Causeway to Mobile River Workout II
Sunday, August 1, 2004 brint.adams@us.army.mil
I decided to follow the same course Rob took me on, back on July 3rd, for a solo training run this morning. I started promptly at 7:00 AM under sunny skies, with a 5 mph breeze coming out of the NE. The temperature started out at about 82 degrees with fairly high humidity of about 90%. Another difference today, was that I was starting out right in the middle between tides, so I had a pretty good following rising tide as I started north.
The course starts out west between the Interstate bridges and turns north up into Delvan Bay and on up into the Spanish River. I stopped near the Pontoon Saloon again, although someone was there, and I stayed on the other side of river. This was my first water stop at about 5.5 miles and 1:06:47.
As I made the turn around the high power lines at Mobile River, I noticed my time at 1:24:16. The downside of a rising tide, is the run south down Mobile River is not the fast pace we had a month ago. My next stop was at the highrise bridge at 1:55. So far, nothing remarkable this time of morning, just a few fishing boats and a couple of barges heading north.
I continued on downriver and made my next stop at the Alabama Shipyards, just past the Convention Center and the new Cruise Terminal. No U.S. Navy vesssels in port, so I didn't have to watch out for the guards this time. My time at this point was 2:33.
Still nothing special happened until I rounded the bend east toward the bay. As I cut in to about 20 yards off the shoreline, the water was pretty shallow, about thigh deep and I was passing over several areas of underwater grasses. And then it happened to me for the first time, other than out in the surf. I tipped over after startling and angering a pretty large gator. He came up under the rear half of my kayak and his tail gave me a quick lift out of the water and then a good twist. I felt like I was riding a mechanical bull. If I had been expecting it, I would like to think I would have ridden it out. But it startled me as well and I went right over. Actually, it was pretty refreshing to get wet and take a little break again, as the temperature was now up to about 92 degrees. I walked my kayak in a little closer to shore, took my time to pump out the water and started up again, with my time at 2:47.
The turn back north past the battleship was again with the following tide, but into the wind, so I stopped for one last drink under the Causeway bridge at 3:05. I then turned back under the Interstate bridges and followed along under the eastbound lanes in the shade. My final total time was 3:16:11, which was an improvement of about 8 minutes over a month ago. All in all, it was a good workout under the hot and humid conditions, as I ended up drinking 3.5 liters of water while on the paddle and more on the ride home.
I decided to follow the same course Rob took me on, back on July 3rd, for a solo training run this morning. I started promptly at 7:00 AM under sunny skies, with a 5 mph breeze coming out of the NE. The temperature started out at about 82 degrees with fairly high humidity of about 90%. Another difference today, was that I was starting out right in the middle between tides, so I had a pretty good following rising tide as I started north.
The course starts out west between the Interstate bridges and turns north up into Delvan Bay and on up into the Spanish River. I stopped near the Pontoon Saloon again, although someone was there, and I stayed on the other side of river. This was my first water stop at about 5.5 miles and 1:06:47.
As I made the turn around the high power lines at Mobile River, I noticed my time at 1:24:16. The downside of a rising tide, is the run south down Mobile River is not the fast pace we had a month ago. My next stop was at the highrise bridge at 1:55. So far, nothing remarkable this time of morning, just a few fishing boats and a couple of barges heading north.
I continued on downriver and made my next stop at the Alabama Shipyards, just past the Convention Center and the new Cruise Terminal. No U.S. Navy vesssels in port, so I didn't have to watch out for the guards this time. My time at this point was 2:33.
Still nothing special happened until I rounded the bend east toward the bay. As I cut in to about 20 yards off the shoreline, the water was pretty shallow, about thigh deep and I was passing over several areas of underwater grasses. And then it happened to me for the first time, other than out in the surf. I tipped over after startling and angering a pretty large gator. He came up under the rear half of my kayak and his tail gave me a quick lift out of the water and then a good twist. I felt like I was riding a mechanical bull. If I had been expecting it, I would like to think I would have ridden it out. But it startled me as well and I went right over. Actually, it was pretty refreshing to get wet and take a little break again, as the temperature was now up to about 92 degrees. I walked my kayak in a little closer to shore, took my time to pump out the water and started up again, with my time at 2:47.
The turn back north past the battleship was again with the following tide, but into the wind, so I stopped for one last drink under the Causeway bridge at 3:05. I then turned back under the Interstate bridges and followed along under the eastbound lanes in the shade. My final total time was 3:16:11, which was an improvement of about 8 minutes over a month ago. All in all, it was a good workout under the hot and humid conditions, as I ended up drinking 3.5 liters of water while on the paddle and more on the ride home.
posted by brint @ 3:20 PM
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