Commencement Bay Race
May 10, 2003

The Commencement Bay race is held along the south side of Commencement Bay by downtown Tacoma, WA. It starts along the newly rehabilitated linear waterfront park near Point Defiance, and heads right into the heart of the harbor before turning back. This year's race included some 36 boats of various different shapes and sizes, ranging from small kayaks to 20 person dragon boats.

I really wanted to do this race. Why? This would be the first time I would be able to do an apples to apples comparison with my performance last year in this race in a Cadence. Well, the water might not be quite the same as last year, and I recall being on the tail end of a cold then, too, but this should prove whether or not all my exercising over the past year was truly effective.

Registration Sleek Maas Aero

The drive to Tacoma was uneventful, with the exception of the eye-catching sight of the new Museum of Glass and the Chihuly Bridge of Glass over the freeway connecting the museum with the rest of downtown. I'll have to come back some time and see them up close!

The skies were overcast, but looked like the sun would eventually be breaking through. The air was calm with the temperature in the upper 50's.

The parking lot was getting pretty full by the time I pulled in. There were all sorts of long, skinny hulled boats, including surf skis, sea kayaks, rowing shells, etc., on top of all sorts of vehicles, ranging from Dodge Neons to pickup trucks to large vans. A fair number of boats were already resting on slings or directly on the grass next to the parking lot.

I registered ($7 for members, $10 for non-members) and returned to my car to get ready for the race.

Another fast rowing shell Pre-race meeting w/double kayak and OC-1

Paul, a friend of mine, helped me unload my Cadence from the top of my car. We then carried it about a hundred yards or so to the gravel beach where all the boats, except the dragon boats, were to be launched. It was "interesting" picking a path over or around the rocks and large beached logs down to the water! One of these days I'll have a dolly so I can do this all by myself - well, with the possible exception of trying to go it alone over the logs, maybe.

Beach launching area

The pre-race meeting was held. Nothing much was changed from last year, with the exception that this year a large sawdust barge was anchored right at the second turn buoy. There was no chance that anyone would miss it!

After the meeting everyone made their preparations to launch and make their way to the starting line. I took off my jacket, sweatshirt, long nylon pants and warm up leggings, and switched over to bike shoes. After lathering up my face and hands with sunscreen I returned to the Cadence carrying a water bottle and some juice.

Paul offered me the use of his GPS for the race. I gladly took him up on it as I still don't have one of my own. I secured it to the pedal tower on the Cadence, right above the adjustment clamps, where it could easily be seen while under way.

Warming up Dragon boat warm up

With the help of a bystander who was interested in seeing pedal boats the Cadence was launched without too many scrapes from the gravel beach. The water was dead calm as I pedaled off towards the starting line at about 6 mph.

My feet had troubles snapping onto the pedals. Whatever problem they had at the Lake Whatcom race was happening again. Also, something did not feel right as I pedaled. The distance to the pedals seemed to be too short. I didn't recall any changes being made since Lake Whatcom, so I thought it was just my imagination. Perhaps a bit of a warm up doing slaloms around the other boats while taking their pictures would straighten things out.

Waiting for the starting signal

There was quite a lag between the 1 minute warning and the start of the race. It seemed that there was a single late entrant to the race, and rather than start without him we waited until he got to the starting line. Oh, well, it gave me time to open a bottle of VitaRain juice and take a few sips.

Paul was out in his kayak, too. He wasn't going to race; rather, he planned to take pictures of the start and then help out at the finish line. There was some concern expressed by some of the racers as he left the line of boats at the starting line that he was starting too soon. When it was explained that he wasn't in the race the comments changed to "Well, get out of the way, then!". Oh, well.

The race starts! Dragons on the move

I was positioned near Jeff Knakal's single Maas Aero rowing shell. He is a fast rower, and I entertained thoughts of possibly following in his wake. Ha! When the start came I tried to keep up, but with my speed of 8.6 mph I couldn't. It seemed like I must have had some "slow juice" or something for breakfast, as I knew that normally I could pedal the Cadence to speeds over 9 mph. For whatever reason, my body just wasn't doing it today.

Dragons on the move

The dragon boats were gaining, so it seemed best to see if I could use their wake to let me catch my breath. Rats! There was an OC-1 right behind the faster of the two boats. I'd have to follow him instead.

Widespread start View to the rear

I managed to take some photos of the other racers. It was rather difficult to get any good shots. The plastic bags protecting the camera prevented me from getting a good look through the view finder, and it was next to impossible to see anything on the LCD. The camera was truly in "point and shoot" mode.

I took a few more swigs of juice.

The crew of the dragon boat ahead of me seemed to be all business. The crew occasionally shouted out things like "count", which was usually followed by "one", and then silence. Perhaps that is as far as they could go.

Other dragon boat

The other dragon boat was not too far behind, and their coach was periodically laying into them with brutal verbiage not unlike that of an Army drill sergeant. No spirit lifting words of encouragement there. I thought this was supposed to be a fun race!

My legs were still not feeling right. Here I was, pedaling along behind the OC-1 and the dragon boat at about 7.2 to 7.4 mph, and my legs were not recovering very well. I took my feet off the pedals, quickly adjusted the pedal tower to give me more leg extension, and clipped back in - or tried to. It was terrible! My shoes just would not clip in.

