Medina to Mercer Sausage Pull
The morning of the race it was darned cold. Overcast, somewhat foggy, threatening a little bit to rain, and cold. Did I say it was cold? It was definitely cold. The temperature was somewhere in the 40's.
The race on this morning's agenda was the last one for the year with the Sound Rowers. It takes place on Lake Washington, one of the largest urban lakes in the country. The start and finish of the race is at Medina City Hall, located right on the water on the east side of the lake. Bill Gates has his residence just a little further north along the shore, along with Jeff Bezos and a few other zillionaires.
The previous day I drove down to Olympia, WA to pick up my boat du jour from Pedalcraft. Vince McGowan was not racing today, and Rusty Lane had no immediate plans for the boat Vince had been using, so I borrowed the red, white and blue Cadence and drove back with it. A short visit at the Open Water Cycling factory in Redmond, WA, helped in getting it prepared for racing. Well, we didn't get the prop shaft straightened, but at least the dings in the propeller blade were filed smooth, some additional lubricant was applied to the chain and couplings, and the chain was retensioned. Jeff Beres, the boat's builder, had some troubles loosening the propeller setscrews, so the shaft straightening would have to wait until after the race. I'd have to suffer with the extra resistance in the drive mechanism as a result.
The drive to the race in Medina was, for me, short and sweet. The parking lot was almost completely filled with over an hour to go before the start of the race. There sure were a lot of people here today!
The parking lot was quite a bit smaller than that at Lake Samish. The lawn area and beach were a bit easier to work with, however. As can be seen from the photos there was quite a wide area to set up the boats. The beach was easily accessible, too, and did not require one to walk down stairs or around corners, etc.
After donning a wind breaker I walked over to the registration table and paid my $10 entry fee. One of the other racers helped me carry the Cadence from the parking lot down to the water and after a couple of trips I had the rest of my racing equipment there as well. This included my bike shoes, water bottle, lightweight canoe paddle and my camera bag.
After a while the pre-race meeting was called. Rainer Storb, the organizer of this event, described the courses (short and long), where the short course heads south to the I-90 bridge Mercer Island and returns after going around all four pillars of the bridge supports, and the long continues onward around Mercer Island. The length of the short course is about 6 miles. The length of the long course is about 14 miles. Also, after the main race there was going to be a short "backup" race, where the racers would move their boats in reverse throughout the course. Finally, there would be a variety of grilled sausages and sauerkraut for lunch, in keeping with the name of the event.
Fifty boats were registered, with as many as twelve people on a single craft. The ages of the participants ranged from early teens through the late 60's and early 70's. This was going to be another interesting race!
Shortly after the meeting I met with Paul, who offered me the use of his GPS for the race. I gladly accepted, and he walked me through its many menus and displays. I found a spot to mount it on the Cadence drive unit right above the water bottle cage. This was going to be great! Finally I'll have an accurate reading of my water speed and distance traveled!
One of the people on a chase boat agreed to take some pictures using my digital camera, so I told her how to use it and to not worry about taking lots of shots.
Time was getting short. After donning my bike shoes, removing my nylon shell pants and jackets, and putting on my wrap-around life jacket, I shoved off and joined the others as they warmed up in the vicinity of the starting line.
With a loud blast of an air horn the boats surged forward. There was a little bit of mayhem as some of the larger boats with oars and paddles got a little close to some slower vessels, but this was but a temporary setback for those boats. My boat seemed to leap ahead as my feet pushed against the pedals and my legs pumping like pistons. Could that be right? The GPS was registering my speed at 8.5, no, 8.6 mph! Wow!!
Pedaling madly I detected several of the rowing shells and kayaks pulling ahead. More boats seemed to be passing by, yet here I was pedaling in my anaerobic zone at a pace faster than I have ever done before. The GPS was still registering over 8 mph, and my chest was heaving with my breathing. I had to slow down if I was going to have any strength left to finish the race.
To my side I heard the approach of the 12-man canoe. Remembering that they generally held to a fast pace and that it might be faster traveling in their wake than alone, I maneuvered the Cadence right behind one of their hulls. It was true - I was able to maintain a 7+ mph speed with less pedaling effort by staying about 2 feet behind the canoe. My lungs were very appreciative, though the slight zigzag course of the canoe was a little difficult to follow.
There was a woman in the back of the canoe who performed course corrections. She noticed me hanging on their tail, but made nothing of it. After about 10 minutes of this, she smiled and just shook her head.
The canoe slowed down as the race progressed. Our speed was now ranging from 6.8 to 7 mph, and I had second thoughts about staying behind. I must have been daydreaming, too, because suddenly the canoe was at least twenty feet ahead of me! Try as I might, I just could not catch up to them - at least not with any strength left to keep with them. Serves me right!
It was probably just as well. It was a lot easier to steer a straight course, breathe 100% unused air and go at my own pace - even if it was a little slower.
