The General Clinton Canoe Race (or Why Does My Butt Hurt)

On Memorial Day I raced in the General Clinton Canoe Race in NY, a 70 miler (that fortunately is more like 62 miles) which is a canoe version of the Birkie.  It is the first race of paddling’s Triple Crown, along with the Au Sable River 90 miler in Michigan (which starts at 9 pm) and the Classique de Canots in Quebec.   Paddlers from all across the US and Canada come to race here.  I hadn’t really planned on this race, but my paddling friend Shawn asked if I’d like to paddle bow with him.  I will confess the idea of doing this was always lurking in the back of my mind since all my paddling friends were on my case to paddle it and add it to my paddling resume.  I’d even watched part of it back in 2009 on the way home from visiting my mom.  Throwing caution to the wind I agreed to paddle. And then I started thinking about this during the winter.  How would I sit for that long?  Shoot, I can’t even sit still in a meeting for an hour and now 8+ hours?  How painful would this be? “Don’t worry” my paddling friend Steve said, “It’ll hurt for a while and then go numb”.   Great.  The paddling itself would be ok, after all, I’d just finished a good ski season with 3 marathons under my belt and a youth spent canoeing through Algonquin Park and the Temagami Region of Ontario plus the racing I'd done over the past decade.  I knew canoes and I’d paddled all day on canoe trips, but a race?  70 miles?  This was going to be tough. 

With the race on Memorial Day that meant no April training let down.  Right after my last day of skiing on the local golf course, setting a new Andover ski record of April 7, I started paddling.  Each Wednesday with the local gang, including Wes Denering many evenings, and on weekends, we slowly upped the ante each week and quite frankly, it was uncomfortable after more than an hour, not helped by the fact that I’d tweaked something in that general region and couldn’t skate effectively at the Sugarloaf marathon.  Each week I trimmed and tweaked my canoe seat padding and slowly dialed it in.  The longest paddle a couple weeks ago was nearly 4 hours on the Nashua.  I also had to work out the nutrition angle, trying GUs, bars, Fig Newtons, gel Shots, etc.  You have to eat something on such a long race but the problem is you don’t want to stop paddling.  And your drink system needs to be all dialed in too, and with such a long race you need multiple jugs of fluids.  Then the next worry became the utter lack of rain.  After a winter with so much snow, the total lack of rain this spring caused all the rivers to drop quickly to mid-summer levels.  Shallow water is slow water, known as suck water.  Boats move slower, lots slower, in suck water.  And, there’s less current to help you.  No rain was in the forecast, so we all resigned ourselves to an extra long day on the river.

Shawn and I had a good warmup race at the Run of the Charles, nailing down first in our boat class in the 19 miler, my longest canoe race.  Then the following weekend we raced C1s (single racing canoes) on the Ashuelot in NH, where I came in 2^nd and then ditched the C1s and paddled back upstream in his C2, a grunt of a workout.  Finally, I paddled the Mystic River Race, 12 miles, the week before, but faded badly the 2^nd half.  Uh oh.  But I chalked that up to graduation parties for Sarah the day before.  Marathon week I rested up and on Saturday headed to Cooperstown, NY, met up with Shawn and headed out on the river where it begins at the end of Otsego Lake, a very pretty finger lake.  This section, known as The Swamp, is narrow, twisty and on this day, very very shallow.  We had to get out 3 or 4 times in shallow spots, we dodged stumps, tree trunks, an appalling number of tires and old, rotted 55 gallon drums.  Word was they would open the dam at the end of the lake and it would be much better race day.  The shallow water was the talk of the town and photos started appearing on paddler’s Facebook pages of dry gravel bars in the river, obstacles, etc. 

Sunday was an off day and we scouted out the locations of our pit stops, where’d we’d meet Shawn’s wife Monica and their friend John to swap out drink jugs and get any food or other stuff we might need.  Think Indy 500.  Pull in, swap jugs, pull out in about 20 seconds.  Shawn knows this race well, all the good spots for pits, and many of the little secrets about which line to take on the river going through riffles and cut-throughs, etc.  I was in good hands.  My job…..put my head down and paddle hard all day long…simple! 

