I really did not want to do this race. After wearing myself out completely at the American Lake Classic race the previous weekend, followed by the onset of a fairly nasty cold, my body was telling me that I would be better off staying home in bed. The light sprinkle and solid overcast skies did not do much to change my mind, though I knew that the weather could be and most probably would be a lot different way up in Bellingham, WA, where the Lake Whatcom Classic race would be held. Getting up early for the estimated two hour drive didn't help either. Grumble, grumble!
The drive to Bellingham was pretty uneventful. It actually only took about 90 minutes, as the freeway was not crowded and most of the traffic was generally going about 10 miles over the speed limit. Gray skies and random areas of light rain prevailed throughout the trip, during which I psyched myself up to do the race - unless the conditions were totally horrible!
After heading off the freeway in Bellingham I headed east and up hill to Lake Whatcom. For some reason this felt rather strange. Perhaps this is because most bodies of water I've raced on are somewhat below freeway level. Here, however, one is traveling towards the foothills, which begin right at the edge of town. The lake itself appears to be something of a reservoir in a long valley, with one of the roads along the western end having the telling name "Electric Avenue". Hmmm...a clue! There could be a dam somewhere around here.
I found Bloedel Donovan Park with no difficulty and stopped near the boat ramp. With some help from a gentleman at the park I unloaded my Cadence from the top of my car and got ready for the race.
Registration at this race was at a picnic table under a portable shelter. Racers were given laser printed numbers on sheets of paper and told to affix them to the port side of their boats. I chose to duct tape my number at the bow just below the rub rail and, hopefully, above the water line. With any luck it wouldn't provide much, if any, drag during the race.
Meanwhile, the weather changed from nearly sunny to overcast with a light sprinkle. I put my patented sun/rain hat on over my Sound Rowers baseball cap for protection. Being somewhat optimistic I also slathered some sunscreen on my face, neck and hands. After all, during a couple of hours on the water one could still get burned under an overcast sky.
The pre-race meeting was held in the grassy and somewhat mucky dog run area north of the parking lot. Joost Zeegers, the race director, explained his method of starting a race. After the meeting ends, everyone is to launch and have a short warm-up period. A short blast was to be given, meaning that people were to assemble at the starting line. Once it appeared to the starting officials that the line was in order and everyone was ready to go a long blast would be emitted indicating the start of the race. The second blast could occur at just about any time after the first blast.
The course was fairly straightforward. After rounding the area of deadheads, docks and pilings at the start the course headed down the lake to Reveille Island. The racers are to head around the island in a counterclockwise direction and return. The total distance is about 12.8 miles.
After the meeting everyone started launching their boats. I dropped my big hat off at the car and, with the help of another person who was also taking photos, the Cadence was gently slipped into the water. I clambered on board, noting that my "waffle stomper" soled bike shoes seemed to have a little bit more sand on their bottoms than expected. This should not be much of a problem for my Speedplay Frog pedals. Ha!
I pedaled more or less towards the starting line, snapping photos of the other racers as I went. The boat was performing flawlessly, and the additional cushion of foam at my lower back seemed to be just about a perfect fit below my wrap around life jacket. I certainly did not want to repeat what happened at the previous race. My lower spine was sore for days!
I finally took up a position beside Rainer and Adrian Storb. This father and son rowing team comprise one of the fastest men's rowing teams in the Northwest. Rainer is about 68 years old, and commutes to and from work at least 5 miles (each way) daily in a rowing shell. It takes him about 35 minutes - not much longer than it would by car! Adrian is no slouch, either. I expected that they would probably be the first across the finish line, followed by Jeff and Theresa Knakal in their mixed rowing shell.
The first horn sounded, and we lined up. The sun started coming out so I removed my windbreaker and stashed it alongside my seat. The starting signal then sounded, and we were off!
This race started with quite a bit less frantic paddling and splashing at the start than the typical Sound Rowers races. People were conserving their energy for the longer distance and making more strategic choices, or so it seemed.
I was frantically taking pictures, as usual, and pedaling at the same time. Unfortunately, my bike shoes were refusing to snap onto the pedals. Again and again I thought one shoe or the other was secured to the pedal when it slipped off. Grrr! Finally, as most of the other boats were starting to slip away my shoes finally made good contact. It would appear that sand in the cleats doesn't fall off as easily from the recumbent position as it does from the upright position!
During all this I was slowly falling behind a lot of the other racers. If I was to have any chance of conserving my muscles for the rest of the race I would have to make a decision. I had been tossing about the problem of whether it was right or wrong, proper or improper, to make use of the wakes of other boats to provide an assist during a race. In previous races I had been in a boat (Escapade) that had no chance of using paddle or rowing boat wakes to advantage. Some other boats, such as rowing shells, also had no way to take advantage of boat wakes.
Finally I decided that there was no shame in doing so. After all, this was regularly done in just about all other forms of racing, including boat and bicycle racing, and it merely adds to the techniques and strategies that one could employ. This was not a time trial, nor was it any attempt to set an IHPVA approved speed record. So, off I pedaled, and eventually caught up with a couple of OC-1's and a double kayak.