Shortly after being dropped by the canoe I met the first of the short course racers on the return leg. I cheered the rower on, as well as the HPK's that were in hot pursuit. At least one of the 4 man kayaks was in that group, too.
The I-90 bridge was approaching. I decided almost at the last minute to go around the pillars counter-clockwise, figuring that the somewhat large turning radius of the Cadence would be put to the best use that way. Otherwise, the turn would have to be much sharper and, therefore, a bit slower. The Cadence made as sharp a turn as possible and I could feel rudder vibrating against the prop wash.
The double canoe was a couple of hundred feet ahead of me by this time. A man in a yellow rowing shell was slowly approaching my port side as my speed dropped to about 6.5 mph.
By this time I had gone through about half a water bottle. My life jacket was open, my shirt unbuttoned exposing my wicking long sleeved T-shirt, and my sleeves were rolled up. My forehead was dripping with sweat, but I was not getting excessively overheated. There was no wind, other than that caused by the speed of the boat, and there were practically no waves whatsoever. The sky remained gray with no hint of sunlight to be seen.
My legs and lungs were operating close to their maximum aerobic limits, with a pedaling cadence of about 75 rpm. I did not notice any real difference between these pedals, with their toe clips and straps, and the non-clipped pedals of my Escapade and Lilac. Perhaps if the drive system gearing were a little easier to push a difference might be observed.
There had to be some mistake. Coming towards the bridge and yet to make the turn were at least twenty boats. Where the heck did they all come from?!? But...but...there were all those boats that were way off in the distance on the long course. Where...?
I was just not used to being in front of all those boats in a race!
The yellow rowing shell finally passed by, and he attempted to catch the double canoe. Somewhat later I was somewhat startled by a man in a high performance kayak who suddenly appeared, also off my port side. We traveled a distance together, as he slowly, slowly pulled ahead. He made the comment that he didn't normally see me out in front, and was quite surprised to find me there.
With the haze and low light levels it was a little difficult to detect the location of the finish line. The shell seemed to be prematurely heading towards the shore, while the canoe seemed to be heading more towards open water. After a short while the guy in the shell noticed that I was heading more towards the west, and appeared to be using my hull as a pointer towards where he should be going.
A few minutes later the guy in the HPK and I noticed what appeared to be a green light in the vicinity of where we thought the finish line was located. As we got closer, the light seemed to get a little dimmer and more spread out. I started putting on a little more speed, and slowly made up a little time.
When we finally reached the finish line, we discovered the source of the green light. It was a couple of large fluorescent lime green sheets, each about the size of a man's windbreaker jacket, draped on the boulders of the short breakwater at the park. It was an excellent idea and worked quite well.
I managed to finish both first and last in my class, and 9th overall with a time of 56 minutes, 23 seconds. Over a distance of about 6.3 miles, according to the GPS, my average speed was about 6.7 mph. Not too shabby! Of course, if all the long racers had taken the short course, then I would have been much further back overall.
My legs were starting to cramp, so I continued pedaling slowly around the water beyond the finish line. After I had rested a bit by practicing pedaling in reverse I decided to have fun seeing how fast I could make the Cadence go forward in a short sprint. From a dead stop I began pumping the pedals. Almost immediately the boat was up to 7, then 8, then 9 miles an hour! I kept this up for about 5 or 10 seconds, and then decided it would be fun to try to meet and pace the long course racers as they returned from the far side of Mercer Island.
Out into the lake I went. Eventually I saw the fastest long racers (Rainer Storb and Rob O'Brian in a double rowing shell) approach. I made a long slow turn to meet them, and quickly accelerated up to match their speed. They were going pretty fast - after a few hundred yards I had trouble keeping up with them as they approached the finish line, and I couldn't read the GPS speed due to reflections. Anyway, their speed over the entire 14.1 mile long course was about 8.5 mph. They were cooking - and this was in their rough water boat!
After returning to shore I lent the Cadence to some of the people who were interested in trying it out. Bev Storb used in in the Backwards Race, but she seemed to have troubles steering in a straight line in reverse. It can be tricky!
The bratwursts and sauerkraut were very tasty. They certainly hit the spot for me!
The awards ceremony was held after most of the long racers had returned, approximately two hours and 45 minutes after the start of the race. I was in the middle of getting into some warmer and dryer clothes when my name was called, so I hurried back down the hill from the parking lot to claim my ribbon. I guess I should have changed earlier!
The winner of the Backwards Race was Adrian Storb in a rowing shell. His award was a rather ornate toilet plunger.
I wish to thank the woman in the chase boat for taking photos 14 through 44 of the race, and the Medina Police patrol for slowing down the couple of speedboats that threatened to create large wakes in the paths of the racers.
I also wish to thank Rusty Lane for lending me the use of his Cadence. It is certainly one fine pedal boat!
To see all the pictures, in larger and better formats, visit this link.