Our boat class (no age groups, just types of canoes) was off at 6 am on Monday, so we arose at 4 so we’d have time to eat, drive over, set up the boat and all the usual pre-race stuff.  4 am came kind of early, but then again, it always does.  I tried to cram down as many calories as I could, which is hard to do at 4.  Same as with ski race day, oatmeal and raisins, coffee, banana, bagel, a couple bars on the drive over.  We arrive in darkness and a few raindrops and set up the boat under a street light.  GUs taped in, 2 jugs each so we will only have to pit twice, cut up Hammer bars and fig newtons in a bag taped to the boat. 

 

Setting up under a street light

I get myself mentally prepared to be crammed in the bow with little space to move my feet or knees.  I’ve trimmed the sides of my old running shoes so they’ll fit better, there is padding for my knees and I have two layers of padding on the seat with holes for my butt bones in the top one.  Food and liquids are set, time to get down to business.

 

Ready to roll

Fluids for a long race

A very short warmup paddle to the start line where we are joined by about 60 boats, including the C4s, four person canoes that put up a heck of a wake.  BAM!  Suddenly, way too quickly, we are off shooting for the turn around the pontoon boat a few hundred yards out.  It’s a friggin sprint at 6 am and I don’t sprint so well at that time of day.  My coffee hasn’t even kicked in yetd!  The C4s shoot out in the lead and Shawn and I are in the mix with 3-4 other C2s.  A smoothly carved turn around the boat (that’s one thing I know how to do!) and we are duking it out with 2 other boats as we head for the 1^st portage that will take us into the Sesquehanna River.  People are cheering from shore as we pull into the portage in 1^st for the C2s and immediately get passed by a rather burly pair (father and son team) with another team hot on our heels.  It’s a race!  The other boat pulls out a bit quicker than us and we settle into 3^rd in their wash.  Perfect, right where I like to be.  We move into 2^nd when the boys from Minnesota make a mistake.  The burly guys, Shawn now informs me, are grinders.  They just grind away, especially in the 2^nd half of the race.  The son, in the bow, is a big guy and dad in the stern has a rug on his shoulders.  But I notice a weakness.  They aren’t as good on the corners as we are.  We settle down.  Then we make a mistake and the Minnesota boys (the guy in the stern is over 70 and was 4^th in his age group in the Korteloppet skate race at the Birkie) scoot by us.  Damn!  If this goes on all day I’m going to be cooked by 15 miles!  We trade places again and now I suggest to Shawn we just sit on Burly Boys for a while and the race settles down.  Monica and John cheer us on at the 1^st bridge.  We’re moving well and in back in 3^rd as we sweep by.  The river has lots more water since they removed the flash boards at the lake and all is good.  We are clipping along at around 7+ mph.  Near the end of the swamp we sneak by Burly Boys into the lead and push on to a sharp left bend where there is an old tree in the water, but next to shore it looks like you could sneak through with the higher water.  If so it would be way shorter.  However, I suggest we stay safe and go around.  We sweep around nicely and then BAM, the sound of carbon fiber rings in the air!  I look back.  Burly Boys had been seduced by the siren call of the short cut.  Now they are sitting on top of a tree and the stern man had his foot out, desperately trying to get them off the tree.  Minnesota followed us and settles in behind and not too far back another boat has joined the fray, Ontario Boys, joining the party as we sweep downstream.  I think we are about 45 minutes into the race and we’ve been busy!   A bit further along, on another tricky corner, we take the inside line to edge out Minnesota, who whacks our stern almost turning us sideways, and then disappears out the back.  We see no more of them.  Now its just Ontario and us as we head toward our first pit stop and Goodyear Lake and portage #2.  Pit Stop 1 goes smoothly thanks to Monica as she swaps out 1 jug for each and we are off.  Our pit has given Ontario the lead.  Just like a Grand Prix race!  But then they make a wrong move as we enter the lake and we reclaim 1^st.  The grind begins as we head to the portage.  People are out on their docks as we paddle by, cheering.  Kinda nice! 

