Surfski Knowledge Base

Reivers Classic Crash
Reivers Dustin
05/05/12 #12458

Not my best performance. I had a system shut-down about 45 min. into the race today. I may have gone too hard at the start. Or maybe the two year old endurance drink mix has turned. When the train of Tom P., Michael Dee, Elaina & Heather went by I couldn't hang. Thank you Heather for coming back to see if I had died.

Not really sure what happened, but there was no horsepower. I felt fine. A little tired, but not really hurting. It was about like most of our races. I wasn't too worried, but afterwards everyone kept coming by with concerned looks saying, “are you ok?”. Now I'm looking at my tongue in the mirror, checking my breath, …

I've pulled a heart rate graph for last weekend to compare to one for today. Interesting. Maybe I just screwed up my race management, or maybe the HGH is turning against me (just kidding.)

For those interested I've put up the heart rate graphs for my Harris 2012 race and for today's Classic race in the whatcompaddlers “Files” section, under Race Info.

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Jeff Hegedus
05/06/12 #12461

Thx for sharing, Reivers. Seems we never really discuss health on the water, but actually everyone gets out there sometimes either sleep deprived, sick, emotionally rattled, injured or just plain worn out and out of gas. And, we still push it, speed and distance, in conditions. When things quit working, we just replace the body part. Good job paying attention to yourself, good job having the discipline to recalibrate in real time, and good job everyone else who paid attention to their fellow paddler.

debbie natelson
05/06/12 #12462

Reivers,
Sorry to hear about your rough day in the trenches. Hope you are feeling fine and apart from ego bruise, are all recovered. I had a similar experience at a Lake Whatcom race a few years ago. I raced like crazy into a strong headwind all the way down to the island, paddling my heart out to catch up with Meg Kelly (faster paddler and national master sprint champ). I was elated when I actually caught her at Reveille – looked forward to coasting home on the down wind. Then the wind died – and so did I. It was the longest 6 miles of my life. Perhaps if it was a strong headwind and you were breathing harder, maybe you just weren't hydrated enough???

Also, since I'm the one always emailing you all to come join the SR races, I want to extend my apologies to Race Directors Peter & Lance – and the Whatcom paddling communtiy that I could not attend this year's Whatcom race. I had a previous work commitment (all the more frequent this time of year) and couldn't make it up there. I'm sure it was great fun. Sorry to have missed it.

BTW, the wind was blowing steady down here in Renton. In fact, it has been about every day since DDH race. Peter, do you have some sort of contract with the Wind Gods? Seems to be consistently windy for your races. Maybe you can act as an agent to John R. for the next DDH race. We showed up with a stout wind & wave machine – where we could have brought flatwater sprint boats. As Mike W (owner of the C1X) said it, Deb, we brought knives to a gunfight.

Feel better Reivers (and drink lots of water)
-Debbie N

Michael Lampi

05/06/12 #12464

I sympathize with you, Reivers. Just before Strawberry Point I had trouble keeping my heart rate in the lower 140's - and that was the case for the rest of the race. See my stats (last photo in the album).

Still, I somehow managed to finish the long course within a few seconds of my fastest time ever on the course. Hmm…maybe that was the year I drafted an OC-6…

Michael Lampi