K2O 2015-NAT DNF AFTER 115.4KM OF PADDLING

James, John (his team mate) and I left on Friday afternoon to Kingston to participate in the 200km paddle K2O from Kingston to Ottawa. The boys were going to paddle a canoe and I had borrowed a light and fast surfski from a friend (a think surfski).

I had a lot of troubles last year with another think boat because of weeds getting caught in the rudder and the race had been cancelled last year half way due to the rough weather.

I had made it to the 72-75km mark and was nervous for this year although I had this year a weed deflector…so I thought I would be off the weeds.

My super awesome support crew, Joel Perrella from Breathe Magazine, met me on Friday night and we went through gears and food etc..

On Saturday morning we started the race at 6am.

From the start on I was stuck in a massive patch of weeds. To the point that I saw even the SUP going away at the distance while I was still fighting with the weeds. I begged ahead for help since there were no more boats ahead and luckily Rick, another racer, waited and took the weeds off for me. The first leg was hard as the weeds seemed to be everywhere.

As I was going along another surfski was struggling so we were de-weeding each other’s as we went.

Matt (that helped me out last year) did also a way with me taking the weeds every so often so we could keep a good pace.

We finally made some ground and went back ahead of the SUPs and other kayaks.

At the first lock I saw just ahead of me James canoe and Brad Jenning’s canoe from get out there.

 I caught up to James’ boat during that second leg and as I past them the weeds got me again. I asked if he could grab the weeds as I was next to the boat and James did but his team mate wasn’t happy and let me know that they would not spend their time helping me out…So I left them and went ahead.

I then caught up to Brad’s canoe on the next leg and they nicely helped me out as I was passing them.

The next few legs went ok but the weeds started to be more abundant again and after a little while I got caught back up by the two canoes (Brad and James). I did half that leg next to Brad’s boat chit chatting along until we reached the 69.7km lock.

That was the last lock I saw last year, being rescued a few kms later.

I made it through the lock and went on for the 30km+ leg. As I left I grabbed 3 gels, thinking it would be enough for 30km…big mistake. I think I was already really hungry by that point (despite the multiple sandwiches that Joel had prepared for me) and dehydrated a bit.

I had my first gel early on and by the time I got ti the 20kmm or so I was out of food. Just when I realise that I wouldn’t see my support crew until the 34km mark because they couldn’t reach the poonamalie lockstation at 30km. Hunger settled in. I had caught back to James’s boat by that point but didn’t dare asking for food after the reaction of his team mate earlier.

A few kms before Poonamalie I hit a patch of weeds and I was exhausted. I hit the wall big time. By the time I reached Poonamalie (101km mark of the race) James’s boat was 30min ahead (I was with them 2km before) and I was in a really bad shape. My stomach was burning from what I thought was a little bit of chaffing and the inside of my stomach was hurting by hunger. I am so lucky and thankful the volunteer in place gave me something to drink (an ensure) and I was off to Smith Falls.

The weeds were even worse than before and the 4km seemed to never end.

When I got to Smith Falls at 8h30pm after 14h30 I was tired.

 Most of the field would stop the race there (doing the ½ course). I showed to someone my belly and they patched it up and they made me stop for a bit before going again. My entire belly was red and some places more burnt than others.

The cut off was at midnight at Smith so I was way ahead of schedule and i was actually very decently placed in the 100km race if i had stopped there.

I left soon after (around 9pm) in the dark alone. By that point my friend Augusto had met up with Joel to give him a hand.

The next couple of locks went ok although very weedy. 

I didn’t see my support crew at one of the lock but saw the race director. I was then only 5-7km away from the next lock (Killarnock I think it is). That’s when things went wrong. I had nobody ahead or behind me. I was following my map which said to stay on the left shore but after a while I got in a massive swamp with lily pads all around and no room to even put a paddle in the middle….Just imagine what was going on in the back of my boat with my pretty long rudder getting literally stuck there. I couldn’t move much (less than a km per hour), the fog settled and I couldn’t see any buoys. Thanks to the headlamp the thousand bugs around me had decided to crawl through my face in my ear and nose. I couldn’t turn off the light as I really needed to find the navigational channel.

I then took my gps that I had tested before and that was working but I had to change the map for the second half of the race and for some reason the gps was telling me to go left. There was no left!!! It was lily pads and the shore. After what felt like a really long panick moment I decided to call the race director. I asked him if he could see me on his map explaining that I couldn’t see the navigational channel because of the fog and whether I was still in the right lake?? He told me I was in the right direction. “Keep left” he said. After telling him that left was NOT an option I started wandering on the right more and more and finally spotted a buoy far in the distance…on the other side of the lake on the Right-hand side.

I followed the buoys going all around the bloody lake to finally find the lockstation…It was now 11:30pm and I was at 115.4km. I had done the last 11.4km in 2h30…BRUTAL!!!

I knew the weeds wouldn’t get much better but I also knew there was only 10,5km left in open lakes before getting into the narrow canal where you can’t get lost anymore.

I asked the guys for some arm warmers and was going to continue when the race director came to ask me to stop the race. He was worried about my safety. He said all the other boats behind me (and there were many according to him at smith falls) had quit and he was concerned letting me continue alone.