 

The start!

On the portage, the Ontario boys are quicker and get right behind us, getting in the water even and pulling out first.  They go left at the cut, the long way around and we chance “the cut” since there is more water just below the dam.  Not enough water though and we have to hop out on a gravel bar.  We pull back into the main channel river…..even with Ontario but they are in quicker water and pull slightly ahead as we fall in, chasing.  We are now 3 hours into this thing and with all the action I haven’t even thought about my butt! 

Nearing the end of The Swamp

The next section of the river is pretty wild with fast water, some standing waves and tricky corners.  Ontario makes a mistake and gets stuck and we move back into the lead.  Its nice to be hitting 8 mph here and there.  Then the exciting water eases off and the grind to the 3^rd and last portage, in Oneonta, at the half way point commences.  We try to cram in some calories.  Slowly we catch back up to Ontario, passing somewhere.  We maintain 1^st to the portage but I make a bad selection of where to put in, hopping out again on a gravel bar.  Ontario takes the longer way around in faster and deeper water and moves back into the lead.  Back to chasing. 

Ontario seems to be flagging as we hit about 40 miles which gets us going, eventually regaining the lead.  We even get a bit of a gap.  Now the sun is out and it starts to really warm up.  And, just to top it off, the SW wind kicks up, blowing at us right up the river.  Uggggg.  This is like work!  About 45 miles is our 2^nd pit stop.  Turns out its Ontario’s last pit too, but theirs is a bit quicker, moving them back into the lead. Back to chasing, I start to flag.  I’m losing power and now my butt is bothering me.  So is that itch on my neck, that droplet of sweat on my cheek, my dry mouth…..you get the picture.  I start doing math and realize this race is going to exceed 9 hours…….oh crap!  I grab a GU which revives me and on we go, chasing Ontario.  But in that time they’ve gained a little distance, and then a little more.  They are grinding it out better than we are.  With more calories I revive, but they are out of touch and we settle in for the long haul of the last 10 miles to the finish.  I glance back on a corner.  Burly Boys and Minnesota are long gone, so 2^nd it is and we work to make sure of that.  Finally, we spot the finish at General Clinton Park.  Across the line in 9:32 and then we pull into the dock for the last obstacle of the day, how to get out of the canoe.  I literally roll out of the boat.  My legs aren’t much use right now.  Fortunately, some nice guys walk our boat up the ramp and Monica buys us a milkshake and slowly I begin to revive.  Shawn is very happy, his best finish yet at the 70 and I’m plenty happy just being done. 

It was a good race and a good day on the river.  It had all gone much better than I’d expected, we’d had a really fun race and we each won these ridiculously giant trophies.  Turns out Ontario comes with some serious credentials, having paddled the Yukon River Quest which is a 450 mile race, so we feel even better.  Paddling on the Charles doesn’t carry quite the cachet as the Yukon after all.   I have not yet answered the question of whether I’ll sign up for next year……..

Many, many thanks to Monica and John for giving us great support and encouragement through the day.  John took some great photos of our day.  

Giving chase to Ontario

Carbon fiber beauty.  I wonder how many ski poles that would be?

On the home stretch, finally

The finish line!

TBT - Presidential Traverse, 1998

Several hardy CSUers did the one day Presidential Traverse back in 1998.  This photo is breaking out of the trees on the Howker Ridge Trail (didn't want to go the shortest and easiest way up Madison!) on Mt. Madison.  It was a great day and my log book says the hike took 11 hours total with about 9.5 moving time.  Wow, we were moving!  Last year it took considerably longer, even though it was slightly shorter.  49F on Mt. Washington and quite windy.

A great day with a great crew.  Charlie Kellog was a friggin mt. goat and most of us had to kill ourselves just to hang with him!

