Lake Whatcom Classic

This race was moved from a starting date earlier in the year to one later in the year in order to take advantage of the typically better weather. Unfortunately, however, the weather gods decided that it would be rather nice and sunny on what would have been the original race date and cold, windy and wet on the actual date.

As I'm writing this nearly two months later my memory is a little sketchy and this report will be limited to those few moments of lucidity remaining.



There were quite a few people at the race, though fewer than last year due to the weather. As luck would have it the rain held off during the the registration and pre-race meeting, so people were only chilled by the wind off the lake. I was wearing several layers of warm clothing and had no problems, though deciding what to leave behind when getting into the boat was a question. Should I be cold now and warm up in the race, or be warm at the start and have to make clothing changes and have to stow the clothes?

I decided to be a little colder at the start.

The launch and warmup was a bit of mayhem, as usual, with a little sprinkle from above thrown in for good measure. I pedaled about trying to get photos of all the racers without running into them or getting into other people's way. The sprinkle, light chop at the start and the wind made this a little interesting in trying to keep the camera lens clear.



The signals to line up and then to start were given. I was closer to the north end of the line by the rowers and some surf skis. The rowers soon left me in their wake.





I pedaled for quite some time alongside Heather, the wife of Brandon Nelson. The previous week Brandon had set a new world 24 hour flat water paddling distance record - nearly 146 miles! This was done as part of an attempt to raise money for hospice care in honor of his recently deceased mother.



I left them to go after two friends of mine on a beat up OC-2, Vern and Steve. They were paddling closer to shore, probably trying to get somewhat out of the wind to the calmer water.

We exchanged greetings and continued towards the island turn around point.


About a quarter mile before the island I saw the first racers coming around the island. It was time to abandon the standard route and go around the island in the reverse direction to take photos of the other competitors.




While I had been feeling fairly strong pedaling to the island, I was starting to feel a bit worn out as I made my way around it. Perhaps it was the change of pace, stopping to concentrate on taking shots and wiping off the lens (maybe that is why some of the photos are smeared!), or perhaps it was because my energy reserves were becoming depleted, I was getting tired. It might have been the consumption of a packet of concentrated energy goo that was giving me a sugar low, too, though I would have thought it would have energized me instead. Oh, well.


Upon reaching the other side of the island and heading back to the start I was not surprised to find that Heather had managed to put some distance between us. No matter; I was content to try to keep up with Rocky and his paddling partner on their OC-2.



It was pretty toasty now that we were traveling with the wind. After removing a jacket I caught back up with them and ended up following the OC-2 most of the way to the finish line.


On the way we caught and passed the guy who had been tagging along with Heather on the outbound leg. He looked completely exhausted, with his arms barely going through the motion of paddling. Gotta pace yourself, guy!



I tried to pass the OC-2 but quickly dropped back behind. My energy reserves were not deep enough to make a long sprint for the finish.

As luck would have it, about 100 yards from the finish I started pedling faster, heading off on a somewhat different tack than the OC-2. For some reason they decided to head at an angle that would take longer to reach the finish line. For some other reason they then decided to stop paddling. I guess they thought they had crossed the line!

In the midst of their confusion I kept on pedaling and crossed the line in 31st place overall with a time of 2:00:53 for some 12.8 miles. Hurray! Thanks, Rocky!




Due to some confusion on the part of the race director there were no ribbons to award the finishers. People milled about, munching the goodies, and talked about the race to each other. After a while I loaded up the car and headed home. What a day!

More photos can be found here.