Ruth Chapman – Coast to Coast 09
So happy to make that finsh line!
As you may well know there was a mighty Complete Performance contingent present at this year’s Coast to Coast event and I felt privileged to be part of this and knowing so many people taking part added to the festivities over the weekend. Going into day two my team mate and I were placed 11th in the mixed teams, Andy had a sterling run in under 4.5 hours and Saturday was my day to shine (no pressure) in the kayak and help move us up a few spots. Once again the Waimak turned on a stunning day – just a whisper of wind and a sprinkling of sun shine met us at the first bike ride and I felt good taking off in my boat after a fairly speedy transition. Having been forewarned to expect carnage on the day I was actually surprised it wasn’t too bad (a few words to the odd paddler about what they should…or shouldn’t be doing helped I think!).
I was just over 3 or so hours into my race – having passed through the Rock gardens, Hamilton’s rapid …well everything the gorge threw at me unscathed – when just before Iron Bridge, when running a rock face just a tad too close – without warning my left foot pedal moved forward causing me to lose control of my boat and t-boning it directly into the rock – the force was such that both foot pedals were shunted forward and off their rails. It took a couple of seconds for me to figure what the heck (insert other adjectives actually used on the day!) just happened and the recirculating eddy to flip me over, losing my drinks system and my paddle…losing ones paddle….bad…very very bad. I managed to swim to shore, sit down (head in hands at this point) to see my paddle come pass me in the current! So without hesitation I jumped in and swam for it – knowing without it my race was over.
After changing clothes, bandaging myself up, I assessed my situation – that being I was in fact too short to reach in and re thread my pedals (took me an hour trying to finally give in to that one!)- as to do so required to be done at the nose end of the cockpit. What to do – sit there and wait to be rescued/withdrawn from the race, paddle down without a rudder and risk multiple swims or hope the tailend charlies get to me before cut off. As you can well imagine there were times over the 2 hours I spent on that beach (now renamed Ruths Beach) I got a bit sad….I feel sorry for those that passed me to see the unidentified paddler head in lap and shoulders heaving! I finally then got rescued by the Broken River aid station jet boat (ironically the one that was just around the corner out of sight for them to see me earlier) and once they reassured me that going UPstream wouldn’t DQ me I jumped on board. By some miracle one of the ladies there was a midget (their words not mine : ) and we were able the literally poke her up into my kayak (almost all of her) to rethread my foot pedals! As you can imagine I was over the moon my race wasn’t over and although the offending left foot pedal was still a bit munted I managed to limp home via chicken routes and nana lines – some 2.5 hours later than expected!
People have said to me since how disappointed I must feel after all the hard work I put in to have the day turn to custard – but as I said to Richard, you just never know what will happen on race day and I went from having a blinder of a paddle to wondering if I was in fact even going to finish my race. The fact I did is all I could have asked for – until you are confronted with the chilling reality of not finishing at all – its then to cross that line the biggest wave of relief sets in, not regret. And hey it’s not everyone who can say they get to exchanged pleasantries with Gordon Walker as he paddled his way to victory!