Kei Ishihara, Rob, Larry, Jamie, Charlie and Cam after the warmup climbing up Mt. Madison

World Masters, Lake Placid 1998

Found this gem this morning.  Several other CSUers missed the photo op, such as Bob Haydock and Larry Elswit.  Can you name everyone?  CSU, Maine Masters and Craftsbury.

Fossavatn Ski Marathon 2015

In case you thought the ski marathon season was over after the Sugarloaf Marathon back in March, you would be wrong.  While the rest of us were enjoying, at last, a real spring beauty of a day, Wes Denering skied the Fossavatn Ski Marathon in Iceland and it is rumored to have been ideal powder conditions for this classic race.  Hopefully Wes will report on that.  Wes finished the race in 4:18:34, 23rd in 50-59 out of 83 in that age group.  Amy Patenaude-Gunn finished 3rd in her age group, and Charlie Gunn won the 25km in his age group and Linda Denering was 41st in the 10km.

Nice going everyone!!

Sophie and Noah do Dryland with BKSL

US Ski Teamers Noah Hoffman and Sophie Caldwell came to town today for a little dryland workout with the BKSL team as well as a few junior and master CSUers.  The sun shone, it was pleasantly warm, the snow piles were slowly melting and the kids had a good time, capped off by the required game of wolves and reindeer.  Then indoors for a Q & A session.  Thanks Noah and Sophie!

More photos at:  http://jamiedoucett.smugmug.com/Ski-Photos/BKSL-with-Noah-and-Sophie/

Unsuccessful reindeer evasive maneuvers

I think this reindeer is going down!

Norway Birken Adventure - Rena to Lillehammer

Birken Norway

Rena to Lillehammer

54 KM – Elevation gain approx 3500 feet

Up to 17,000 registrations

March 21, 2015

Ann and I had planned to ski the Birkebeinerrennet (translation Birkebeiner race) for over 25 years, but we were delayed with our family and careers.  Chris Bean, Robert & Lisa Nadler are all long term ski friends from college, so when they called to finally make our trip a reality we jumped at the chance.  Some might argue that the Vasaloppet is the most historic race as it too stems from historic events in 1505 and is a huge race, however to Ann and I, the legend and incredible Birken race was always the original and the big one.   Imagine that the Boston Marathon with all its history were actually run on the plains of Marathon to commemorate Pheidippides announcing victory in Athens.  As long time skiers it was time to go. 

Legend of the Birkebeiner Race

The race has been skied since 1932 with huge numbers of Norwegians participating each year.  The race honors the 1206 rescue of and 18 month old prince Hakon from an opposing army.  Two of their best skiers are given the task of skiing the baby king to safety over the mountains in a brutal storm.  It is legend and desperate times so the exact story is probably not perfect, but it is clear that Hakon as a grown king later unites all of Norway ending 1000 years of civil war and this ushers in Norway’s medieval golden age.  The famous drawing of the skiers with shield, spear and baby child is

appropriate as they did in fact ski with one long pole which could often be used not only to ski, but also as a spear or other implement (we saw poles with ladles and many other innovations in the museum). The race now regularly draws over 10,000 with up to 17,000 start numbers.  A lot of Norwegians have now carried the baby king to safety.

               

You have to plan early for these big marathons.  The Vasa sold out in 83 seconds last week and we were uncertain we could get into the Birken race last spring.  However, we found a package that was a terrific location near Sjusjoen called Nordsetter with a nice lodge some logistics, 3 meals and the all important entry, so the 5 of us signed up and booked inexpensive flights.  It always seems easy when you say yes, but we knew it was going to take some planning.  It pays to be a CSU coach if you have to figure out a race of this magnitude as we know how easy it is to mess up logistics, training, health and ski racing.

We decided to stay the first day in Oslo but we should have gone earlier to watch the Holmenkollen as the world cup was in town.  Also, you can ski right from the subway with skis on the train. We did go to see the jump, ski course, museum and more as it’s unique to see a famous venue on some hills just outside of Oslo.  It is an easy subway ride from the center of town as long as you don’t mind sitting next to folks taking their skis and poles out mid day ski.  Business people yes, tourists yes, shopper of course and yes I see the wax is purple klister from the guy next to me.  The first advertisements I see as we get on to the train are about ski racing.  We are at the home of Nordic skiing.   That sort of helps as we lug huge duffle bags, ski bags and Birken packs through the various train stations.

