Wakulla River, St Marks, FL
Sunday, January 22, 2006 brint.adams@us.army.mil
Roland and I arrived bright and early at the San Marco Park, unfortunately for us, one week too early. As it turned out, by not being members of the FCPA, we were not on the current email distribution, to know the race director moved the race date to January 29. So, it was up to us to make the best out of a deflated situation.
The weather was beautiful, with partly cloudy skies, no wind at 8:30 AM, with a slightly falling tide. We knew where the start line was and decided to stage our own two-man event on the official course.
Roland started out strong, so I jumped in behind him over the first couple of miles, following the same route we took in yesterday's warmup. At this point, I pulled ahead and stayed there the rest of the way upriver. We passed the Hwy 98 bridge at about 3 miles, where there was a canoe rental business, and continued to pass many wooded areas, full of summer houses lining the shores. The river started to narrow here and continued to narrow significantly over the next 3.3 miles, to the Highway 365 bridge and turnaround.
We saw many anhinga, cormorant, great blue heron and white egret fishing along the way. There were several small islands in the center of the river where we had to decide which way was best to paddle. It was hard to tell at times where the best course was, and it would have been helpful to follow an experienced racer, to make sure we were on the most efficient course.
My mile splits on the first half of the course were: 10:18, 10:34, 10:31, 10:45, 10:56, 11:21 and 10:25 which incorporated the turn and some back downriver. At the turnaround, the water was very shallow and difficult to find any narrow channel to even get to the bridge.
On the return, we had splits of 8:53, 9:08, 9:24, 9:47, 10:11 and a partial 6:41 over the last 0.69 miles to the finish line. Unfortunately, during the last two miles, we ran into a pretty good headwind, which slowed us down at the end, so our total course time came in at 2:08:59, at 5.9 mph over the 12.69 mile course.
So, now after experiencing the Wakulla race course without a race, it will be up to me to come up with an appealing argument, to convince Linda I need to come back next weekend for the real deal. Time will tell how convincing I am.
Roland and I arrived bright and early at the San Marco Park, unfortunately for us, one week too early. As it turned out, by not being members of the FCPA, we were not on the current email distribution, to know the race director moved the race date to January 29. So, it was up to us to make the best out of a deflated situation.
The weather was beautiful, with partly cloudy skies, no wind at 8:30 AM, with a slightly falling tide. We knew where the start line was and decided to stage our own two-man event on the official course.
Roland started out strong, so I jumped in behind him over the first couple of miles, following the same route we took in yesterday's warmup. At this point, I pulled ahead and stayed there the rest of the way upriver. We passed the Hwy 98 bridge at about 3 miles, where there was a canoe rental business, and continued to pass many wooded areas, full of summer houses lining the shores. The river started to narrow here and continued to narrow significantly over the next 3.3 miles, to the Highway 365 bridge and turnaround.
We saw many anhinga, cormorant, great blue heron and white egret fishing along the way. There were several small islands in the center of the river where we had to decide which way was best to paddle. It was hard to tell at times where the best course was, and it would have been helpful to follow an experienced racer, to make sure we were on the most efficient course.
My mile splits on the first half of the course were: 10:18, 10:34, 10:31, 10:45, 10:56, 11:21 and 10:25 which incorporated the turn and some back downriver. At the turnaround, the water was very shallow and difficult to find any narrow channel to even get to the bridge.
On the return, we had splits of 8:53, 9:08, 9:24, 9:47, 10:11 and a partial 6:41 over the last 0.69 miles to the finish line. Unfortunately, during the last two miles, we ran into a pretty good headwind, which slowed us down at the end, so our total course time came in at 2:08:59, at 5.9 mph over the 12.69 mile course.
So, now after experiencing the Wakulla race course without a race, it will be up to me to come up with an appealing argument, to convince Linda I need to come back next weekend for the real deal. Time will tell how convincing I am.
posted by brint @ 4:35 PM
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