good thing. I took some good chunks of plastic out of my boat, the rocks in the Cowichan are very sharp. There are sections that appear to be undercut. Goes to show you how inner tubers die on the river every year in undercuts. Other than my boat being gouged up, my legs got carved up a little as well, because when my legs go numb in the Jive, I usually fall out of the boat as I am unable to stand when getting out. That put some marks on me.

After getting back around six on Sunday, I had to head out and get some shopping done as I had no food left. When I got back in around seven or so, I barely had the energy to put the food in the fridge, and trying to set my alarm clock I fell asleep in front of it, and had to drag myself over to it to get the time set properly. I crawled into bed and fell instantly to sleep. Not that it was a great sleep, given how much of my body was sore. Today as I write this, I was sore as well, but I forced myself into the Gym as I know I will heal faster with more workouts, and get in better shape faster for more paddling. I can’t believe I denied myself this sport for so long. I also got more river booties, extra outfitting for the jive to prevent my legs from going to sleep, looked into raising the seat in my Super Ego (after inspecting a similar Drago Rossi with a raised seat) to make it easier to roll. And I even got some drypants on order.

Now instead of the sea kayak which I have been considering buying since September (as I now get “free” Sea Kayak access from ORPC) I am considering adding a new Steep Creeker to my quiver. There are a number of steep creeks on the island, and I am determined to get out more.

I signed up for the club of course, I also signed up for the Puntledge river festival on May 25-27, including the playboating clinic. And of course I signed up for the Surf Kayak Fest in September. There may not be much water in the summer on the island, but you can damn well bet I will be running any of it I find. I am also signing up to head out to a “secret” spot on the island to surf tidal rapids. I am not mentioning where as the number of slots available to go on the trip are limited, and I want to keep mine.

It is good to be back.

A few weekends ago I had a kayak trip planned, unfortunately, the weather did not co-operate. There were 40+ knot winds in the ocean around Victoria, so that put the kibosh on that. Instead, a trip out to Port Renfrew was in order. It is a long drive alongside the Juan de Fuca trail. After checking out Port Renfrew we headed out to Botanical Beach. As luck would have it, Feb 24th was the second lowest tide (after the 23rd), and we hit the beach at exactly the right time. Pure coincidence.

As you can see the weather was not great, I had a good view over to Owen Point where I was on the West Coast trail, but I did not get a picture of that. Seems like it would be an easy sea kayak though. I was sadly even less impressed with Botanical Beach than the last time I had been there. It is so horribly dead compared to the tidal pools along the west coast trail. It is a shame really, as it should be one of the best.

Checking out the starting point for the west coast trail was kind of fun as it looked just like it did when I set out on it in 2005, not that it should have changed at all. But I at least look at it now with a knowledge of exactly what it is like, and what can be expected along the trail every step of the way.

On the way back, a stop at the 17 mile pub, which has Guinness on Tap, and good food was in order. Now, the bill was around $45, which was fine on my Visa. A few days later, when I checked my bill, there was the $45 charge… and another charge for $2700!!! Now, I like my Guinness, but I don’t buy it in kegs! As it turns out, there was an error made by one of the servers, which had already been corrected, but Visa was not yet aware of that change, so it was reversed. But then, Visa flagged my card, and I could not use it at the Black Bear pub in Nanaimo to buy my mother dinner either! So, I had to contact Visa again to get the flag removed. *Grumble*.

Well, I lived through the 2006 MOMAR, and shaved just over an hour off my previous time.

It was a blast. And to think I almost did not want to go! I had hurt my IT band on my right knee in the final Gutbuster of the season, so I did not get nearly as much training in as I would have liked to, but then I remembered that I had set a goal to run all the MOMAR races and all the Gutbuster races for this year, and for me, the Cumberland 2006 MOMAR was the most important. My goal was to better my time from the 2005 Cumberland MOMAR, where our team finished in 8:03 - dead last. And I figured that even if my aerobic capacity was not as good as it had been during the summer, I was going to go and just get out there and finish.

I managed to get a surf ski from Ocean River Kayak Club, and this was a slightly new experience for me as I am used to Whitewater, Sea and K-1 Kayaks, but not so used to a surf ski.

On the upside, at the race start, the surf ski was fast, and had fantastic secondary stability. However, I have years of training bracing with the balls of my feet to help stabilize a kayak, in this surf ski, moving the balls of your feet causes the surf ski to steer! That, and the steering on the Speedster Surf Ski was very sensitive indeed, a slight touch on the pedals and you were suddenly turning rapidly.

I tried drafting other kayaks, but found that since the steering was so sensitive, I actually had an easier time paddling without drafting any kayaks. At the turn across Comox lake a big wind had come up, and waves were coming in broadside, and at that point I was really glad I did not have a K-1 to paddle, as the waves were coming over the surf ski, and I was soaking wet. Had I been in a K-1, it would have been swamped, or flipped at the very least! However, I had to brace far more than I would have liked, and I kept slowing down. That bothered me because kayaking was the one thing that I could train in while my knee was healing. However, I remembered something Sheri mentioned about the race, that the Kayak section is not all important for time. And she is right. Norm who regularly finishes first in the races does not come in first on the paddles, but he still wins, so that is something to think about.

Coming in to checkpoint 2, My hands hurt due to missing skin from the paddle, but other than that the Tylenol I took before the race was doing its job. I got off and running for the trekking section with the new map that was given to us, and instead of running pell-mell as we had the year prior, I set off at a slow jogging pace so I could keep moving, but also read the map at the same time. This, as it turned out was a very wise decision indeed. In previous MOMAR races I had made the serious mistake, and seen others make the mistake of trying to get each checkpoint as fast as possible, with less regard for navigation. In this Cumberland MOMAR, I knew my aerobic capacity was down, so I knew that it was silly to try to run as fast as I could. So, instead, whenever I came to a route decision, I would stop, look at the map, and then make my route choice.

What a difference. I now know that for the next MOMAR’s I run whenever I find a route choice, I am going to stop, read the map, make a decision, and THEN move on. I only made 1 route error, and I discovered it in about 2 min after the wrong turn. Sure beats 45 min of running full out to find Checkpoint 10 like at the Duncan MOMAR. By stopping to check your route you save energy, and a huge amount of time by just using your energy to think as opposed to running.

I elected to do the hardest checkpoints first as I really like technical running downhill, and I wanted to get the difficult running/hiking out of the way first. That was also a good choice, because when I had finished the higher altitude checkpoints, and was looking for the lower ones, I was tired at the lower checkpoints, but on level ground, so it was much easier to deal with them in that fashion.

(More coming to this post, but I am currently a ball of pain.)

It turned out to be a good choice to run uphill first, that way, it was out of the way. After striking a terrible “rockstar” pose at one of the checkpoints (it was one of the mystery events) it was time to start heading down. I made a slight route error, in that I did not go down on the trail that I wanted, but they both ended at the same place. The one I had taken was just a little longer, but I was already on it, so going back was pointless.

The Rockstar pose: