On the 28th of July I took off by plane for a two weeks journey. Two races ahead, one in Australia and one in California. My first destination was Perth where I was going to compete in the Avon Descent, a 125ish km paddle race down the Avon river over 2 days. The journey to get from Ottawa to Perth is almost a 2 days trip with many stop over. First stop over was Detroit were I met Alex, my partner but also one of my precious support crew for the race. We then flew to LA before flying to Sydney. We got to Sydney in the morning where we were welcomed by my main sponsor Steve from Unleash Compression. He made a an awesome breakfast and welcomed us in his home to get showered and to rest a little bit before taking off to Perth that night. During the afternoon we got to meet up with Jake Van Dorp, another Canadian competitor who came for the race. After a quick “swim” at Bondi (just to say we went and swam there hehe) and a dozen snacks all around the city we flew to Perth.
My friend and second support crew Paul was there waiting for us.
The next day we managed to find a car to rent with roof racks and went to Spirit to pick up the boats they had made for us. Brand new spirit prs surfski. The latest lightweight surfskis they made. That same evening we met up with Andrew and went for a paddle down at Ascot. I must admit I was a little scared. For the last year I have been paddling a lot less than when I lived in Australia due to the weather mainly (can’t paddle if the bloody river is frozen) but also by lack of motivation due to less people to paddle with other here. Lots of paddlers don’t get me wrong but mainly white-water paddlers. However I have been kicking myself in the butt for the last couple of months and have been paddling about 3 times a week doing some intervals etc.
Another point I would like to raise is that I have been paddling my prs surfski that I got a year and a half ago and didn’t get to paddle other surfskis, meaning anything tippier. That is why I got really scared when I jumped for the first time in the new prs. It felt a lot more unstable and I wasn’t comfortable…on the flat!!! AAAaaaarrrrgggghhhh what am I going to do. I am supposed to be able to race for two days and in the rapids too in a boat I can barely stay in :/. After ripping apart half the seat I felt a little more comfortable and stable since I was closer to the water but still that would engage my core a lot more than anticipated. After the first paddle I felt a little more confident but the real test would be the couple of following days when training in the Valley.
On Wednesday, we went down to the Valley and did a Valley run (the rapid section from the lookout till Amiens). The water level was very very low and it took us a long 3 ½ hours to get down. I didn’t feel very confident on the boat and my abs were on fire the next couple of days. We decided to take Thursday and Friday off. All the jamming in the rocks made my shoulders (and abs) sore and I needed to rest for the week end.
On Friday night we took our boats to registration and had a look at the weir.
Saturday morning came quickly and before I realise my grid was off…with me 50m behind trying to get through the people to actually reach my grid. I paddled hard to the weir and decided to portage. After a short but not so easy run I managed to catch up with first second and third place. I jumped back in my boat, the first girl was already almost out of sight and I could see Jenni in front of me putting slowly but surely some distance between us. The water level was low but thanks god it had rained for the last week so it was a little higher than on Wednesday. After an hour or so Sam passed me. I tried to stay with her but she put some distance in between the both of us. I was now in 4th place..not happy… I decided to skip my first “meeting” with my support crew and kept on going. I hadn’t been drinking or eating so I still had a full bladder and some lollies with me.
At the second stop, about 35-40km down the river I had some jam sandwich but didn’t really stopped. I didn’t know where Sam or the others were and I didn’t want to get passed once more. It’s only a few meters before my 3rd “feeding station” that I saw and passed Sam. I decided to not stop again because I didn’t want her to go away again and I needed to follow people down the tee tree section as I didn’t know where to go. It was only 10km or so and I managed to take one wrong turn into the wrong channel and it cost me to get to the finish of day one 7min after Sam. I was 4th again. The first girl was a good 45min ahead, untouchable for me in day2 and Jenni was a good 20min ahead.
I was pretty bummed out but our super support crew made us an awesome dinner and we had a good night rest, the top to start the second day of the race. Jake did very well on his first day, so did Andrew and they got to start in one of the first grids. I started about 20min after if I well remember. Sam started in a grid 4min ahead of me. I knew that if I could catch up with her by the end of the rapid section then maybe I could put an extra 3min on her on the flat but it was risky as she is a better paddler than me on the flat. I didn’t know her skills in the rapids as we have never paddled the Avon together in the past. My not so “stable” boat ditched me out in the first couple of rapids we went through and my first fall was pretty bad. I fell on a rock hip/thigh first and couldn’t move for a bit. I was in pain and almost got out of the water (ended up being a gigantic black bruised). It was the start of day two, I was in pain and lost all hopes of catching Sam. I was crying and just wanted to get out of the water. After a few rapids I seemed to get my balance right and then didn’t fell off much of the boat for the next 30km or so. I was feeling a lot better, I was finally doing my own race, a lot more relaxed, I was enjoying it instead of being so tight and stressed about the other competitors.
By the lookout rapids I saw Sam on the side of the river taking a break. That was my chance. I knew I still had almost 18km of rapids and we just did about the same distance so if I could put as much time on her on that second section that I did on the first one then maybe I would have a chance to keep her behind on the flat…maybe….
From that moment on in my race I have pushed as hard as I could to keep Sam behind. I would almost not stop at my feeding station too scared to give her anytime to come back. And even if Paul and Alex were saying that she was at least 10 minutes behind I didn’t know how much time she would gain back on the flat.
The last 15km of flat was just pain and felt like it would never stopped. By chance I got a ride with three other boats for the last 3-4km. Wave hopper are great draft .
I passed the finished line about 20min ahead of Sam in 3rd position. I was exhausted but super happy.
My next aim is now to train properly this year to get a chance to compete with Jenni who ended up putting 45min on me and Claire who was more than 1h ahead. My time was 14h34 if I am right. I was 3rd female solo, 6th of the gender and 98th overall.
Thank you to the best team mate Alex and to one of my best friend and support crew in the world Paul Laver for everything. You both were awesome at support crewing and I wouldn’t have made it through without you two.
Thank you to unleash for supporting me but also to Spirit and NRS for their support in the craft and gears.
N.L.
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