Today my fear and anxiety is overwhelming. Yesterday was hard but today seems unimaginable. 8 hours of paddling with the ominous BIG FALLS rapids at hour 6. I have never run a true rapid or fall so I'm a bit nervous. Luckily we did not drive to view it as some have suggested because all I would do is dwell on the big boulder looming in the middle of the river.
It is dark when we set up our canoes. We use headlamps to duck tape our food and water to the boat. We did not huli the day before but with Big Falls ahead everything has to be secure. The river is even tighter at the start line today. Our start is horrible as we struggle for 45 minutes to get out of everybody's way. We manage to stay upright but our competition has left us in their wake.
Amazingly I feel good. As Laurel and Jacinta say, 8 hours is no different than 6 hours. I take their advice with a grain of salt because I am convinced at this point that they are not human. They had "fun" the day before and were all smiles at the start. I "survived" the day before and had the fear of God in me at the start. Funny thing though... and I know paddlers can relate to this...once you are in the boat you forget about everything. You forget how much your butt hurts, how many blisters you have, how much you hate gels and goos.... Everything is in that moment and in that stroke. So.. they are right. Your body figures it out and it knows what to do. You get in the ZONE. So for five and a half hours I hear "It's you and me Marleny" "We can do this" "We're halfway there" "It's just like Saturday practice with Art". Which is right but I did the calculations in my head and I came to the conclusion that this adventure is one month's worth of Art's practices in 4 days - with the same intensity as race day.
With the small rapids mostly behind us we use the flat water to our advantage. We are outrigger paddlers so we have a comparably longer smoother stroke than the Belizians. Neither technique is better or worse, they are just different. We start knocking boats off one after the other. Everybody that crowded us at the start is our next target. We determined early on the majority of the men's crews aren't too happy when they get "girlied" up. Some are nice and let us pass, some challenge and make us fight for our position. As soon as we pass we get back on our glide and focus on the next canoe.
Marathon canoe paddling is a lot of strategy. We were about 2.5 minutes behind the Belizians after the first day. We pass 2 checkpoints already and each time the Belizians are ahead of us. Andre yells out the time difference between us and the Belizians and we know we are gaining - 40 seconds was the last count - right around the corner. Somewhere between checkpoint 2 and 3 we catch up to the girls. They do not want us to pass. They challenge us for about 20 minutes and then we win. We get back in our groove and paddle to shave off some time. We have 2.5 minutes to make up. About two and a half ours later we are feeling pretty good. We have caught, challenged and passed about 7 boats (all men). Knowing that we have our last safety check soon Laurel makes the mistake of saying out loud "won't the crowd be surprised when they see a new women's leader". Not 20 minutes later the river Gods humble us as we hit a submerged log and huli.
All the canoes we challenged for the last 4 hours pass us in a matter of minutes. There is no beach, no shallow area, just mud and roots. I am not sure what to do as it is very different than outrigger paddling. We have to swim the boat to the "shore" turn the canoe downriver and figure out how to get in the canoe with no ground below us. Fortunately the safety boat is not too far behind and they help us out (but not before dunking us one more time). We watch as the Belizian women fly by us. I am frustrated, mad, and determined to get our position back. Two and a half hours to go... we can make up the time if we paddle our butts off.
It turns out that the huli is a blessing in disguise. We cool off, regroup and are determined to regain the lead. In fact we manage to take the lead even before the 3rd check station - and yes our support crew is excited to see us in first place.
The next challenge.. BIG FALLS.
First off, Laurel is my HERO. As we approach the rapids (with crowds on the banks of the river to watch the carnage) Laurel says "look at the boulder". There is a HUGE rock in the middle of the river that I am supposed stare at. For the last 12 hours all everybody has been telling me is "look where you want to go, not want you are going to hit". Now Laurel is telling me to look straight at this gigantic, face breaking rock - she will do the rest. I can't close my eyes so I breathe in deep and paddle. Jacinta, as always, reminds me to "stay loose and paddle hard". We head straight for the rock.. I look forward and paddle as hard as I can. Big Falls is not one fall but a series of 3 rapids. Going through rapids is like doing an all out sprint start with water tossing you around everywhere. My breathing resembles a woman in labor and my heart is pounding. All I can do is listen to Laurel and do whatever she asks me to do. A few minutes later Big Falls is history. We slow the pace down to take a water break and catch our breath. Smooth sailing ahead as we paddle for time. We end our epic day almost 6 minutes ahead of our competition despite the swim in the river. The longest day is done and we survived. 2 more days to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment