2004-07-06 – Skullduggery lesson II… We’re still on it!

Raining steadily since noon with the temperature in the sixties and who would go canoeing in this kind of weather.   Lee Jarpey and Keith Canny, Eric Canny and Todd Johnson, and Rick Lorenzen and Sarah Kueffer would and enjoy the workout.  No mosquitoes and cool running were the rewards among others.  Tonight, we learned another lesson in skullduggery, otherwise known as the psychology of competition.  Specifically, we learned exactly how and when to use the phrase “We’re still on it!” to best effect.

We used Sarah’s tandem racing canoe with the symbol for pi on it’s blue cover.  She is a math teacher and her racing number is 314.  We were practicing together again because we were racing in the upcoming race this Saturday on the Saint Louis River where it enters Lake Superior.  Always a good idea to practice at least once before racing, but not always possible if the team members live in different cities or have been out of town on vacations.    

We took off early and made the other teams catch up to us.  They didn’t seem to have much trouble doing that, but we weren’t really trying to lose them this early anyway.  It’s always more fun to get away from another team after they are comfortably riding your wake.  That’s the point of these practices; giving each other a challenge.  The fastest team in this trio was Eric and Todd, but you can never count on beating Lee and Keith. Sarah can stay ahead of them in a longer race with a better partner.  With Sarah, I may be able to get ahead of them for an hour or so, but they have what it takes to go the distance and run me into the ground.   

At the first bend upstream from the County Road 116 Bridge, Sarah and I sprinted under the tree branches to try and lose Eric and Todd.  We nearly made it.  As our canoe was almost a full canoe length ahead of them and I had been paddling fast and hard for longer than I wanted to try to break away, I heard Todd say to Eric “We’re still on it!”  That meant that they were still in the trough of our side wake that had moved further back since we were sprinting.  As soon as I heard that, it made me realize that our pitiful attempt was futile.  I dropped my pace back down and they slid back up alongside us easily, followed closely by Lee and Keith.  Working on my Spanish, I muttered “Los bastardos”.  I asked them how to say that in French and Eric and Todd laughed and said, they didn’t know, but that in Italian, it was pronounced “Lorenzo”.

Lee took off his shirt and continued paddling in the rain.  None of us were very impressed.  Eric said it was a challenge for me, but I’d seen myself in the mirror lately and no longer have a desire to remove my shirt in front of other people.  Especially when sitting and the roll “dunlaps over my belt”.  I guess I finally accepted my age and lack of condition.

Several more sprints at every shallows and suckwater bend confirmed that Eric and Todd were toying with us.  They could pull ahead while we tried in vain to hang onto their stern wake and fell back more than one wave.  Finally I yelled “We’re still on it!” even though we weren’t.  They broke up laughing and paddled easy until we caught back up.   Keith joked that you can also just keep talking louder and louder as teams sprint ahead to make them think you’re staying on their wake.  The next few sprints were tougher because we were all laughing too hard to paddle fast whenever one of us yelled “We’re still on it!”

Sarah and I tried to circle the sandbar island counterclockwise while the other two teams did the normal clockwise route.  I misjudged the shallows and we ran aground just as Eric and Todd came around the island to see us beached.  Another fine laugh at my expense, but it was worth it.  Hardly stopping for drinks we paddled three canoes across, taking turns sprinting whenever it seemed like the others weren’t ready for it.   We had the closest bridge sprint I’d seen in a long time with all of us crossing the rain dripping finish line at nearly the same time even though we were several canoe lengths apart.  Lee and Keith took us by a foot and Eric and Todd tied for 2^nd place.  At least that’s the way I saw it. 

Most people were inside their homes and we had another fine adventure outdoors in the rain.  Just like a bunch of kids who didn’t know any better.  The hot bath at home sure felt great though and, as the late Buzzy Peterson used to say, “You sure sleep good.”  What more can a person ask for of life.