Loong paddles

Still no photos!  I’ll remember to bring my camera one day.

The days are warm and long, and there are enough keen people around to do some ACTUAL marathon training.  This Saturday Mark, Frank, Alex and I set out for a 5-hour paddle.  We decided to take laps of the city so that we could paddle with others, pick them up and drop them off at the dock.  Altogether we had 4 other join us for sections: Ann, Randy, Rick, and Leann.

Mostly I tired to take it easy, stay relaxed, and wash-ride.  I started out in the stern which I found a bit tiring since I still muscle my steering strokes.  But later I was in the front with Alex in the stern and that was much easier.  We took it easy enough that were were able to do some sprinting through the shallows in the last 40 minutes. It’s nice to know I can do it, but I think next time I will try to go a little harder.  We took a few breaks at the dock, and stopped for water and snacks a few times, but not more than 20min over the whole 5 hours.  I’m not sure what our average speed was – I’ll need to get a GPS app for that.

Afterwards we headed to our place for lasagne and ice cream while we watched the Au Sable river marathon race and felt like maybe we were only halfway (or 25%?) to being badass.   I was pretty hungry after all that; I can only imagine what the Au Sable paddlers are eating.