The forecast was for a cold, windy and rainy day, with a high around 52 degrees F and a low in the mid 40's. This was not exactly what one wanted to have for the last Sound Rowers race of the year.
Regardless of the forecast I had three reasons to attend. First, I had the suitcase containing the racer numbers. Second, I'm the club photographer and it was my job to take race photos. Third, completing this race would mean that I had participated in each Sound Rowers race for two straight years, which just might be a record in itself.
I had to go.
It certainly was chilly Saturday morning. The temperature was in the upper 40's. However, while the skies were filled with threatening clouds it wasn't raining - yet.
The drive to Renton was short. The freeway was fairly empty at 8 AM, and the streets around Boeing's Renton plant were devoid of cars as well. It was only a mile or so to the Cedar River Trail, a linear park stretching over 5 miles from Maple Valley along the Cedar River through downtown Renton to the mouth of the Cedar River. It includes a boat launch and the Cedar River Boathouse, both of which would be used for the Cascade Distance Race.
It still wasn't raining. In fact, parts of the sky over Lake Washington were actually showing large patches of blue. Unfortunately, the weather was coming from the south and the clouds were still thick and dark. The wind made it pretty chilly, too.
I dropped off the suitcase of numbers and parked close to the boat ramp. It pays to be early as the linear park has a linear parking lot.
As luck would have it, the boats on a trailer of a group of racers blocked part of a parking spot right next to my car. This provided a nice staging area for me to unload my Cadence and prepare it for the race - and not feel too guilty about tying up a spot.
People were moving about, preparing their boats, and setting them down on the grass along the roadway.
Next to me a bunch of teen age boys and girls and their coach were removing their various boats from the trailer and preparing them for launch. These included several types of racing canoes and kayaks. It was good to see younger folks with an interest in this sport.
The pre-race meeting was called around 9:15 AM. It seemed as though many folks in the parking lot would have been unaware of it had I not told them. Oh, well.
The course was described as starting from the Cedar River Boathouse and heading mostly west towards the Atlantic City neighborhood of Seattle to a large orange buoy. At the buoy the short course would head back to the boathouse. The long course would continue north to Seward Park to another orange buoy, head still further northward and around the park into Andrews Bay around yet another buoy before retracing the course back to the boathouse.
The total distance for the short course was about 5.5 miles. The length of the long course was about 13 miles.
The sky was staying pretty clear over the lake so we were not likely to get any rain, but the southerly wind could stir up some waves and make the long course somewhat interesting.
People started heading to the boat launch immediately upon the end of the meeting.
This year a temporary floating dock was anchored from the middle of the boat ramp. Hurray! This would speed launching and retrieving boats significantly, as well as enable people to launch without getting their feet wet.
I wheeled the Cadence down the ramp and into the water. Letting the river's current hold the boat against the dock I quickly returned the dolly to the car, ran back to the boat, jumped in and took off.
The river moves fairly slowly at this section. I pedaled under the low concrete bridge joining the Boeing plant with the Renton airport, and emerged at the mouth of the river. This area is full of water hazards such as sunken logs, branches, sand bars and sometimes even ropes and cables. Gingerly I proceeded towards Lake Washington, in a shallow channel with a log on one side and something with branches emerging from the dark water on the other.
Oops! The boat came to a stop as the propeller hit the sandy bottom. It was time to get out the paddle and pole myself over to a deeper place!
I was soon back in deeper water and heading toward the starting line.
There were several other boating hazards in this area, too, ranging from log booms to a somewhat floating steel hulk. Closer to the dock at the boathouse there were some significant milfoil weed beds, too.
It took a while for the rest of the racers to get their boats in the water. While waiting I warmed up looping around snapping photos of everyone else warming up. The cold air made the vinyl waterproof bag rather stiff and difficult to handle. Still, it was fun taking the shots and warming up at the same time.
Eventually most everyone appeared to be lining up and I joined them. And waited. And waited some more. It looked like more boats were coming out so I made another loop.
About halfway through the loop and just after crossing the starting line the start signal apparently was given. What?!? At this race there certainly was no air horn signal, just Dan shouting from the dock.
So there I was, heading the wrong direction and everyone leaving me in their wake. Sigh...
I quickly finished the turn and started after them.