 I have two great friends from school that I had not seen for some years.  Kjell Sobak and Don Skantze.  Kjell was a silver medalist (and 4^th) in Biathlon in the Olympics and he won the Vasaloppet.  He also taught me a ton about skiing long ago when it was all a mystery. He knows exactly how to deal with young Americans who could run fast in fall XC, but were still not quite there in XC skiing.  Kjell, what do we wax?  His stock answer.  Read the tube.  We all had a terrific dinner right near the parliament and Kjell gave the 5 of us a private tour of the city which was just fun. You can see Robert and Lisa showing that these sculptures had nothing on US skiers.  From there we went by train and bus to Lillehammer, which had its own challenges even though the trains are superb.

We skied for 4 days before the race.  I realized long before the race that while we were all skiing pretty well in classic, it was not going to be my focus to shave off the last minutes in this race.  Just too many moving

parts and especially this trip was our chance to see so much  skiing and ski history in Norway.  So we skied a ton.  You can ski across these long gradual classic striding hills on perfect tracks with views and beautiful scenery literally forever.  50K, 100K, I am not sure, but I imagine there ware `1000s of Ks so ski if you’re really just kept linking up loops.  There is a GPS on every piston bully in Norway and the app shows you very efficiently what tracks were set in the last hours or days.  While you ski there are signs at each intersection that point to the next town and tell you whether there is food and they had huge maps for those of us without a clue. 

One day we skied to a town called Hornsjo and a neighboring hotel 12 km away for some hot soup and a return ski back.  We were dropped off 2 days prior to the race at the 29K mark and skied to the big ski town Sjusjoen, which sits at about 3000 feet, then up over a small windswept Mt Lunkefjell where Ann found evidence of Ski O, then back home to Nordsetter.  The day before the race we were driven back up to Sjusjoen and skied the final 13km all downhill to the Birkebeiner Stadium- the main venue for the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.  Like the uphills, the downhills are long and gradual, so it is much different from anything we ski on at home.  You must carry the baby king!  Birken requires an 8 pound pack with shirt, windbreaker, pants, hat, mittens and buff, plus whatever else makes up the weight.  Top racers get them pretty skinny, but we wanted to change clothes and carry wax and food, so our packs were a bit larger and we adorned them with various patches, while two of the packs featured dolls of the baby king. 

The big day starts with a bus pickup at about 4.30 AM as it is 2.5 hours to get around the mountains, past Lillehammer, down the Fjord (more of an inlet from the ocean vs. the huge cliffs along the coast)  in a huge line of silent early morning buses and over to the next Fjord heading to Rena.   Now we have to ski back.  The race organization is phenomenal.  We arrive in front of at least 50 swix benches, irons, waxes next to warm drinks and porridge at the venue and of course a lovely tent with a raised wooden floor.  Such luxury.  Of course we argued for days about the changing wax as it was frozen slush down low and powder over hard pack up high.  Then it snowed the night before the race, but not at the start where there is an immediate 14KM (you

reading that correctly) uphill.  Not wanting to be short of kick, we put on the lightest coat of klister possible and covered with blue and violet range stick wax.  Our mistake was both in the klister and warmer wax.  You can actually double pole in the fast frozen tracks and live pretty well for a few Ks with less kick, then go with great skis for the rest of the race which were in the highlands.  Toko green stick base binder and blue or extra blue (viola) would have been a bit better as we were a little slow on the double poling in the high dry powder, but hey with 3 giant hills (14K, 6K, 8K aka low mountains) I was happy to have kick.

