Pi-r2 Race (Lake Sammamish)
The morning of the Pi-r2 (pi r squared, or Pizza & Issaquah to Redmond Row) race dawned with a mostly blue sky, temperatures in the upper 30's and only a whisper of a breeze on the lake. This was a welcome change from the previous afternoon when Mohsen and I were out on the lake placing buoys. The sky had turned nearly black with thick, billowy clouds, bouts of sleet and hail were falling on us, lightning bolts were striking the hills around us and the wind was constantly pushing off the positions where we were trying to anchor the turn buoys.
There was but one other car in the parking lot of Lake Sammamish State Park when we arrived with all the stuff for the race. With the help of my wife we began carting things over to the beach, hauling chairs, tables, food, drink, stoves, coats, awards and paperwork. Paul arrived shortly with more stuff, including thermoses of hot water, tables and other stuff, and hurried off to place the signs pointing to the event.
Martine and Vadim, directors-in-training for their own event - the Manchester race - appeared soon afterwards. With their help the shelter was erected near the restrooms, the Sound Rowers banner was lashed to the legs of the shelter, the tables set up - and we were in business!
Martine and Terrie took over the registration tasks, collecting money for the race and parking, and handing out boat numbers in exchange for completed registration forms. I made sure that they knew to give the smaller numbers to the short course racers and the large numbers to the long course racers. This would make race timing much simpler later on.
I went off, completed organizing the food and equipment, and getting my Cadence and the club's digital camera set up for use by Jeff. He was trying out the Cadence for the first time and volunteered to take the on-the-water action photos, too.
The final arrangements were made with the safety boats, including sending one off to place the final marker on the course prior to the start of the race. The lack of a temporary dock crimped our plans for easing the task of transferring people and equipment to the safety boats, but with the assistance of the folks dressed in dry suits from the Kayak Academy no one got their feet wet. I might just have to get me one of those suits!
Last year we tried a combination of FRS walkie talkies, VHF's and cell phones. That did not work very well. This year I made certain to have enough VHF radios for all of the safety boats as well as myself. The marine VHF radios worked quite well. We could almost reach the 6+ mile length of the lake. However, the occasional announcements by the Coast Guard about accidents way over on Puget Sound near Tacoma or Whidbey Island were something of a distraction!
Things were running late. The pre-race meeting, which was supposed to be held at 9:15 AM instead started at 9:40. That pushed the official start to 10:15, though by the time 10:15 rolled around I decided to delay it until 10:20 so a few tardy rowers and kayakers could make it to the starting line. Ok, so the final 1 minute warning was really a 4 minute warning. At least everyone had made it to the starting line!
Finally, at 10:20 AM with two watches synchronized, the starting signal was given! They were off!
Almost immediately the folks there for the short race came up to see if that race would be delayed 20 minutes, too. I apologized and told them that yes, it had to be since otherwise they would be done relatively early and eat all the pizza.
Some of them said that would be a good thing and were all for it.
I demurred.
The pre-race meeting for the short course was held about 10:30. I went through the same spiel about the course, the buoys, avoiding the sunken forest and the locations of the start and finish lines. As with the long group I made sure that people knew they should provide assistance to other racers if they were in trouble, and that time spent helping would be credited to them. People were reminded to make their choices for pizza known so that we would order enough of the proper varieties.
After the pre-race meeting the order for pizza was placed. This year Costco requested an hour or more notice for an order of 18 pizzas. Last year they claimed they would have as many as we wanted within 20 minutes of ordering. I guess they really do have limits as to the capacity of their ovens.
I was somewhat surprised to see Jeff return with the Cadence. Apparently he had fallen behind the boats in the long race and decided it would be better to return to the start and take shots of the short race. That was fine with me.
Finally, at exactly 11:20 AM the signal was given for the short course to start. They were off!
Shortly after the start an overturned double kayak was noticed in the water. I radioed the nearby safety boat with Mohsen and Bob and they went over to assist.
It took a while for them to return to shore with the former occupants of the kayak. The two women at first thought about continuing on with the race, then decided they were too far behind.
I handed them a stack of towels and suggested that they might use the changing rooms to get into dry clothing.