As I started pedaling madly towards the stragglers a double kayak suddenly turned in front of me and headed towards the boathouse. Arrgh! It was only a moment, to be sure, but it was a delay none the less.
I gradually caught and passed the OC-6. I think they were a little cold, having been one of the early boats onto the water waiting for the rest to arrive. Ahead, and slowly getting closer were Vern and Bela in Vern's gorgeous new wooden double fast sea kayak. Perhaps I could catch them and get a tow!
It looked like it was going to be a little tough. The racers began organizing themselves into pacelines, which can help quite a bit. After passing some stragglers I eventually managed to catch up to Jeff, a kayak racer I normally have no trouble passing. Gee, whiz! He is certainly moving fast today! Could there be something caught in my prop slowing me down?
I checked my speed. Well, 7 mph is generally a pretty good speed, and faster than Jeff normally goes long term. Perhaps he was just sprinting and would be slowing down as the race wore on.
Jeff eventually split off from behind the rowing shell he had been drafting. Those guys typically don't leave much of a wake - or at least I haven't detected much difference when trying to follow them.
I continued on my own, moving in parallel to the line boats in which Jeff was now a member.
The group of fast boats ahead appeared to be gaining some distance. I guess I had better pedal a bit faster if I was going to catch them!
The Atlantic City buoy was barely visible ahead when I saw the first boats make their turn. Sure enough, the first boat was the double shell rowed by Adrian and Rainer. It continued north towards Seward Park on the long course.
Another couple of boats followed them, and then the first boat on the short course made its turn and headed back towards the start. I managed to snap his picture as well as several of the other boats before I, too, reached the buoy and started making the turn north.
I was pretty close to two guys in sea kayaks when I reached the buoy. As they were on the outside of the turn I yelled to them asking if they were on the long or short course. For some reason they both said "Yes!" - whatever that meant. So, just after the turn I found one of them trying to plow his boat into mine. Sure enough, he was on the short course!
We sorted it out quickly enough and went on our separate ways.
The other guy was on the long course, and I followed in his wake for a while.
Heading north we had a tailwind. This made it way too hot for me, wearing a PFD, long sleeved nylon shirt, long sleeved wicking type undershirt, bike shorts, wool leg warmers, thick socks and water shoes. I stopped for a few seconds to remove the leg warmers and to take a swig of apple juice. Ahh, that felt good.
Unfortunately, it also meant I had to work a bit to catch up.
Up ahead I could make out a bunch of racers making the turn at the second buoy. I could also discern what appeared to be some sort of athletic event taking place in the park, what with all the portable toilets, pavilions, crowds of people and Halloween-like stuff distributed near the shore. It probably was some sort of race or walkathon.
The guy in the kayak wasn't too far ahead by the time he made the turn, and I soon caught him.
The wind did stir up the waves a bit. I chose to travel a bit further from shore so as to take advantage and surf them. Unfortunately, however, there was some reflection of the waves from the shore that reduced their effects.
Ahead the faster boats could still be seen against the backdrop of the I-90 floating bridge and the north Seattle skyline.
Just after reaching the northern tip of the Seward Park peninsula I encountered Rainer and Adrian heading back. They seemed to be going strong, which was a bit better than I was feeling at that time. Whew! With one water bottle drained and most of the apple juice consumed my energy level was not quite as high as it really needed to be to finish this race with a decent time.
Deciding it was better to get some nice photos of the other racers than to have a meager improvement on my time I chose to head a bit further west in the bay towards them. There was a bit of a headwind here, and the water was quite a bit choppier than I would have expected given the fetch. Snap, snap, snap! I also attempted to cheer them onward.
I was slowly gaining on the boat ahead of me, even with the photography. After making the turn around the 3rd buoy - halfway! - I began to make even better time on the return course.
Interestingly enough, there were far more boats behind me than I thought. After a short stop I found about half a dozen other racers were still coming. The camera bag was beginning to be uncooperative, though, as the greenhouse effect of the sun in combination with the cold air and wind was causing condensation on the optical glass port. Rats!
Once again I had to struggle to remove the camera from the protective bag in order to take decent shots. Hmm, perhaps I would be better off using my home made bag. The plastic optical port on that thing might not have such condensation issues - though if it did I would be completely out of luck trying to extract the camera from it while on the water.