That is the first time I get stopped from a race without missing any cut offs, being ahead of my schedule.

I had done 115.4km in 17h30 and I had 18h left to do the remaining 87…I could totally do it. But Hey he was the race director. He left and we started packing up my stuff. 45min later I was changed and ready to go when I saw a canoe at the lock, it was a team..and they let them keep on going…WTF???

The next morning when I woke up early I saw that two other teams had kept on going hours after I had been asked to stop. I wasn’t and I am still not happy about it. The race director sent me an email to apologies and told me that afterthought he should have asked me to just stop for a while…After all I had time…but all the apologies in the world won’t unfortunately make the failure feeling to go away.

James, strong as always, kept on going and finished a little after 30h of paddling.

I would never do this race again with a fixed rudder…maybe with a kick up rudder….If I can get over this year’s race.

I want to say that my support crew, Joel Perrella was the best in the world and that you all should check out his awesome magazine breathemag J

I also want to thank my sponsors for supporting me through this gruelling event, Nuun hydration, PacificHealthlab and strongbar nutrition. NRS and 2XU for the awesome gears to keep me moving and warm.

Nat

K2O 200km PADDLE RACE

K2O...I registered to that race thinking it would be a great challenge, a 200km paddle race from Kingston to Ottawa as a solo surfski. After a lot of thinking on which class I should register I decided to register as an Adventure class, which meant starting a couple of hours early and having the opportunity to use my support crew not only for food and water but also for carrying my boat around the locks. Indeed along the 200km we would encounter about 22 locks that we would have to portage and we had 32 hours to finish it.

My support crew, Joel Perrera and Peter Dobbos from Breathe Magazine and my partner James all did an outstanding job at support crewing during that day.
As an adventure class I had the option to start either at 6am or 8am. I opted for the 8am start thinking it would give me people to chase. That would be my goal of the day.
We were about 23 vessels all up, 5 in the competitive class and the rest in the adventure class. When I got to the start at 8am I learnt that most people had started in the 6am wave and that we would be only 3 of us starting at 8am.

According to my calculation I should be able to catch the slower people after roughly 14 hours of paddling if they were paddling 2km/h slower than me.
I had a great start but realised very quickly that something was slowing me down. I saw a canoe on the way and asked them to check my rudder...it was full of weeds :(
I had borrowed a think uno max from my friend Jodi. It is a faster lighter and more tippy boat that what I was used to but for speed I thought it would be worth it. The only problem is that this boat was a prototype and they didn't place a weed deflector. I never had this problem before and would realise very quickly that it can wear you down a lot. I made it to the first lock in a good time considering. Joel was ready with food etc. I was first of the 3 who started at 8am and was well determined to go and catch those people ahead.
After about 50km of paddling or so I caught up with the stand up paddle boards (they were two of them). They both one after the other helped me with my weed situation when I could barely be paddling anymore due to the dragging behind the boat.
James had met up with the guys by then and it was good to see him at the locks.
To follow the route I had printed maps of the course and I also had a gps in case I couldn't see the navigational channel to help me find my way.
The first 100km were not straight forward and the gps or maps were necessary. After that it wouldn't be too open anymore and it would become channel like so much easier to navigate.
The open sections with all the big lakes was a little scary. The weather was pretty bad all day with lots of rain but by then the wind had picked up a lot and the waves were starting to grow considerably on the lake. Thanks god the wind was in my back most of the time so I could stay upright.
I started panicking a little knowing that I didn't have my leash so that if I had tipped I could have lost the boat very quickly. There was also no safety on the water which made me pretty nervous.
When I reached the 70km mark I wasn't happy. I was tired and terrified and didn't want to keep on going.
I decided to keep on going after the race director told us it should get sheltered and a lot better after...It didn't..I started what was supposed to be a 30km section without seeing my support crew very very stressed. The waves were bigger and bigger with reflective waves coming from the side and the winds picked up to 60km/h sometimes. I decided to wait in a little bay for the next boat to come and paddled with him as I was more than scared. We paddled together and some of the boats from the 10am wave (the competitive class) caught up to us. After about 5km of bracing I fell in. My PFD wasn't tight enough and I struggled to keep my boat, my paddle and everything else floating around with me. The other kayaker helped me and held onto my boat and paddle for me as I was trying to tighten my PFD. Unfortunately within seconds they were blown away just a little too far for me to reach them. I tried desperately to reach them without success and he couldn't paddle anymore since he was holding on my boat etc...As a last resource I used my whistle and some very nice people came out of their cottage, took their motor boat and went to rescue my boat as I swam to shore...What an experience :(
A pro canoe had stopped at the same place than us and we all decided it was too dangerous to keep on going.
We called our support crew from the cottage and called the race director who told us he was cancelling the race due to the weather.
I ended up doing about 75km in 11 hours (with at least 30 to 45min spent in the water trying to get rescued).
The race director made a tough but right call by calling the race off. If it wasn't for the weather (and the weeds) I think I would have done pretty well. At the last lock I went through I was apparently 15-20min behind 4 boats that had started 2 hours ahead of me so I was catching up.
There will always be next year..and this time I will be more prepared. I will have my revenge!!!

Nathalie