Long Lake Race

I've been rather busy with other things lately, so my recap of this race will be short.

This was the last of the Winter Series of races organized by Shane Baker and Terrie Ragins. It takes place on Long Lake, which is located not far from the Southworth ferry terminal on the Kitsap Peninsula on the west side of Puget Sound.

The day was generally sunny, with a moderate breeze blowing from the south. The temperatures were in the low 40's, so it was rather chilly out in the open.

I had just installed a new type of thrust bearing in my Cadence, and also had a weed cutting blade installed. Looking out at the lake I was glad for the cutting blade as I could see pieces of milfoil floating here and there.

Anyway, I chose to wear loose nylon pants over bike shorts and woolen leg warmers, bike shoes, several layers of shirts, a nylon windbreaker, an insulating headband over a sweatband and a baseball cap. Even after the warmup I didn't feel over dressed.


The field consisted mostly of teenage boys and girls from the Gig Harbor paddle racing club. They were using various sorts of flatwater K1 kayaks, with a double or two in the mix. In addition there were some Sound Rowers folks. It made an interesting contrast as the SR folks were mostly in their late 40's or older and paddled craft that would be at home in rough water.


We lined up for the start and awaited the signal. With the blare of an air horn we were off!



This was a strange race for me. For the first several hundred yards I was keeping up with the race leaders, two teenage boys in a pair of K1 kayaks. The rest of the field was trailing behind, slowly stretching backward. Ok, I was pedaling close to my limits, but my legs seemed to have a lot of strength upon which to draw. Perhaps the new thrust bearing was helping out, too, by reducing the friction at high thrust.

Slowly the leaders pulled ahead, increasing the gap by 40 or 50 feet. I was starting to get pretty warm when suddenly the cuff of my pants got caught in the chain. Rats! The chain tore off part of the material, too.

I extricated the pants and continued pedaling while some of the closer racers passed by. I decided I had better take off the pants before I overheated and/or they got caught again.


Unfortunately they did not fit over my bike shoes very well. I spent a couple of minutes pulling them over my shoes before finally they came off. This put me behind the middle of the pack before I got back up to speed. Oh, well. Perhaps I could catch up a bit as the race progressed.

The first turn buoy came up and I stayed behind a paddler, remembering how their coach said that if a competitor's bow was behind their cockpit at the turn that they should cut them off. These racers were fierce!

At the second buoy, however, I made sure to be slightly ahead of the paddler so there would be no question!


I managed to catch up to a double kayak and a single which were more or less traveling together down the last leg to the finish. My strength was ebbing, however, as we were now traveling with the wind and I was getting quite toasty. Try as I might I was unable to pass and stay ahead.

The distance for the race was listed as about 3.5 miles. Somehow I forgot this and thought it was going to be closer to 6 miles. So, when the finish approached I was both happy and disappointed. I was happy to be done with the race and disappointed that I didn't plan my efforts better.

So, in order to feel better about it I decided to show off and do some post-race sprints while the remainder of the field finished. According the GPS I managed to get to around 10 mph for a distance of about 100 meters or so. A couple of those were enough for me!


After the race the parents of the kids had a nice spread laid out with the makings of sandwiches, fruit, etc., which nicely complemented the hot cider and homemade cookies that Steve Bennett and Terrie brought.

Thanks for a great race!

Photos can be found here.