Saturday, May 3 was the Drought Edition of the Great Russian River Race. We drove to Healdsburg and took a bus to private property five miles upriver. We parked our boat next to the Flamingo Team. Other contenders were Marmot Activewear, Murphy-Goode Winery and Camelbak. Categories were ment’s singles, women’s singles, women’s doubles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles.
We knew before the boats were in the water who the winners would be. There was a light Kevlar boat with aluminum fittings, and a really fast looking racing boat with a red top.
I was right. The Kevlar boat was on the shore and dry when we arrived. A frustrated and upset-looking Coast Guard guy came over, saw the water in our boat and asked to do a Safety Check of our boat. “The race is over,” I commented. “Checking it now would be a sequencing error,” but Howard said explained that the water was from when we went over… the boat didn’t leak. The Coast Guard guy was in a snit because the Race leaders blocked him from playing Safety Nazi beforehand… the race start was on private property. Howard signed the Safety Report and got a “if found please return” label for the boat. We dragged our heavy tandem boat up a steep hill with the help of a kind teenager.
The red-topped boat was in the parking lot already and the man, Tim Styles, was showering from a sprayer marked “insecticide.” What an ironman! Then I found out he only fills it with water and that he and his wife Nancy had run the race in just 50 minutes. It took us 12 minutes longer, in part because we went over in one of the three really gnarly spots that were cluttered with overturned boats. Our time was better than half the men racing in fast solo boats!
Great fun. Next time, I will rent a boat so that I don’t have to drag the tandem up that hill!
We came in fifth!
Ha! I recognize that spot! I think we went canoeing there once, and all canoes capsized.
Another time I went with Andie and girlfriends on the RR and I asked the blonde to pass me a beer. “Put it in the cozie first,” I asked. So she did, then passed it gingerly saying, “Keep your finger on the hole at the bottom here.”
No lie. She had poured it inside the styrofoam.
Byee
MR
That’s funny — such a helpful blonde! You are right, the corner where we dumped came up very fast after launch and it was littered with overturned boats. Which was one reason that sharp bend in the river was so hard to navigate successfully. But the river was shallow due to the drought, so we stood up where we fell, dragged the boat to shore, turned it over to drain the water, placed it back in the water and hopped in, all in a twinkle. There were 23 mixed doubles, so coming in fifth was pretty amazing. We paddled harrrrd!