I had a go at our club summer sprint series last week, 500mtr and 200mtr, we had the 500mtr down what we call the channel which has the concrete sides and notorious for the waves bouncing around as if in a bath tub, what can i say, what an experience, Ive never been the quickest of the line but most of the races were against guys a lot faster and 4 abreast I was finding within 10ft i was firmly in their wash and struggling just to keep upright together with the wash bouncing straight back of the walls it was a wild rodeo, the boats nose was buffeted from side to side and a pain to keep straight, the first 50 mtrs were just a hang on before i could get the paddles working, managed a 2.36, ive done a 2.22 in calmer conditions,
the 200mtr races followed the same format and was a struggle, dont think im ever gona make a decent sprinter as I do very much prefer the longer distances, but all good experience and I stayed in the boat.
Thought that was the end of the racing for the day but Mo put me and John together for the K2 distance race, haven't done much K2 work and me and John had only done a short trip together in the winter, but this time is was going to be 5 min's practice then full on sprints for 2x 200mtrs before the distance one, took a few minutes before we could get our paddle speed to match, had a couple of good runs actually and fairly good on paddle timing, there were no official timings so a little hard to judge how we did against the faster crews, we used the old bath tub "Condor" as it was our safest bet to stay dry, all be it its like being in a washing machine sitting on the back.
We set of in the second group for the distance race, most of the younger ones were in our group and the faster ones were in the first group, the first corner was fun trying to get the tub round quick, think we pushed one crew out wide, no problem getting out front, paddle timing was good and the old bus was picking its skirt up, could see we were closing ground on the group ahead,
We had a really good race, stability was not a problem in this boat and allowed for the first time to really get some power down, we did finish fairly high up and had beaten some of the faster crews, not bad in a tub and our first ever race together
the 200mtr races followed the same format and was a struggle, dont think im ever gona make a decent sprinter as I do very much prefer the longer distances, but all good experience and I stayed in the boat.
Thought that was the end of the racing for the day but Mo put me and John together for the K2 distance race, haven't done much K2 work and me and John had only done a short trip together in the winter, but this time is was going to be 5 min's practice then full on sprints for 2x 200mtrs before the distance one, took a few minutes before we could get our paddle speed to match, had a couple of good runs actually and fairly good on paddle timing, there were no official timings so a little hard to judge how we did against the faster crews, we used the old bath tub "Condor" as it was our safest bet to stay dry, all be it its like being in a washing machine sitting on the back.
We set of in the second group for the distance race, most of the younger ones were in our group and the faster ones were in the first group, the first corner was fun trying to get the tub round quick, think we pushed one crew out wide, no problem getting out front, paddle timing was good and the old bus was picking its skirt up, could see we were closing ground on the group ahead,
We had a really good race, stability was not a problem in this boat and allowed for the first time to really get some power down, we did finish fairly high up and had beaten some of the faster crews, not bad in a tub and our first ever race together
Next Hasler race this Sunday at Norwich, not sure what Im up against for this race, The Bedford race results were really mucked up and my previous promotion to Div 5 has now been reduced to Div 6, not bothered really as its still the longer distance race which I prefer, and this race I dont have to wear a\ life jacket as the other Divisions were mandatory, I so hate wearing them whilst racing, think ill have 2 portages, ive got a faster boat to use and hopefully my non smoking may give something back to me,
see you soon
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