Wednesday, 26 June 2019

Boater X - T Buckley

Today was our first race Wednesday, we started off with a relay race, then an individual timed race, then a boater cross organized into 4 heats. The 4 heats were organized by grouping people that got similar times in the individual race, and each group had about 5-6 people in it. This is how my boater cross race went down (I was in the 2nd fastest heat): Steveo blew the whistle and everybody turned right out of the eddy and into the downriver current. After a short flat water paddle, we turned into Upper No Name. Going into the rapid I was second to last, but placement in the beginning of the race is mostly luck. As I saw Infinity Wave and the wave after, I realized that it was perfect for a macho move, so I did one. I knew this would slow me down a lot, but it was fun, and it did slow me down, I was now in last place. I paddled fast through the rest of the rapid and in a few seconds we were at the end of Upper No Name. After Upper there is an intersection in the river and in the middle of the river is a massive eddy. The fastest way in terms of distance to continue the course into Lower No Name was to paddle across the eddy. Everybody in front of me did so. I was already in last place, so I tried something risky. I followed the current around the eddy, which was a much greater distance, and I risked going the wrong direction around the island and down the wrong rapid. However I kept on the correct side, and slowly saw myself padding the other racers in my heat, and I entered Lower No Name about 10 seconds ahead of the 2nd place racer. I didn’t play in Lower No Name, I booked it to the finish line, but I had enough lead that I didn’t need to sprint. I reached the finish line in 1st place. This race taught me a few lessons, it taught me that following the current is always faster than paddling on flat water. It taught me to never give up, even if you are in last place you can still win. And it taught me to never pass up a good macho move opportunity.

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