Do-over time, finally

I'm just going to forget that I've already done a triathlon this season.

Time for my first triathlon of the season! It's a double. I'm always eager to give myself plenty of excuses for pathetic races before the race actually takes place, so I've again signed up for the Memphis in May Amateur Challenge. That means my pre-race brick is actually going to be timed on a marked course. Therefore I have to do a pre-pre-race brick the day before, Friday. Three bricks in a row for the weekend!

Unlike most years in the past, I didn't give myself the Gulf Coast excuse. I need a break every now and then from that run course that I've done 17 laps of. The math: 5 IMFLs (2 laps each) + 7 GCTs = 17! And that's a 6.5 mile lap we're talking about. Gets a liiitle old.

I guess I do need to update this blog with a race report. Just over a week ago was the Outdoors Inc Canoe and Kayak Race, of which I took part for my debut canoe race. My big boss and I had a big challenge with a local sportswriter and his 11 year old son. When I saw the son, who was much smaller than I am, I breathed a sigh of relief, because I was SURE we would outpaddle the pair. We had a strategy in place that we'd discussed beforehand, and we set ourselves up to our advantage: near the inside of the turn from the Wolf River to the Mississippi. After 45 minutes of sitting in the pouring rain at the mouth of the Wolf, our race began and we paddled furiously off the starting line. Around the turn, into the current we went, and I kept looking over my shoulder to see if we'd lost them. Nowhere in sight, I took it a little easier. Ahead of us, a rowdy crew had capsized and the Coast Guard boat cut directly in front of us, stalling us for a few seconds and creating a huge wake to overcome. The next thing I knew, our competitors were drafting a few yards off the back of our boat! They had huge grins across their faces, knowing they had stealthily attacked during the mayhem. At that point I went back to just below redline, knowing we had more than half the race yet to go. We stayed in our respective positions for the remainder of the paddle under the I-40 bridge and to the end of Mud Island, where we were to turn upstream and paddle into the harbor several hundred yards for the finish. The competitors took the outside and tried to go around us at the turn, but out of nowhere it seemed, a boat came perpendicular to the rest of the field. We collided with it briefly, but had enough momentum to maneuver around it. The competitors were not quite as lucky as we had been and got slowed down significantly when they broadsided the boat. We pulled ahead with 100 yards to go. The elder competitor was breathing and grunting heavily, which helped me keep tabs on their location. The last few yards were an all out max effort for me, and I assume my partner too, and we secured our win by approximately 2 boat lengths. Success! Strangely I haven't heard any mention of the event from that particular sportswriter since the pre-race heckling on his radio show. Next year, when the son is a larger 12-year-old, the big boss may need to recruit a more experienced paddler than myself, or maybe I need to start working on this sport in my spare time. I was sore for days, although I heard the boss claim to not feel too much soreness himself. Of course, he was in the back of the boat out of my sight. Maybe I should take on a new sport, especially now that the river is encroaching upon my run path again: