2004-07-16 Hoigaards with Stephanie Larsen

It was hot and humid with a threat of thunderstorms, so I doused my shirt and hair with water to take advantage of the cooling effect of evaporation.  Stephanie Larsen and I practiced two buoy turns before the start and did them well.  They announced that the race would be cancelled if we saw any lightning during the race just before they started the race.  Stephanie and I had a good start with only 3 good teams just a wave ahead of us at the other end of Lake Calhoun and Lee Jarpey and Keith Canny riding our side wake until the first buoy turn.   The 3 teams just 2 canoe lengths ahead of us were Joe Manns and Steve Peterson, Jason Larsen and Todd Johnson, and Brett Arenz and Sarah Kueffer riding side by side.   I wasn’t counting Todd Ellison in a solo kayak who was out ahead of everyone.

One of the teams ahead hit the buoy rope and ripped it loose as they made their turns.  Lee and Keith made a good turn at the now free floating buoy by paddling same sides and we mirrored them just on the outside..  Coming out of the turn, they sprinted hard and I had to fall back to their stern wake because I was overheating and a bit out of breath.  We could hear splashing and hollering behind us as the rest of the canoes converged like a pack of wild dogs on the helpless buoy.  No time to look back though.

We hung on to their stern wake in the narrow channel and all the way through Lake of the Isles in spite of Keith shoveling water back into our canoe several times to get us to fall off their stern wake to no avail.  I was resting and smoothing out my strokes and Stephanie was calling huts just right to keep us directly behind them.  Lee and Keith made a good buoy turn at the north end of Lake of the Isles, but we made a better one just clipping our bow on the right side floating jug and pulled up beside, much to their chagrin.  

It was our turn to pull them for a while because they needed a rest, but I had no hope of getting away from them.  Keith said “We were faster when we were pulling” and I agreed but couldn’t do a darn thing about it.  Except to try and reach further with each stroke.  Lee and I had to sweep weeds off our bows every twenty strokes through this stretch.  Lee started to sprint as we came under the arched stone bridge in the channel to Cedar Lake, but Keith said calmly, “Not yet!”.  Somehow I knew that didn’t bode well for us, but I wasn’t sure why yet.  Well I was about to find out.

When we approached the creosote covered pylon bridge in the channel, Keith said “Now!” and they sprinted at exactly the right time going under the stinking bridge. Our canoe bogged down like it had been caught with a grappling hook and then we were blown over to the pylons on our left by their wake as they shot ahead.  My blade hit one of the wood pylons and flew out of my hand, spinning like a torpedo as it hit the water just ahead of us between the pylon and the bow.  Luckily, I was able to snatch it back off the turbulent water, but not in time for us to catch their first stern wake.  We had to settle for their 2^nd stern wake as they popped it up going through the channel.  A perfectly timed and well executed maneuver from my arch comicbook character rivals ... DRAT!

Stephanie matched my faster pace exactly and we were still on their 2^nd wake coming out into the deeper water of Cedar Lake.  At least we had dropped the canoe that had been catching up to us.  At the Cedar Lake buoy, Lee and Keith tried a double rudder maneuver with both bow and stern paddlers ruddering.  They nearly came to a stop as their canoe spun around and just far enough away from the buoy to leave us room.  Stephanie positioned us just right coming into the turn and I was able to do another perfectly timed crossbow to clip the right side of the floating jug.  Mere inches from their canoe, I held the rudder until I had room to paddle same sides with Stephanie and we pulled alongside and just ahead of them.  Again, much to their chagrin. 

“How’d you like that move under the bridge?” asked Keith.  I muttered “Los bastardos” loud enough for them to hear and concentrated on reaching and pushing down hard to make our canoe go as fast as possible and make them work as hard as possible to stay on our side wake.  Coming back into the shallow channel, I picked up the pace to pop up our canoe and they fell back halfway.  I had to pretend that I could keep going at that pace quite a ways past the point where I wanted to slow back down and they eventually fell back.  “We’re still on ‘em!” yelled both Lee and Keith repeatedly, but I could tell they weren’t.  Now was the time to keep pushing the pace so we didn’t give them any hope.  Scullduggery is a wonderful thing if you know how to use it.   Keith and Lee had given me enough lessons during many previous races and practices and now it was time to prove that I had been listening.

We managed to keep the pace past the creosote stinking bridge and Stephanie stayed in perfect synchronization.  Once we got back to deeper water, we slowed the pace back down and I focused on reaching and pushing down with each stroke.  The canoe was gliding smoothly and I was finally able to fall into a good breathing rhythm while I paddled. 

At the buoy turn on Lake of the Isles north channel, I jumped the gun and did the crossbow several strokes too early so I had to hold the paddle without paddling until we got to the jug which made Stephanie do all the work.   Lee and Keith were much closer to us than I had hoped.   The 3 other teams had spread out with Joe and Steve in a comfortable lead, followed by Stephanie’s husband, Jason, and Todd.  Trailing those 2 teams, but too far away for us to catch was Brett and Sarah. 

We all managed to hold our positions to the finish line and Stephanie and I were the 4^th canoe to finish.  However, we won a red 2^nd place ribbon in “mixed racing” with a time of 64:50 while the winning canoe had a time of 61:30.  There were a lot of good mixed racing teams so this was quite an accomplishment.  Having been canoe racing for 15 years and fast approaching 50 years old, I am very pleased with being only 3 minutes and 20 seconds behind the winning canoe in a one hour race.  Two years ago, I couldn’t do it and there is so much more to learn.  Knowing that I can even get better in the next 5 or 10 years is a comfort and it is thoroughly enjoyable to race with different combinations of people and see how the competition plays out.  

God bless canoe racing and all those who enjoy it!    And thank you Stephanie!

C.R. Hound  (alias Rick Lorenzen)