At 11:45 I asked Kathy, who was helping at the registration area, and Terrie to pick up the pizzas and a lunch for me (I can't eat pizza) and off they went, dragging a lightweight cart with them. After they returned they told me about the difficulties created by sending two vegetarians off to select and procure meat-bearing food for the race director. Sorry about that!
Back at the beach I joined Paul and Martine. They were prepared to record the boat numbers and their times on clip boards. I set up to transcribe the results to the foam core "race results" boards, one for the long course and the other for the short course.
Paul asked whether we were going to use the brass bell or the air horn. Reluctantly I chose the air horn, as the finish line was somewhat distant from the shore and it was unlikely that the racers would be able to reliably hear the bell. Next year I think I'll try to remember to take along some hearing protection!
One by one the racers crossed the finish line. Well, most of them crossed the official finish line, anyway. Quite a few people forgot where the finish was and stopped their efforts somewhat short of that point. If this was the case then we gave them credit when they got in the general vicinity of that point. It really didn't matter in most situations as there was a gap of at least several seconds between most racers. When there was a photo finish the one ahead was given a time slightly shorter than the following racer.
At times the stream of racers was heavy enough that the last few digits of their times were all that could be recorded in sequence, and we had to go back and record the boat numbers to go along with them. With Paul doing the spotting and Martine doing the recording the situation was well under control. They did a great job!
In the middle of this I did my best to transcribe the data to the boards, subtracting an hour for the short course finishers, transferring the names, boat class and time on the finishing side of the board. I also placed a sticker on the registration side of the board for each finisher to indicate that boat was now off the course. This helped to keep track of how many boats were still racing and who they were.
Terrie came over and handed me a box containing a tasty looking hot lunch. She said that the racers were wondering if they could eat now that the pizza had arrived. Somewhat taken aback I told her "Sure - go ahead!". I was surprised that they had not already dived in!
Unfortunately for me I had to put my lunch away in order to complete transcribing the results.
When we were down to three boats remaining on the course I went back to the registration area to complete filling out the results boards and marking the first three finishes for each class.
People were rapidly consuming pizza, juice and water. The M&M's were mostly depleted as were the Aussie and brownie bites. The hot water dispensers were empty, so Kathy and I started heating up more hot water on a little gas stove (an Optimus 8R) I took along just for that purpose. At this time it didn't make sense to set up the triple burner Coleman stove!
Finally the last boats crossed the finish line.
I started the awards ceremony, handing out the short course awards first. Don Kiesling and Peter Turcan won first place overall in their K2 kayak with a time of 43 minutes, 38 seconds - a new course record! In second place and a second later were Guy Lawrence and Juraj Osusky in their K2. Way to go!
Third place overall was a mixed 8 rowing shell from the Sammamish Rowing Association with a time of 46:56.5. A split second later was the single rowing shell piloted by Tony Andrews.
The last two boats overall in the 6 mile short course were the Cadence pedaled by Jeff Wond and the Olympic style canoe paddled by Yevgeniy Mikhaylov, a junior racer with the Cascade Canoe & Kayak Center. Their times were 1:06:58 and 1:08:00, respectively. This was an excellent achievement for both. Jeff had never been in a Cadence before and he was taking photos with a camera with which he was completely unfamiliar. In Yevgeniy's case it is hard enough to keep one's balance in that style of boat in calm water, let alone the situation on the lake where the wind had grown into a fairly strong breeze and created a bit of chop!
The overall winner of the long course was Robert Meenk in his lightweight rowing shell. His time was 1:36:30 and a new course record! Second overall was a women's triple rowed by Sue Dandridge, Susan Kinne and Joan Linse with a time of 1:37:20. Following were a number of double rowing shells, a mixed 4 man shell and the high performance kayaks, a.k.a. surf skis.
The final boats in the long course were a rowing shell piloted by Zeke Hoskin and a sea kayak piloted by Vadim Kin. Their times were 2:37:55 and 2:58:10, respectively. This was Vadim's second time on this course and he improved over last year's time by nearly 24 minutes! Way to go, Vadim!
With a chilly wind blowing through the park off the lake people didn't want to stay around for the planned 100 meter sprints, the 2 kilometer criterium or the Le Mans start races. In fact, some folks left shortly after receiving their ribbons. I can't say that I blame them, either!
Still, many of those that did helped to tear things down and carry them back to the parking lot. Thank you!
