Hold it together...

We eat our last meal of the race together at the Black Orchid Hotel in Burrell Boom. We try to eat something other than chicken, beans and rice (that has been our diet for a week). We have a great final dinner recapping the days events and strategizing about the last run. Basically we have a 15-18 minute lead on the Belizians so our plan is to stay out of the way of other canoes and not huli. 

We are joined by the Belizian women's crew and have a fun time talking about everything paddling - racing, training, events... We learn that they are part of a paddling legacy. Their whole family paddles. There are 8 kids in the family and most of their cousins and relatives are elite paddlers as well. Their brother is winning the men's division and their cousins are also in the top crews. The girls have not paddled outside Belize so Laurel starts to talk to them about other races in the U.S. and Canada. Apparently La Ruta Maya is the 3rd longest marathon canoe race. The longest is the Yukon River Race and the second is one in Texas. Both are pretty much straight shots.. no stops (except a 7 hours rest on the yukon). The Texas race is about 270 miles without stop -  that means no sleep!!! The more I hear about these races the more horrified I am that Laurel thinks this is "fun". I have never met anybody that loves anything as much as Laurel loves paddling. She has done the Yukon river race in 50 something hours. Now she is trying to recruit the Belizian women for the Texas River Run. And to my surprise they are game! I can't believe it! The thought of paddling 270 miles sounds FUN to them. In fact they begin to tell us that they have paddled the entire length of La Ruta Maya (170 miles) in one straight shot. I start thinking about crocodiles, tree stumps, rapids - in the dark... They are crazy! Then they begin to tell us that last week they did the last leg of the race and saw 7 crocodiles.... this is exactly the leg we are doing the next day.  Anyway, we leave the dinner certain that we (at least Laurel) will paddle with them again some day. I have an even more profound respect for the Belizian women and marathon paddlers in general. There is a whole lotta crazy going on... 

After dinner... and I mean right after dinner, Laurel decides she does not like what she ate and reintroduces to the world. She apparently does this all night and morning in preparation for the last day.. I too and still tossing my cookies and we both agree that we may have drunk to much river water on our huli 2 days earlier. 

Dehydrated and ill we get ready to paddle the next 3.5 hours. Laurel is truly suffering. Jacinta "the rock" Sheridan is holding everything together for us. The game plan is stay upright, paddle smooth and maintain our lead....oh and watch for those crocs!