As luck would have it, the guy I chose to follow decided to paddle parallel to another group of boats. Perhaps he didn't want to worry about keeping in position behind another boat, or perhaps he just wanted to try to get ahead, or just keep pace. Regardless, this enabled me to take photos of other racers as we slowly passed them by.
About this time I lost over the side the cap to my bottle of peach flavored "VitaRain". I brought this stuff as a means of preventing "bonking" and to keep hydrated. It actually tastes pretty good, and is dilute enough that it doesn't dry out one's throat. Unfortunately, with the loss of the bottle cap I now had to hold it in one hand and steer or take photos with the other. Sigh... At least it seemed to be helping to keep my energy levels up!
This race was definitely slower paced than the others. The group of paddlers I was with were all working fairly hard, but not at their limits nor mine. My legs were feeling fine and, while I was sweating a bit, my breathing was nowhere near its limits. We were passing houses along the shore at a good clip, and people were cheering us on.
As the group approached Reveille Island we could see the leaders of the race already on their way back. Rainer and Adrian were quite some distance ahead of the second place boat, which was quite far ahead of the third place.
The channel between Reveille Island and the mainland was fairly narrow. Some fallen trees forced us further away from shore, and the presence of submerged rocks near the island kept me some distance away from there as we made out way around it. The only sounds I heard were that of water splashing and the steady thrum-thrum sound of the Cadence drive train. My bottle of VitaRain was finished, as was a box of juice. Only my water bottle was left for the return trip.
After emerging from behind the island the group stretched out somewhat. I decided to follow in the wake of Vern and Bela, two fairly strong regulars (only 15 or 20 years older than me!) paddling their OC-2. With six miles yet to go I did not want to push it just yet.
After we reached the point near Floathaven I decided it was time to see how my muscles were doing. Slowly I pulled out and alongside Vern and Bela's boat, and then started pulling ahead. Their boat started heading towards mine, making me think that we would soon collide. Steering a bit further away I put a bit more pressure on the pedals and was soon ahead. I could hear them paddling behind and thought they would follow me just as I had followed them.
After a few minutes had passed I was surprised to not hear them any more. Oh, well. Perhaps they didn't want to go quite so fast.
A light sprinkle combined with the speed of my boat were helping to keep me cool.
There was another boat ahead, an OC-1. I soon caught up to him and rested in his wake for a couple of minutes. Some distance ahead of him was another boat, so off I went.
This continued several more times. Up ahead and somewhat off to the side I saw a mixed doubles canoe making good time and with a fairly large wake. So, putting the pedal to the metal I slowly, slowly managed to cross the divide. My legs were starting to report back to me that they had been working continuously for the past hour and a half, but they continued to work and in the vicinity of Strawberry Point I was able to latch onto the wake of the canoe. Whew!
The canoe was moving at a pretty fast pace, so it took a while for my legs to recover from the effort of catching up to them. Off in the distance I could vaguely see what looked like the end of the lake near the finish line, but there were so many pilings in the water on both sides of the lake I wasn't sure exactly where I was relative to the finish line. There was a dock extending into the water from the north shore, so I chose to use that as the point where I would start my nearing the finish line effort. Breathe, pedal, breathe, pedal!
The double canoe was soon in my wake.
During the middle part of the return leg boats were spread pretty widely across the lake. As we approached the area near the finish line, however, the boats started moving closer and closer together. I was overtaking a man in a yellow kayak as I finally saw the outermost piling and guide floats for the final turn towards the finish line. The kayaker heard/saw me coming, and tried to match my pace. He followed right behind as I rounded the piling.
My legs were still in pretty good shape, which was something of a surprise. Perhaps the VitaRain and juice box were the right thing after all!
I took one last sip from my water bottle and poured on the power. I sprinted the last couple of hundred feet to the finish line, finishing seven seconds ahead of the kayak. What a finish - 1:55:37 in a 12.8 mile race! Not bad at all for someone recovering from a bad cold!
The fellow in the yellow kayak paddled over to me. He said that he was going about as fast as he could just prior to the turn around the piling, but still hoped to get just ahead of me for the finish. However, when he heard the frequency of the Cadence drive train increase so dramatically he was rather dismayed. He knew he would never catch me.
Vern and Bela took another minute or so to get to the finish line. They also chose to do it with a high powered sprint.
One of the kayakers took me up on the offer to try out the Cadence. He was quite pleased with its speed, and thought it would provide him an excellent workout alternative to his kayak.
Several of the people who had tried to follow me came over and said that they found the wake of the Cadence did not have anywhere near the towing force that other boats had. They all said that once I was ahead it was difficult for them to follow behind. This could be a good thing for Cadence racers, at least tactically. It would be difficult for someone to follow and then pass in a turn or with a last minute sprint.
Muffins and fresh orange segments were provided for the racers as they congregated around the registration shelter. Awards were handed out to the winners of each of the classes, and several records were noted. This included the fastest time ever for the course, 1:29:08 by Rainer and Adrian, and the fastest (only) pedal boat time.
Thank you, Joost Zeegers, for organizing and conducting this race.
P.S. One of these days I will get a GPS!
The complete set of photos I took during the race can be found here.