Isaac's Report for Leg 2

From Isaac:

Run of the Charles Leg 2.

Thanks to some great navigational support from my parents, Corey and I arrived in Dedham with plenty of time to spare, and after only a little trouble registering we were free to get pumped up and watch all the various individual racers start off. The pro boat start was crazy It reminded me off a mass start ski race and even featured one boat that flipped, righted itself, and then promptly flipped again.

Before we knew it it was almost time for the relay boats to arrive. Corey and I, along with Bob and Jamie who were also paddling leg two for the CSU masters team were all jumping up and down, and peering through the bridge. Jim and Cate arrived in a flurry, (they were the first boat in their wave, and had past all but one boat in the wave ahead) we performed an extremely smooth take off, and before we knew it Corey and I were paddling hard downstream.

The first half of our leg was characterized by long straight open sections of water, this was ideal for us since steering was somewhat of an issue. We rapidly closed the gap between us and the one boat ahead of us, and after only one near flip when I ruddered around a funky ninety degree turn we had pulled ahead of them. As we drew up alongside them, they tried to exchange pleasantries. Luckily, we recognized this chatter for what it was, a sly attempt to distract us, so we nodded curtly and picked up the pace.

Unfortunately, at this point the river became curvier, and less open, and as I hinted at before, curves were our weakness. Just as we managed to pull ahead of the boat we had caught, the boat would go in a different direction then I wanted it to go, and our competition would catch back up to us. However, they never managed to pass us again.

With around ten minutes to go, as we were navigating a particularly curvy length of river, the boat with Jamie and Bob caught us. They were paddling furiously, and executing the turns with the utmost precision. We were able to paddle inside their wake for maybe ten or fifteen strokes, before I inadvertently turned out of it, and then a bend came and we were left in the dust.

At long last we spotted the exchange zone on the other side of the bridge, Corey picked up the pace and we threw down vicious final kick. Sadly our final sprint brought us into the landing roughly five feet farther out then was ideal. The current at that point was too strong for us to make it to shore before being swept downstream, so we had no choice but to bail out. Fortunately the water was shallow enough for us to stand – I fell in up to my neck, and Corey got wet up to her waist. Still, we quickly dragged the boat to shore and handed it off to Neil and Kaytie. Sadly during this time, our rivals, the team we had been battling with the entire way passed us.

After putting on some dry clothes, and eating and drinking lots of complimentary Lara bars, iced tea, and cereal we were super psyched about our race. Not counting our exchange to Neil and Kaytie we had passed one team and been passed by only one team. Arguably more importantly though, we had a boatload of fun, and put the fear of god into the hearts of the CSU masters.

In a final note, thank you to all the parents who accomplished the logistical feat of transporting the different athletes, to different starting locations, at different times, and to Chris who organized the logistics, organized the teams, reorganized the teams, and handled all the final tweaks, and frantic last minute questions. All without being able to race himself.