I just got the camera out in time to take a photo of Paul. He said the only reason he went on the long was so I could take his photo to prove he was there. (After the race he came up to me and said "What was I thinking?! I've never raced that far in a single kayak!".)
There were quite a few droplets of condensation inside the bag. Apparently the dessicant was past its prime, or just overwhelmed by the temperature changes.
Once again I played catch up to racer #65. This time, however, as we were heading into some moderate chop I was able to do it fairly quickly and decisively. After rounding the park towards the second buoy I did not see him again.
The other racers were quite far ahead. My legs were very tired. The GPS indicated my speed was only 5.2 to 5.5 mph. Could it be the headwind and waves? Well, in a recent race under similar conditions I was able to go nearly 6.5 mph. So, either my muscles were exceedingly tired or there were weeds on the propeller - or both.
Attempts at prop cleaning were inconclusive, so either the weeds were tenacious or I was just exhausted. So be it.
At this pace I knew I would never catch the boats ahead of me. I could see the sunlight flashing from their wet paddles as they headed towards the first buoy. With the cold wind blowing in my face I was almost to the point of stopping to put my leg warmers back on, but I decided against it. Pedal, pedal, pedal.
Eventually I reached the first buoy and headed back towards the boathouse. Nearly two hours had elapsed.
From the Atlantic City turn one really can't make out the boathouse. However, right behind the boathouse is a humongous Boeing Renton building where I believe the Boeing 737's are assembled. It is very misleading to use that structure as a gauge for the distance remaining as it is much larger than anything else around it. So, as I pedaled closer and closer the darned thing kept getting larger and larger, but the boathouse itself could barely be seen.
I stopped for a moment to give my legs a rest. Ahhh...
Way off in the distance up ahead I thought I saw some flashes of sunlight reflected from paddles. It appeared as though there might be one or two boats still finishing, almost at the end of the course. It reminded me that one should not rest a whole lot before the race is over. It would not do to have someone come up and pass.
Back to the grind.
As I passed the Renton airport again I decided to head more or less towards the hulk anchored some distance north from the end of the dock. It was located somewhere in the vicinity of the finish line and provided a useful target.
Just beyond the hulk a couple of people on jet skis were playing around, trying to stir up the water. Their efforts seemed to be in vain, or maybe they weren't really trying. The water remained only lightly choppy.
Finally, with a time of 2 hours, 13 minutes and 26.93 seconds I crossed the finish line. I was done - in more ways than one.
I slowly pedaled back along the dock, greeting the others who had finished earlier. The organizers had set up a barbeque grill, and it looked like they were putting on more hot dogs. They smelled good!
As I headed back to the mouth of the Cedar River I passed a couple more folks who were finishing behind me. They chose to stay much closer to shore for some reason, traveling through the shallows at the south end of the lake.
There was no problem this time crossing the bar at the mouth of the river. Soon I had crossed under the bridge and was heading upstream to the boat launch.
I parked the Cadence against the upstream side of the dock and, with somewhat unsteady legs, extricated myself from the boat. After retrieving the dolly from my car and positioning it near the bottom of the ramp I slowly pulled the boat from the water and rolled it up to the parking lot.
Apparently the water of the Cedar River was bearing quite a bit of mud from the recent rains. The water line of the Cadence could be seen clearly, as the hull was coated with gunk up to it. Oh, well. It was just another excuse to give the boat a thorough cleaning when I got home.
The propeller was sporting quite a few strands of milfoil, too. If this stuff was there since Seward Park then that certainly would explain why I couldn't get above 5.5 mph on the return leg.
Most of the food was gone by this time, with the exception of the hot dogs. I passed, though I will admit to scarfing down a Krispy Kreme donut in nearly record time.
Zeke and his wife provided us with some musical entertainment while the powers that be tallied up the race results. Thanks, guys!
Eventually the awards ceremony was held. Even with a computerized registration system there were a couple of foibles here and there, but as a club we've pretty much come to expect that and not make a big deal out of it. Anyway, the young racers did quite well in the competition - even those on some really unstable sprint canoes. Congratulations!
Things were pretty well wrapped up by 2 o'clock, so I drove home. It had turned into quite a nice, sunny day.
Photos I took during the race can be found here.
My course and statistics