A Long Weekend at Home

I haven't kept up on my race updates, so first things first, 8 days ago was the Roscommon Canoe Classic.  Roscommon is the first "points" race of the Michigan Canoe Racing Calendar, so it always has a lot of teams ready to show off their talent.  This race is on the south branch of the Au Sable River, which is really narrow so it has a different way of starting (see the video).

(Start of Roscommon- Andy and I are in boat #1- courtesy of Ryan Matthews)

I was lucky enough to race with my cousin, Andy, who has a reputation for being one of the best.  We knew we at least had a shot at winning the race, and went out hard.  We ended up coming in 2nd, but were hot on the heels of the first place team.  Mike had a good race, coming in 3rd, but he doesn't like it very much when I beat him.  Dad raced with friend Matt, and they finished 14th, not their best, but they managed to hold off a few pretty good teams.  The next race Andy and I will do together is in about a month, and we will have another chance at a win.  On Sunday, I raced C-1 and felt ok taking 1st place in the women's race, but was definitely tired from my effort on Saturday.  Mike was able to come away with a 2nd place finish, his best of the season.  Dad finished 12th, and Mom came out for a 2nd place women's finish.

This weekend Mike and I enjoyed the first weekend home in quite awhile.  We were looking forward to a really relaxing weekend.  At 2 pm on Friday we decided to do the Team Triathlon at the Jonesville Riverfest which was at 6 pm.  Mike went with Derek, a friend from work, and I went with Greg, another work friend.  The triathalon consisted of one person doing a 2 1/2 mile run, the second person doing a 5 mile bike, and then both people paddling an Aluminum Canoe 2 miles.  Mike and Derek pretty much lead the whole race and came off with an easy win.  Greg and I fought from 8th place on the run up to 2nd place in the paddle, before we took a wrong short cut and hit a log.  Samantha (my sister) and another team passed us on the jam up, so we came up short of the prizes in 4th place.

On Saturday the whole family went over to the Oaklawn 5k, where Mike, Samantha, and I felt that we wouldn't have the best runs, since we had ran our triathlon legs just 15 hours before.  Mike and I finished about a minute slower than we have been in our most recent races, and Dad and Samantha stayed about the same pace as usual in theirs.  Since we didn't feel winded enough, Dad, Mike, Weston, and I decided to paddle another hour and a half in last minute training for the big race next weekend.  I was so exhausted when we were done that I had to take a rare afternoon nap.

Sunday was our favorite local canoe race, the Crusing Class at the Jonesville Riverfest.  In one hour and 15 minutes we race through 4 portages, through 10 culverts and over/under 10-15 pipes. Other obstacles include sand bars, rocks, metal stakes, muck, and lily pads. The river is barely one canoe wide and turns sharply about every 20 feet.  Our family makes up nearly the entire field, but we have a blast.  Dad and I came in first, Mike and Derek were 2nd, friends Paddi and Andy (not cousin) were 3rd, and Samantha and Alex (her boyfriend) were 4th.   After the race Mike and I tackled the garden for the first time since moving in over a year ago.  It might not be pretty, but it is better than last year. After our "relaxing" weekend at home, I can't wait to get away to the General Clinton Canoe Regatta next weekend!