Red Mo Downriver Kayak Race Report

Not only does the Red Mo water look bad, it tastes bad too. But that didn't stop oodles of all kinds of boaters from racing it yesterday. They added several new divisions this year for the 41st running of the Red Mo Downriver race, and it brought out I'm guessing over 200 boaters from the two-person flannel-shirt and blue jean, beer drinking buds in a canoe, to the serious Wavehopper racing kayaker. It was a real mixed bag of racers and despite 30 degree temps, everyone had a blast. I finished mid-pack (I think fifth-can't be sure until the hand-written results come out) in my group. Jen and Judd Kulas, Barb Sears, Dave Geesey and Rick started out about an hour before the race and stopped at the infamous island to snap pics of the racers. They saw 3 canoes sink. Cold weather got them moving off the island shortly after my group went through. Barb and Dave experienced the Red Mo for the first time and enjoyed it as a first-of-the-year (for Barb, Jen, Judd), clean-out-the-cobwebs paddle. My division had about 10 girls. Most of us had river runner boats ( 7-8 footers). I think there was one or two slalom or longer WW boats so we were pretty much even-keel in boat-type competition (for those unfamiliar with White water boats, the type of WW boat makes a huge difference in speed; thus separate divisions for varying boats). The start was cool - each division went off together. The very first heat was Canoe women and Recreation kayak women. The 2nd heat was all the K1 Whitewater women. For the start, we all were in the water, facing upstream as the two-minute countdown started. When 15 seconds hit, we turned out boats and headed to the start line and when he said GO, we all took off. At first, we sort of hung together in a group which I didn't care for much as the first rapid came up -- I envisioned someone flipping due to too many of us clustered together. There was a girl at the start that never raced and about 2 minutes into it, I heard her say "this sucks." I don't think she expected we would actually PADDLE the entire race! She finished somewhere behind me. So we started to break apart about 5 minutes into the race. A group of about 5 stayed clustered together in front, then one girl slowly started falling back with me behind her. She stopped to get a poker run ticket (I'm not sure she knew what she was doing), and I passed her. Then another girl stopped to pee (I think), which put me in 5th which is where I stayed the remainder of the race. I lost sight of the 4 girls in front of me about 1/2 way through. I realized after the race, this was the first I was back in my Diesel in over a year! I've been paddling a shorter, playboat most of last year and decided this winter I'd go back to the Diesel for comfort sake. I was shaky in the water (first time in moving water this year), and the boat was not connecting with me, so I was fighting with at spots. The most popular spot, Rattlesnake Rapid at the island, I completed chickened out and missed the rapid -- but I'll blame the boat (ha!). Someone even said, "you're in a whitewater boat" as I totally missed the rapid. I'm such a stooge. But it was an incredible, fast-paced, high HR 1 hour paddle. Great training -- which is what I set out to do Isn't that my excuse for all my races when I don't finish well!? HA!