James, John (his team mate) and I left on Friday afternoon
to Kingston to participate in the 200km paddle K2O from Kingston to Ottawa. The
boys were going to paddle a canoe and I had borrowed a light and fast surfski
from a friend (a think surfski).
I had a lot of troubles last year with another think boat
because of weeds getting caught in the rudder and the race had been cancelled
last year half way due to the rough weather.
I had made it to the 72-75km mark and was nervous for this year
although I had this year a weed deflector…so I thought I would be off the
weeds.
My super awesome support crew, Joel Perrella from Breathe
Magazine, met me on Friday night and we went through gears and food etc..
On Saturday morning we started the race at 6am.
From the
start on I was stuck in a massive patch of weeds. To the point that I saw even
the SUP going away at the distance while I was still fighting with the weeds. I
begged ahead for help since there were no more boats ahead and luckily Rick,
another racer, waited and took the weeds off for me. The first leg was hard as
the weeds seemed to be everywhere.
As I was going along another surfski was struggling so we
were de-weeding each other’s as we went.
Matt (that helped me out last year) did also a way with me
taking the weeds every so often so we could keep a good pace.
We finally made some ground and went back ahead of the SUPs
and other kayaks.
At the first lock I saw just ahead of me James canoe and
Brad Jenning’s canoe from get out there.
I caught up to James’
boat during that second leg and as I past them the weeds got me again. I asked
if he could grab the weeds as I was next to the boat and James did but his team
mate wasn’t happy and let me know that they would not spend their time helping
me out…So I left them and went ahead.
I then caught up to Brad’s canoe on the next leg and they
nicely helped me out as I was passing them.
The next few legs went ok but the weeds started to be more
abundant again and after a little while I got caught back up by the two canoes
(Brad and James). I did half that leg next to Brad’s boat chit chatting along
until we reached the 69.7km lock.
That was the last lock I saw last year, being rescued a few
kms later.
I made it through the lock and went on for the 30km+ leg. As
I left I grabbed 3 gels, thinking it would be enough for 30km…big mistake. I
think I was already really hungry by that point (despite the multiple
sandwiches that Joel had prepared for me) and dehydrated a bit.
I had my first gel early on and by the time I got ti the
20kmm or so I was out of food. Just when I realise that I wouldn’t see my
support crew until the 34km mark because they couldn’t reach the poonamalie lockstation
at 30km. Hunger settled in. I had caught back to James’s boat by that point but
didn’t dare asking for food after the reaction of his team mate earlier.
A few kms before Poonamalie I hit a patch of weeds and I was
exhausted. I hit the wall big time. By the time I reached Poonamalie (101km
mark of the race) James’s boat was 30min ahead (I was with them 2km before) and
I was in a really bad shape. My stomach was burning from what I thought was a
little bit of chaffing and the inside of my stomach was hurting by hunger. I am
so lucky and thankful the volunteer in place gave me something to drink (an ensure) and I was off to Smith Falls.
The weeds were even worse than before and the 4km seemed to
never end.
When I got to Smith Falls at 8h30pm after 14h30 I was tired.
Most of the field would stop the race there (doing the ½ course). I showed to
someone my belly and they patched it up and they made me stop for a bit before
going again. My entire belly was red and some places more burnt than others.
The cut off was at midnight at Smith so I was way ahead of
schedule
I left soon after (around 9pm) in the dark alone. By that
point my friend Augusto had met up with Joel to give him a hand.
The next couple of locks went ok although very weedy.
I didn’t
see my support crew at one of the lock but saw the race director. I was then
only 5-7km away from the next lock (Killarnock I think it is). That’s when
things went wrong. I had nobody ahead or behind me. I was following my map
which said to stay on the left shore but after a while I got in a massive swamp
with lily pads all around and no room to even put a paddle in the middle….Just
imagine what was going on in the back of my boat with my pretty long rudder
getting literally stuck there. I couldn’t move much (less than a km per hour),
the fog settled and I couldn’t see any buoys. Thanks to the headlamp the thousand
bugs around me had decided to crawl through my face in my ear and nose. I couldn’t
turn off the light as I really needed to find the navigational channel.
I then took my gps that I had tested before and that was
working but I had to change the map for the second half of the race and for
some reason the gps was telling me to go left. There was no left!!! It was lily
pads and the shore. After what felt like a really long panick moment I decided
to call the race director. I asked him if he could see me on his map explaining
that I couldn’t see the navigational channel because of the fog and whether I
was still in the right lake?? He told me I was in the right direction. “Keep
left” he said. After telling him that left was NOT an option I started
wandering on the right more and more and finally spotted a buoy far in the
distance…on the other side of the lake on the Right-hand side.
I followed the buoys going all around the bloody lake to
finally find the lockstation…It was now 11:30pm and I was at 115.4km. I had
done the last 11.4km in 2h30…BRUTAL!!!
I knew the weeds wouldn’t get much better but I also knew
there was only 10,5km left in open lakes before getting into the narrow canal
where you can’t get lost anymore.
I asked the guys for some arm warmers and was going to
continue when the race director came to ask me to stop the race. He was worried
about my safety. He said all the other boats behind me (and there were many
according to him at smith falls) had quit and he was concerned letting me
continue alone.
That is the first time I get stopped from a race without
missing any cut offs, being ahead of my schedule.
I had done 115.4km in 17h30 and I had 18h left to do the
remaining 87…I could totally do it. But Hey he was the race director. He left
and we started packing up my stuff. 45min later I was changed and ready to go
when I saw a canoe at the lock, it was a team..and they let them keep on going…WTF???
The next morning when I woke up early I saw that two other
teams had kept on going hours after I had been asked to stop. I wasn’t and I am
still not happy about it. The race director sent me an email to apologies and
told me that afterthought he should have asked me to just stop for a while…After
all I had time…but all the apologies in the world won’t unfortunately make the failure
feeling to go away.
James, strong as always, kept on going and finished a little after 30h of
paddling.
I would never do this race again with a fixed rudder…maybe
with a kick up rudder….If I can get over this year’s race.
I want to say that my support crew, Joel Perrella was the
best in the world and that you all should check out his awesome magazine
breathemag J
I also want to thank my sponsors for supporting me through this gruelling event, Nuun hydration, PacificHealthlab and strongbar nutrition. NRS and 2XU for the awesome gears to keep me moving and warm.
Nat
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