For race results this link downloads a nice excel spreadsheet.

My race roundup: Nice day, I did not fall in, the beer was cold and the hot dog was tasty. The band did a nice job on some Fleetwood Mac covers a la Stevie Nicks. I finished in 1 hour 18 minutes 37 seconds. John Karoff who won my division finished in 58 minutes 29 seconds. If I had twin 150 Evinrudes maybe I could cut 20 minutes off my time. I happened to be chatting with John as we waited for the start since he had the same boat as me and I mentioned something about wishing I had gone kayaking at least once this spring before today. He said he had gone once, to something on the Charles River, a 19 mile race with many half mile portages. Meaning he had to pick up his boat and run to avoid dams and waterfalls. It was then I knew that although he seemed quite pleasant he was a mad man and was not surprised he took first place.

Other crazy people. Will Rich of Bayview and SUP The Coast fame (as in he paddled standing up all the way from Key West to Maine) finished first on a SUP board. It looks like there is a motor under his board, his time 1 hour, 2 minutes, 32 seconds. Crazy.

A James Tarantino of Gloucester rowed a banks dory to a time of 1 hour 24 minutes 6 seconds. A banks dory is about as opposite as you can get from most craft in this race. No carbon fiber, kevlar, teflon composite. A banks dory is made from large trees and  300 pounds of cod in the stern would not slow them up by much. The cod may add a minute or two to Jimmy T’s time.  That would be a good addition to the race. Then we could have a nice fish chowder at the finish.

OK, so who did the course the fastest? Borys Markin was sitting on something called a HPK single, or High Performance Kayak. These are long, thin, razor blade shaped, space age fiber crafts that I think if I sat in one I would be in the drink within a minute. Borys finished the race course in 42 minutes 41 seconds.  This is one of the reasons why I attend these races. These faster craft start the race after my division. So during the first 30 minutes of the race, packs of fast boats scream by one after another. As they do I try to imitate in some small way the technique they are using to paddle.  But not entirely. If I kept their cadence up I would blow a seal in less than a minute, but still instructive.

On to the Blackburn Challenge, just 55 days to go. Saturday July 14.

I would be negligent if I did not add that the Cape Ann Rowing Club did another amazing job with the Essex River Race. They make it fun for the normal as well as the athletically off their rocker types. Everyone who paddles in either the Essex or the Blackburn have come to expect a smooth race with nary a hitch and CARC keeps pulling it off.

If you go to the Blackburn Challenge website there will be photos posted over the next week or so. I don’t have anymore photos so I will just post a gratuitous photo of Homie biting Rubber Duck’s butt. (Homie doesn’t want her to race anymore.)