The fifth Sound Rowers race of the season was the Commencement Bay Classic. It starts at Headshaw Park located on the south shore of Commencement Bay, near downtown Tacoma, WA. From there it heads inland past the downtown area towards the container ship docks, and circles a channel marker buoy and a chip barge and returns to the park.

The parking lot at Headshaw Park typically fills up, so I made sure to get there well before the race was scheduled to start. The drive down I-5 from Bellevue to Tacoma was uneventful, though the mostly overcast skies and intermittent misty drizzle indicated that it might be a wet day.

At the park before leaving my car I decided to put on my jacket and Sound Rowers cap to keep the mist at bay. Having done so I walked over to the registration table, which had just opened for business. The race director, Todd Silver, was there instructing a volunteer on the intricacies of the registration process, including waiver requirements, fees, etc. We talked for a moment about insurance issues, after which I returned to the car to prepare for the race.

With the help of another racer the Open Water Cycling Cadencewas moved from the roof of the car to its dolly. I loaded it with all the stuff for the race. This included a canoe paddle, two water bottles, three foam cushions, PFD, GPS, a tow line and the waterproof camera bag. With Cadence in tow I walked over to the launch area.

Upon reaching the "beach", which consisted mainly of logs, large gravel and rocks, I saw a rather unusual looking white boat. Aha! This must be Dick Lyon's new boat, the P5 Gazelle. It is a pedal boat based on a rowing shell hull with two outriggers for stability. Dick and I had been exchanging e-mail messages for a while discussing this boat, and he indicated that he would try to make it to this race. He made it!

With the help of another person the Cadence was lifted over the logs and down onto the gravel beach next to the P5 Gazelle. There it would sit until after the pre-race meeting.

Dick came up and introduced himself, and we spent a few minutes conversing. I took some additional photos of Dick's boat, adjusted the chain tension on my boat and returned to the car. The pre-race meeting was about to begin!

At the pre-race meeting Todd described the course, the various landmarks off in the distance one should look for, and the hazards one might encounter. He also described the way the race would start and the location of the finish line. It was pretty much the same as last year. In fact, with the mist gone and the sun making a tentative appearance, the conditions looked like they might be nearly identical to last year's race. Only the water level would be different.

Without further adieu the meeting ended and people headed for the beach. I switched from tennis shoes to water shoes, removed all my extra clothing - leaving bike shorts, long sleeved nylon shirt, sweat band and Sound Rowers cap, and jogged back to the beach.

Dick was carrying his boat into the water just as the OC-6 crew launched. There was a bit of a delay for the others as these large boats slowly moved away from shore to open water, but it was nothing serious. Everyone awaited their turn and soon everyone was out in the open water warming up.

There were two dragon boats from the Tacoma Dragon Boat Association in the race today. Along with the OC-6 the three boats comprised nearly 30 participants! It would be interesting to see which boats would be the fastest. Of course, most Dragon Boat racers are not quite in the same class of athlete as the fastest rowers or paddlers, but they can still move quite rapidly through the water.

Eventually, the 1 minute warning was given and people lined up for the start.

It was a long minute, but then we were off!

I tried to see where Dick was, but couldn't. Anyway, there were lots of boats to shoot, which I did as best as I could while still trying to be competitive.

The OC-2's nearest the shore were moving very fast through the calm waters of the bay. I recognized a few of the racers as being among the top paddlers in the Pacific Northwest. See you at the finish line!

For a while I was able to follow another couple of OC-2's. They were going a little faster than I wanted, however, and eventually I dropped behind.

Another strong paddler, Greg Gilda, decided to paddle in my wake. I managed to snap a photo of him, and we stayed together for a while heading towards the inner harbor. After a while I told him that it was his turn to pull me along, and he obliged.

Eventually Greg decided to stay further to the south as we approached the first turn. He gained a little distance and made it to the turn buoy before me. From there he continued to gain distance, passing some other boats on the way.

The middle leg between the turn buoy and the chip barge was fairly short. I caught up to one of the rowers who had some troubles with the turns, but soon he passed me en route to the barge. An OC-2 was on my tail, however, which meant that I had best pedal harder if I didn't want them to pass!

On the return leg after the barge another rower passed by. Where are these guys coming from?

That OC-2 was hot on my tail for quite some time. After a while, though, they decided to take a course closer to shore. They managed on several occasions to pull roughly even with me, but with some effort I managed to keep them at bay. Unfortunately, however, the OC-6 approached and threatened to pass. Hey - perhaps I could draft the OC-6 and not work so hard!

As it turned out, however, they were a bit too fast and swerving too much. It was very difficult to get any advantage from following them. Sigh... I let them go.

I finished with a time of 57:55, 20th place in a field of over 44 boats. Jim Szumila crossed the line shortly afterwards in his Cadence with a time of 59:00. Great time, Jim!

Dick Lyon finished with an excellent time of 53:18, in 11th place. I guess a 9 foot longer hull, overall lighter boat and wearing toe clips really makes a difference!

I pedaled around the finish zone, taking more shots of the racers as they completed the course. Afterwards I pedaled through the pilings back to the beach, seeing if the fin would hit any of the rocks lining the bottom. Nope - the water was just a bit too deep.

Todd held the awards ceremony. It felt a bit unusual not getting first place in the pedal boating class. Some of the folks present said that perhaps there needs to be another pedal boating category since Dick's boat was so much longer and narrower than the two Cadence boats.

I agreed that it would be good to have additional classes in the future, but it wasn't really necessary right now.

After the ceremony I returned to my car to finish tying the boat to the roof rack. Boy, was I exhausted! It was time to head home.

Thanks, Todd, for hosting another fine race!