Kayak Canoe Alabama

Monday, October 17, 2005

Phatwater Biyak

Sunday, October 9, 2005 brint.adams@us.army.mil

The first annual Biyak race was definitely a work in progress and will hopefully improve and grow in future years. When we woke up Sunday morning following the strenuous 45 mile kayak race the day before, I surprised myself by actually feeling pretty good without any major aches or pains. Linda and I arrived at the Under The Hill Saloon at 8:30 AM to check in and get my gear laid out and transition area set up. The weather was beautiful, with sunny skies, 72 degrees and no wind. The race was supposed to start at 9:30, but due to a lack of volunteers, the gun did not go off until 10:00 AM. While we were waiting, I was able to get a ride with the race director to tour the bike course, which helped me to mentally prepare for it. From the bike finish and transition area, the kayak course turnaround was marked with a large buoy, visible off in the distance 1.5 miles up the Mississippi River.

There were a total of six bikes and kayaks racing today. I was one of three competing solo, with three relay teams. The race was set up to allow the team kayakers to be already positioned in their boats when their bikers crossed the finish line. An official signaled to the kayakers, so they did not have to be concerned with any transition time.

The race started from in front of the Under The Hill Saloon and went uphill heading north to the downtown area. We continued north along the top of the river bluff into a residential area, at which point we turned into a cemetery. We toured and wound our way around the single lane road for a couple of miles, exiting the cemetery and returning back to downtown. The final turn by Fat Mama’s Tamales took us downhill, past the Isle of Capri and back to the saloon. The bike distance turned out to be five miles, which I did in 14:30.

The transition came next, where I quickly changed shoes, grabbed my PFD and ran down the boat ramp to the boats waiting at the water’s edge. On the bike leg, I finished tied with one of the team bikers in third place, following a team in first and a solo in second. So, the kayaker of the team I came in tied with, started right away while I was changing shoes and running about 50 meters down the ramp to the kayak start. On top of that, while I was getting into my boat, the next team also started kayaking ahead of me, even though their biker finished a minute slower. As I jumped into my boat, I noticed the buoy, supposed to be 1.5 miles upriver, was only about a half mile away, which seemed strange.

Anyway, I started out the kayak leg in fifth place about 100 meters behind third and fourth. Since we started paddling upriver, it was imperative that I stayed close to shore, out of the strong current, but not too close to get into the shoreline shallow water effect. After the first half mile, I caught up with the one solo ahead of me. This was at the point where the buoy broken loose and drifted downriver out of place. The solo thought he was to turn there, even though the three paddlers ahead of him continued upriver to the real turnaround. The safety boat saw what was happening and went upriver to act as the turnaround point.

I continued upriver and caught the next paddler at about one mile in, well before the turnaround and was closing in on the two frontrunners. After making the turn, I went wide to get out into the river current and sprinted to try and make up more ground. At about halfway back, I caught up to the second place relay team and stayed even for the next half mile. Finally, I put on a final burst of speed and pulled ahead, finishing about 30 meters ahead at the finish. Although I was still gaining on the front running kayak, I ran out of water and was unable to catch him.

It was a fun race and well worth sticking around the next day for to participate in. I understand there will be alot of tweeking to the event, but it will continue next year and the director certainly hopes with more racers. The bike portion may be lengthened to something like 18 miles, which will make it much tougher on those going solo the day after paddling the Phatwater.

Overall, I finished first in the solo category and second overall to a relay team.

The finishes and times were as follows:

1st – total 42:51 - bike 13:43 Curtis Maroney, kayak 29:08 Geoff Iles - team
2nd – total 43:32 - bike 14:36, kayak 29:36 Brint Adams - solo
3rd – total 43:53 - bike 14:28 Tommy Smith, kayak 29:25 Melissa Morrison - team
4th – total 45:47 - bike 15:32 Shaun Kelly, kayak 30:15 Randy Tillman - team
5th – total 53:20 - bike 16:01, kayak 37:19 Sam McLemore - solo
6th – total 24:44 - bike 13:46, kayak 11:38 Jeb Berry - solo (short kayak course)

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