Starting long after the Elite waves, we skied up the track the first K and watched the race start.  Therese Johaug (aka number 2 in the world only to Marit) immediately skis off the front and by herself sets a record. But in the men’s race Sunby admits that a non world cup skier cup skier blows his doors off double poling the entire race and leaving him by 10 seconds with 2 KM to go.  "It must have been your skis” says the announcer.  No he says, despite my kick wax, my skis were flying and I caught him on the downhills, he was just much stronger in double poling.  There are just a lot of great skiers in Norway.  We started in waves 2, 11, 13, 14 and 18.  Alas, I was stuck in 14 with Ann in wave 13 as I had skated the American Birkie last year and they discounted my 2 year old time.  At least I could ski up to Ann and say hello to someone in the race.   A quick calculation shows that the beginning of the snake was finishing before the last wave had started, so this spectacular wave of skiers was over 54 km long.  Wow.  I also calculated that if I included my wave 14, I skied past 1850 skiers and had 3 beat me from my wave and one from wave 15 so I certainly exceeded my seed if nothing else.  The rest of our team was actually placed almost perfectly which is the case for most Norwegians.  The race is 6-10 tracks wide, most of the racers are skiing technically well and all the skiers go at the same pace due to their superb seeding.  (I was the renegade

fast skier stuck back as I had not followed their seeding rules, but I just wanted to try the American Birkie skate last year).  Robin Anderson was on our plane & she was the top non elite women’s wave as they have a second top women’s start soon after the men begin.

What I most remember about the race is this vivid image of thousands of skiers winding far up these long hills in a huge snake across the open country side with bright white low mountains and unusual terrain.  It is unique site in a breathless terrain. However, it was a deceptive and exhausting race.  Maybe because I had to change tracks so much, or went a bit too hard, I had nobody to draft at my speed or it was just the long super skiable hills?  You did get some really nice long downhill rest sections and long double poles, so I was a little surprised how tired we all were going up the final climbs.  My short stops for food and drink to sneak past another 50 turned much longer munch fests at the feeds and after 35K as I was just shuffling, but my energy returned after a long flat double pole and at the end it was much easier as the last 13 K are mostly downhill sections to the finish.  I know I could have skied the race a bit faster, but it was just such an epic event with perfect weather, skiers and tracks.  My only minor complaint is that with 8755 mostly

good, aka serious racers who carry goo, they can drop a lot of goo.  I mean 10,000 goos that are mostly in the tracks!  Ouch, you get good at picking up a foot here, there and everywhere.  They have an environmental campaign to reduce litter, but it needs work. 

               

While endless analysis with my friends suggests a more perfected race could well have been much faster, it is not realistic to think even with my top race and the absolutely perfect luck, I could have taken more than say 10 – 20 minutes off my time.  (wax, less pre-race ski, travel, more training – less work, no drafting in the wind, endless passing, goo packs, bonking for 20 minutes, slowing down on the downhill, forgo my inhaler, did I spill jelly on my skis and maybe the sun was in my eyes).  Regardless, we all skied well, but my 2nd place in master’s nationals at Craftsbury was replaced by 268^th place in my age in the Birken and even 20 minutes faster is still a ways back.  We mostly did make the 25% age group, yippee.  Wow do they have depth.   Ann was 39^th and got a mini

trophy.  I was very happy to see her finish as the final downhill was really fast, a bit icy with some ruts and you ski downhill about 4 abreast.  Ann had a partial tear of her medial collateral ligament on Jan 7, so her recovery is astounding. She was just thrilled to ski into Olympic stadium after such an epic journey and was very emotional at the finish.  You could not have asked for a nicer day and better scenery and yes I did look around a lot.  Then a bus ride took us to the famous Hakon hall Olympic hockey venue seating 11,000, showers, ski vendors and the like.  Note I

found electric braking roller skis with a trigger on you pole handle and a fold up 3 pound wax bench that would fit in a ski pole tube.   

Sunday featured another pre- 4 am wake up to make the 5:10 AM Lillehammer - Oslo airport train, but our group was still chatting about the race so the travel, though so the trip was not so bad.   I could go on with stories and details, but it is a terrific place to ski and race and I would highly recommend it if you ever get the chance.  If you are going to the Birken feel free to ask other details.

Coach Bob