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Podium full at RtN Canadian Championships

Susan McKenzie / 21.09.2003

As far as finishes go, it was far from graceful: just a hundred yards off shore, gearsracing.com ran aground. In the dusky light, the rock was barely visible, and the front canoe didn’t notice it until it was too late.

“I don’t want to do this,� Kevin Wallace said as he hopped out of the canoe and helped tow it ashore. “I don’t want to see that paddle for a long time, either.�

“We finally started talking about two kilometres back,� he added. “This has been a quiet, tough race for us.�

The paddle may not have finished with ease, but it was good enough for second place and a guaranteed spot in the Adventure Racing World Championships next year. “Man, it was tough,� agreed Scott Ford. “And really fast, too. We were running a lot.�

“There was a stretch where we ran about 10 kilometres straight, flat out. My legs are killing me,� said Wallace.

Hungry and dirty and smelly, gearsracing.com nonetheless stuck around the finish to wait for Taiga to cross in third place. The two teams had raced neck and neck through much of the course, but gearsracing.com finally pulled away for good on one of the longer trekking sections.

“That’s it, I’m done, no more paddling,� Sven Brouwer announced just a few yards off shore as he lifted his paddle out of the water to coast into shore just before nine am.

The team had incentive to paddle quickly: Captain Jodi Bigelow had promised to buy everyone breakfast if they finished ahead of his imposed cut-off of nine a.m.

“Yeah, but then he stopped paddling,� joked Wendy Powell.

Slack paddlers aside, Taiga made the nine am cut-off for breakfast and was more than three hours ahead of the final race cut-off at noon. Its third place finish is also a guaranteed spot for the AR World Championships.

With three hours remaining until the noon deadline, it remains to be seen who will round out the list of five teams that win guaranteed entry into the Champs. If no more teams on the advance course make it across the finish line, then Jimmy’s Night Out would take one of the spots.

“Not that I wish anyone ill, or anything,� says Jimmy’s Jim Doucette. “But that would be great.�

Still, there are still a few teams out there who are likely to cross before noon.

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