I wish to personally thank Martine, Vadim, Paul, Kathy, Terrie, Jeff, Mohsen, Joe, George, Paul, Tammi, Bob, the Sammamish Rowing Association and everyone else who helped out to make this year's Pi-r2 event a success!
Jeff's photos can be found at the Sound Rowers web site.
There was but one other car in the parking lot of Lake Sammamish State Park when we arrived with all the stuff for the race. With the help of my wife we began carting things over to the beach, hauling chairs, tables, food, drink, stoves, coats, awards and paperwork. Paul arrived shortly with more stuff, including thermoses of hot water, tables and other stuff, and hurried off to place the signs pointing to the event.
Martine and Vadim, directors-in-training for their own event - the Manchester race - appeared soon afterwards. With their help the shelter was erected near the restrooms, the Sound Rowers banner was lashed to the legs of the shelter, the tables set up - and we were in business!
Martine and Terrie took over the registration tasks, collecting money for the race and parking, and handing out boat numbers in exchange for completed registration forms. I made sure that they knew to give the smaller numbers to the short course racers and the large numbers to the long course racers. This would make race timing much simpler later on.
I went off, completed organizing the food and equipment, and getting my Cadence and the club's digital camera set up for use by Jeff. He was trying out the Cadence for the first time and volunteered to take the on-the-water action photos, too.
The final arrangements were made with the safety boats, including sending one off to place the final marker on the course prior to the start of the race. The lack of a temporary dock crimped our plans for easing the task of transferring people and equipment to the safety boats, but with the assistance of the folks dressed in dry suits from the Kayak Academy no one got their feet wet. I might just have to get me one of those suits!
Last year we tried a combination of FRS walkie talkies, VHF's and cell phones. That did not work very well. This year I made certain to have enough VHF radios for all of the safety boats as well as myself. The marine VHF radios worked quite well. We could almost reach the 6+ mile length of the lake. However, the occasional announcements by the Coast Guard about accidents way over on Puget Sound near Tacoma or Whidbey Island were something of a distraction!
Things were running late. The pre-race meeting, which was supposed to be held at 9:15 AM instead started at 9:40. That pushed the official start to 10:15, though by the time 10:15 rolled around I decided to delay it until 10:20 so a few tardy rowers and kayakers could make it to the starting line. Ok, so the final 1 minute warning was really a 4 minute warning. At least everyone had made it to the starting line!
Finally, at 10:20 AM with two watches synchronized, the starting signal was given! They were off!
Almost immediately the folks there for the short race came up to see if that race would be delayed 20 minutes, too. I apologized and told them that yes, it had to be since otherwise they would be done relatively early and eat all the pizza.
Some of them said that would be a good thing and were all for it.
I demurred.
The pre-race meeting for the short course was held about 10:30. I went through the same spiel about the course, the buoys, avoiding the sunken forest and the locations of the start and finish lines. As with the long group I made sure that people knew they should provide assistance to other racers if they were in trouble, and that time spent helping would be credited to them. People were reminded to make their choices for pizza known so that we would order enough of the proper varieties.
After the pre-race meeting the order for pizza was placed. This year Costco requested an hour or more notice for an order of 18 pizzas. Last year they claimed they would have as many as we wanted within 20 minutes of ordering. I guess they really do have limits as to the capacity of their ovens.
I was somewhat surprised to see Jeff return with the Cadence. Apparently he had fallen behind the boats in the long race and decided it would be better to return to the start and take shots of the short race. That was fine with me.
Finally, at exactly 11:20 AM the signal was given for the short course to start. They were off!
Shortly after the start an overturned double kayak was noticed in the water. I radioed the nearby safety boat with Mohsen and Bob and they went over to assist.
It took a while for them to return to shore with the former occupants of the kayak. The two women at first thought about continuing on with the race, then decided they were too far behind.
I handed them a stack of towels and suggested that they might use the changing rooms to get into dry clothing.
At 11:45 I asked Kathy, who was helping at the registration area, and Terrie to pick up the pizzas and a lunch for me (I can't eat pizza) and off they went, dragging a lightweight cart with them. After they returned they told me about the difficulties created by sending two vegetarians off to select and procure meat-bearing food for the race director. Sorry about that!
Back at the beach I joined Paul and Martine. They were prepared to record the boat numbers and their times on clip boards. I set up to transcribe the results to the foam core "race results" boards, one for the long course and the other for the short course.
