It was windy and the brackish salt water slipped over the deck of my canoe. I paddled and paddled. Me against the torture and history of the jaws of the Columbia River. I beat back the sweat off my brow and held tight against the shifting tides. As I rounded the 5K mark I bared down and cruised into a first place finish amongst the single canoes. As I waited at the finish line for my fierce rivals to come in, the minutes ticked by, the pride swelled and somebody off handily remarked that it must be great to be the only boat in your division. STOP!! My heart sank, what I had no equals, no one to chastise for coming in behind me but myself. . . Well maybe next year. In fact the guys I feared, Mike Harrison & Jeff Lasley, most did tandem canoe and one a very competitive race against the always fast Scharffenberg Team. I retained my winning streak at the Bakerbay Race in Ilwaco and improved my time by 24 minutes this year and came in around 10th overall. It was a great end to a good seaseon. 3rd place -Willamette Challenge Tandem Canoe, 2nd place Yaquina run-in Single Canoe, 11th place MR340 single mens and 1st place at the Bakerbay Race single canoes. Now I can get fat until next year and dream of building more boats.
2 comments:
Nice Job on taking first and last! I say you get Eve in the canoe and take on all comers. Strong showing Pocahantas!
Dave
Congratulatons on a great season - the most important one that mattered was the MR340. We are prou! Pocahats ? More like Lewis or Clark....
Mom & Dad
Kisses and hugs to our little ones and Eve.
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