I gave up trying for a while as I was falling behind. Instead I just pedaled as best as I could, trying to catch the OC-1. After a strong effort the distance closed to the point where I was in his wake once again and did not have to pedal so hard. Finally, I was able to secure my shoes to the pedals. Whew!

By this time I was sweating pretty heavily. I tore off my Sound Rowers baseball hat and stashed it alongside my seat. With my sleeves rolled up, my shirt unbuttoned and life jacket fully unzipped I was able to get enough air cooling that the sweat stopped dripping down my face. Thank goodness it was still overcast!

Rounding the first buoy Heading towards the sawdust barge

About 3 miles into the race we reached the first buoy. The dragon boat and the OC-1 took a somewhat larger turn around it, and I took something of an inside track. I could hear the sound of the second dragon boat right on my tail, with the drill sergeant shouting at his minions. Far ahead I could make out the leaders as they passed alongside a grain carrier. Boy, they were fast!

The guy in the OC-1 ahead of me kept turning around to see if I was still there. Yup - there I was, right on his tail. He was putting in quite an effort all this time following the dragon boat. His stern kept drifting from side to side, which meant that in order to follow in his wake I had to do the same thing. Still, it was easier than going alone, but not by much.

After the first buoy our speed dropped to about 6.6 mph. I was giving serious thought as to trying to pass and go on alone, but decided to hold off for a while. It was time to chug some water.

Rounding the sawdust barge Heading towards the freighter

After rounding the barge we found a light head wind. Ahh, it felt good!

We gradually picked up speed. The other dragon boat kept further out in the channel while we went quite close to a freighter that was docked along the shore. The GPS indicated we were going around 6.8 to 7.0 mph. Not too bad.

I noticed that some of the paddles in the dragon boat ahead were not paddling. Sheesh! They take breaks on those boats? I guess the paddlers even change sides from time to time as well. Still, they went about their business calmly and coolly, while all I seemed to hear from the other boat were the complaints of the drill sergeant.

Breaking away The OC-1 I had been following

According to the GPS we had covered about 5.5 miles. If this truly was a 7 mile race then it soon would be time to start the final sprint. Sure enough, the guy in the OC-1 looked around and moved off to the port side and started paddling faster. I moved up to take his place behind the dragon boat.

It was considerably less effort pedaling in that position than it had been behind the OC-1. I guess the OC-1 paddler didn't quite realize how much easier he had it because he certainly did not make much headway. In fact, he soon returned behind the dragon boat alongside me - but I wasn't giving him an inch!

We talked a little about the wake of the dragon boat, and how he had some difficulty due to the drag of his outrigger in keeping a straight course in that position. Eventually I drifted off to the right and started pedaling harder. It was time for me to make my move.

By this time we were all moving at about 7.4 mph. Up ahead I could make out the pier on which the race officials were standing. Wait a minute - the GPS claims that I had gone only 6 miles! What is going on?

Yes - it definitely was the finish line up ahead. I poured on as much speed as I could, and saw that the dragon boat was also accelerating and moving at an angle slightly away from me. It looked like they would cross the finish line ahead of me - rats! The OC-1 was dropping behind - there was no way it would cross before me. Huff, puff, huff, puff, pedal, pedal, PEDAL!

A rowing shell Some kayaks

It seemed like an eternity passed after the horn was sounded for the dragon boat crossing the finish line before it was sounded for me. In reality it was only about 8 seconds. Slowly I circled back towards the tail end of the course, snapping a few more photos of racers as they entered the final stretch, and cheering them on. The sun was starting to break through the clouds, making it even more difficult to see anything in the view finder.

After a while I adjusted the pedal drive tower even further away from the seat. Now my feet seemed to be aligned with the marks on the sides of the cockpit. I put the camera aside and started a short sprint between two buoys in the channel. This definitely felt better, and I was able to go over 9 mph and hold it for about 100 meters or so. It definitely would be a good idea to mark this position so the next time someone tries out the boat it can be returned to this setting more rapidly.

After returning to shore Larry helped me carry the Cadence up to the grassy area where many of the other boats had been placed. A lot of people were interested in getting a close look at it, and made many comments about its performance. Several of the paddle racers mentioned that they had friends who were very much into bicycling, and thought they would enjoy this as a superb way of getting on the water.

First place overall Race results

Muffins, fruit, soft drinks and bottled water were provided for the racers. Awards were handed out to the winners of each of the classes. The fastest time for the course was 42:42, by O'Brien and Mink in a double shell. The fastest time for pedal boats was 52:44, by yours truly. This is about 10 minutes faster than my previous record! Ok, so I used the wake of the dragon boat as an assist. With the OC-1 in between us it was still quite an effort to maintain that position. Also, I took a lot of pictures this year and didn't have the camera with me on the boat last year.

The most interesting thing is that the GPS reported the race distance as being 6.2 miles rather than the 7 miles advertised. This means that my overall speed at this year's race was just over 7 mph (7.05), and last year's race was just under 6 mph (5.94). The water conditions were just about identical, and the winds were about the same.

Yes, I'm definitely in better shape than I was!

Thank you, Todd Silver, for organizing and conducting this race. Special thanks to you, Paul, for lending me your GPS.

P.S. I swear, one of these days real soon now I will get a GPS!


The complete set of photos I took during the race can be found here.


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