Paul asked whether we were going to use the brass bell or the air horn. Reluctantly I chose the air horn, as the finish line was somewhat distant from the shore and it was unlikely that the racers would be able to reliably hear the bell. Next year I think I'll try to remember to take along some hearing protection!
One by one the racers crossed the finish line. Well, most of them crossed the official finish line, anyway. Quite a few people forgot where the finish was and stopped their efforts somewhat short of that point. If this was the case then we gave them credit when they got in the general vicinity of that point. It really didn't matter in most situations as there was a gap of at least several seconds between most racers. When there was a photo finish the one ahead was given a time slightly shorter than the following racer.
At times the stream of racers was heavy enough that the last few digits of their times were all that could be recorded in sequence, and we had to go back and record the boat numbers to go along with them. With Paul doing the spotting and Martine doing the recording the situation was well under control. They did a great job!
In the middle of this I did my best to transcribe the data to the boards, subtracting an hour for the short course finishers, transferring the names, boat class and time on the finishing side of the board. I also placed a sticker on the registration side of the board for each finisher to indicate that boat was now off the course. This helped to keep track of how many boats were still racing and who they were.
Terrie came over and handed me a box containing a tasty looking hot lunch. She said that the racers were wondering if they could eat now that the pizza had arrived. Somewhat taken aback I told her "Sure - go ahead!". I was surprised that they had not already dived in!
Unfortunately for me I had to put my lunch away in order to complete transcribing the results.
When we were down to three boats remaining on the course I went back to the registration area to complete filling out the results boards and marking the first three finishes for each class.
People were rapidly consuming pizza, juice and water. The M&M's were mostly depleted as were the Aussie and brownie bites. The hot water dispensers were empty, so Kathy and I started heating up more hot water on a little gas stove (an Optimus 8R) I took along just for that purpose. At this time it didn't make sense to set up the triple burner Coleman stove!
Finally the last boats crossed the finish line.
I started the awards ceremony, handing out the short course awards first. Don Kiesling and Peter Turcan won first place overall in their K2 kayak with a time of 43 minutes, 38 seconds - a new course record! In second place and a second later were Guy Lawrence and Juraj Osusky in their K2. Way to go!
Third place overall was a mixed 8 rowing shell from the Sammamish Rowing Association with a time of 46:56.5. A split second later was the single rowing shell piloted by Tony Andrews.
The last two boats overall in the 6 mile short course were the Cadence pedaled by Jeff Wond and the Olympic style canoe paddled by Yevgeniy Mikhaylov, a junior racer with the Cascade Canoe & Kayak Center. Their times were 1:06:58 and 1:08:00, respectively. This was an excellent achievement for both. Jeff had never been in a Cadence before and he was taking photos with a camera with which he was completely unfamiliar. In Yevgeniy's case it is hard enough to keep one's balance in that style of boat in calm water, let alone the situation on the lake where the wind had grown into a fairly strong breeze and created a bit of chop!
The overall winner of the long course was Robert Meenk in his lightweight rowing shell. His time was 1:36:30 and a new course record! Second overall was a women's triple rowed by Sue Dandridge, Susan Kinne and Joan Linse with a time of 1:37:20. Following were a number of double rowing shells, a mixed 4 man shell and the high performance kayaks, a.k.a. surf skis.
The final boats in the long course were a rowing shell piloted by Zeke Hoskin and a sea kayak piloted by Vadim Kin. Their times were 2:37:55 and 2:58:10, respectively. This was Vadim's second time on this course and he improved over last year's time by nearly 24 minutes! Way to go, Vadim!
With a chilly wind blowing through the park off the lake people didn't want to stay around for the planned 100 meter sprints, the 2 kilometer criterium or the Le Mans start races. In fact, some folks left shortly after receiving their ribbons. I can't say that I blame them, either!
Still, many of those that did helped to tear things down and carry them back to the parking lot. Thank you!
I wish to personally thank Martine, Vadim, Paul, Kathy, Terrie, Jeff, Mohsen, Joe, George, Paul, Tammi, Bob, the Sammamish Rowing Association and everyone else who helped out to make this year's Pi-r2 event a success!
Jeff's photos can be found at the Sound Rowers web site.
posted by Michael Lampi @ 9:07 PM
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