Terry picked a picture perfect day for this year’s Tippecanoe Race, and it seemed to inspire the masses, as we had quite a turnout. Classic paddlers we haven’t seen for awhile, like Guy and Sonja Gilman turned out, along with new or long-distance paddlers like Jeff Poland and Jeff Aleksic. Not to mention a good collection of boat types: C2, K1 Open, Sea Kayak, K1 Downriver, and OC1. And a solid dollap of fun!
Terry set us up with a mass start, which was rather staggered as the river was flowing too fast to keep an orderly line. But we all got off without incident, and the race was on. I did manage to stay with race leaders Matt Meersman and Sean Casey, but only for about 2 feet. They charged off to a solid lead, with Pieter Visser in hot pursuit. Pieter is in perennial pursuit of Meersman, but Matt prevailed once again, holding off Pieter by just over 2 minutes. Following behind them was something of a duel between Jon Henderson and Chris DeVries, with Jon pulling ahead of Chris by a little over minute and a half. Bill Kanost was just a minute behind Chris, having pulled a classic Kanost race strategy of starting behind and gradually passing everyone as he seems build speed through the race.
There were several of us running pretty close after that group, with Jeff Aleksic coming in a couple of minutes behind Bill. Jeff ended up being bracketed by Kanosts, as Deb Kanost ran a hot race, coming in just 40 seconds behind Jeff and ahead of all the other sea kayaks and canoes! Skeet Craig, Matt Conrad, and I traded places a few times, with Matt Conrad prevailing, followed by Skeet, and then me. Skeet Craig is a hoot to paddle with, as he seems to be having the time of his life, singing questionable songs and asking spectators if they could meet him with a burger and beer at the finish. Guy and Sonja followed me in by about a minute. They took the lead at one point, but made a wrong choice in a line that put them back a bit. Seems there was some discussion in the boat about that…
Following that group, Betsy Arnold upheld the honor of the K1 downriver gang, keeping the class alive. Larry Swift followed, but then we had the closest race of the day, with Lori Schaffer edging out Terry Howard by 5 seconds for a photo finish at the end! Roger Crisp and Craig Schaffer followed shortly thereafter, finishing off this running of the Tippecanoe Race. We had a fast current, but also a stout wind that worked against us several places as the river twisted and turned. But all seemed to have a fun race, no boats were damaged, no one swam. Several of us then followed up the race with some great food and fellowship at the Oakdale Dam Inn. The attached photos were of our paddlers who stayed for lunch at the Oakdale Inn, as well as a couple of photos of the dam and the river.
Many thanks to Terry for a great race, and to those who helped with timing, including Bill Arnold and Julie Birge.
Steve
Photo Credit: Julie Birge.
Results
C-2 MIXED CRUISING 1st Sonya Gilman / Guy Gilman 1:22:29
C-2 MEN CRUISING 1st Sean Casey / Matt Meersman 1:06:45
C-1 MAN CRUISING 1st Bill Kanost 1:16:32
2nd Jeff Poland 1:20:19
3rd Skeet Craig 1:20:47
4th Larry Swift 1:24:47
5th Terry Howard 1:26:00
OC-1 1st Chris DeVries 1:15:23
2nd Steve Horney 1:21:11
K1 OPEN 1st Pieter Visser 1:09:00
2nd John Henderson 1:13:59
K1 SEA KAYAK WOMAN 1st Deb Kanost 1:18:57
2nd Laurie Schaffer 1:25:55
K1 SEA KAYAK MAN 1st Jeff Aleksic 1:18:17
2nd Matt Conrad 1:20:17
3rd Roger Crisp 1:28:54
4th Craig Schaffer 1:36:50
K-1 DOWNRIVER 1st Betsy Arnold 1:23:06
