Sugar Creek Race by Tom Thomas
The race went great! Water was perfect at 2 feet and clear. We had 7 C1’s. Not sure on how many kayaks, I think only 1 or 2. Matt was the 1st kayak in. George in the aluminum. I think there were several rec boats. Haven’t seen any actual results. Overall, Matt Meersman was 1st in C1, paddling a standard C1! He was more playing around than anything and still beat the heck out of us. At the finish Matt Meersman was maybe a minute or 2 in front of Bill, I was maybe 30 seconds or so behind Bill, Ted was a minute or so behind me, then Skeet a minute or 2 behind Ted, then kayak Matt (Conrad) was somewhere in there behind Skeet in his kayak. Don’t know where things went from there, Terry and Terry were back there somewhere. This spacing may be all out of whack as I was pooped, foggy brained, and not sure how the spacing was. Would like to see the results.
The course was fantastic with plenty of challenging rapids, shallows and suck water. I really, really, really liked it. I only touched a couple of rocks so there was plenty of water. In the C1 race, at first Matt M, Bill and Ted were battling it out with me back a 100 feet or so just behind kayak Matt. Matt M. started pulling away after a while, and would then fall back with Bill and Ted. I passed kayak Matt and eventually caught up to Bill and Ted. We then were together and back and forth with trading leads (for 2nd behind Matt M). Matt M continued to pull away from us. Then Bill pulled out ahead of me and I started pulling away from Ted. It ended up something like I noted above.
The Friends of Sugar Creek did a pretty good job of putting on the race, but some confusion on noted race times and shuttle pickup. There were real good snacks at the end though. They went to a lot of effort and we thanked them for putting the race on for us. For all their effort it’s too bad they couldn’t have had the participation like in the old days. I first did this race in 1975 in the aluminum class and there were 110 canoes in just the aluminum class!
That’s about all I have. You missed a real fun course!
See ya,
Tom
And then Cindy Woodall supplied this info:
C1 Canoe:
1st Matt Meersman 2:15:05
2nd Bill Kanost 2:16:44
3rd Tom Thomas 2:17:09
4th Ted Beatty 2:18:07
5th Skeet Craig 2:23:05
6th Terry Pontus 2:33:04
DNF Terry Howard (dropped out due to canoe damage)
Sea Kayak Man
1st Matt Conrad 2:23:18
2nd Joseph Telle 3:40:26
Sea Kayak Woman
1st Belinda Grimble 3:39:40.
C2 Aluminum
1st Chase Crabtree & Evan Hanna 2:42:01
2nd Hilman Culp & George Tinsley 2:43:39.
Water level was just short of 2′ and weather was fantastic!
Bob Stwalley raced the 4 mile with his granddaughter and placed 3rd.
The 4 mile is named after Bob: The Stwalley Short.
Editor Note: Many thanks to Cindy Woodall and the Friends of Sugar Creek for putting on another fantastic event!
