BERRY MARATHON REPORT

The day:
Saturday morning dawned sunny and clear, and even better still, no wind.
I travelled down to Berry very early, arriving just after 8.00am, well before the Illawarra Canoe Club workers had even set up their tents. After a brief hello, I jumped onto my bike and rode into Berry for a very relaxing coffee. This is a great way to start a day when you have a hard race coming up. Unfortunately, another CSKC member didn’t start the day so relaxed. More on that later.

Upon returning to the start area, I saw fellow CSKC members, Bruce and Janet Sherlock, Jacqui Tang and Ben and Kelly Constable. Jacqui had entered the 10km race; Bruce was competing in the 15km race and Ben and myself in the 20km race (the 24km race was cancelled). After the briefing at 10.30am we began preparing ourselves for our various races.

Fifteen minutes before the start I headed over to the loo for probably my tenth nervous pee (it’s an age thing), when I was stopped in my tracks by the roar of an engine, followed by a cloud of dust as a car lurched into the carpark with a red kayak on top. The driver aimed for a spot about a metre from where I was standing, splashing mud over me as he slammed on the brakes and came to a halt. Unfortunately for me, I think the mud was overflow from the nearby toilets. To my surprise, a very stressed John Pawlow jumped out and immediately began unloading his kayak. Somehow, he managed to enter and make it onto the water before the races began.

The race:
The 20km race was off first, followed by the 15km and 10km races at two-minute intervals. My race had seventeen boats competing and as soon as the starter yelled ‘GO!’ I immediately shot into third last position (starting isn’t one of my strong points). I looked ahead, couldn’t see John P, so I assumed that he was in the 15km race. I figured that if nothing else, at 62-years young I would now be the oldest competitor to finish.

I caught a bloke I knew from Canberra in a TK1 and hung onto him for a kilometre before taking the lead. Then a double from the 15km race came past so I was able jump onto their wash for a few hundred metres and thereby drop the TK1. This left me chasing another ski a few hundred metres in front of me.

Unfortunately, I only had drink bottles, so every time I needed a drink (which was fairly frequent because it was a warm day), I had to stop paddling, pick up a bottle, drink, throw it back down between my legs and then start paddling again. I will have to plan something better for my drinking in future.

A few hundred metres before the halfway buoy, I saw John P and another paddler heading back. Bugger! As John is positively ancient, I couldn’t even claim to be the oldest competitor. The only thing left to race for was pride.

Around the 12km mark I finally passed the bloke in front of me and set off on the final 8km. As I had only every raced 15km on my Epic ski before today, the last 5km was going to be interesting.
Barely one hundred metres past the 15km mark, I started to hit the wall. I’d like to say it was just in my mind, but my body was telling me something different. As far as I knew the bloke I had just passed was still behind me so I couldn’t back off (not that I would anyway). For those last few kilometres I pushed and pushed and then about 800m from the finish I made myself imagine that the other boat was almost on my wash so I could lift some more.

I crossed the line deep in oxygen debt; in 13th place (that sounds better to me than 5th last); and in a tick under 1hr55min. According to my GPS the course was 19.6kms, but that’s close enough to 20km for me. I was absolutely exhausted. Russell Lutton, whom I normally race against in the 15km Marathon Series, was waiting at the boat ramp to help me out. I could barely stand up and for a moment thought I was going to collapse in front of everyone and have to be rescued. There is no way I could have carried my ski up that ramp by myself. Thanks Russell.

Results:
20km: Ben had a great race and beat Darren Lee by one second in 1.31.51. Third and fourth place were also separated by just one second. John P finished in eleventh place in 1.48.47, a bare two seconds in front of twelfth place. I was next to finish, just a few boat lengths behind John P (actually it was about 200 boat lengths and a bit over six minutes). The next two boats were a few minutes behind me and came in racing together. They also finished only one second apart.
15km: My mate Russell had a good race, finishing second in 1.21.43, only a few minutes behind David Schofield and Lex Bryant in a double. I’m not sure if someone was having a lend of the organisers or not, but the name of one of the paddlers in the double that came in third was Jack Hammer (my apologies Jack if the name is correct). Bruce S came in 5th in his TK1 in 1.31.21. Bruce is now breaking 30min in his TK1 for 5km club races and he has got to be one of the keenest paddlers on the water.    
10km: Shane (a promising junior) and Steve Ison won the 10k race in an old TK2. There was only eleven seconds between the first three places. Jacquie T had a good race, finishing 10th in 1.08.27, one second behind ninth place.

Wrap up:
I have not met anyone who doesn’t love racing at Berry. As we have come to expect from the ICC, they had a terrific food and drink tent with lots of tempting treats (although I certainly wasn’t tempted by their sausage sandwiches before the race). The river is absolutely beautiful and the out-and-back course is far better than paddling 5km laps (although I do understand the reasoning behind laps). The organisation was first class, with rescue boats at each buoy and accurate timing. Despite the relative small fields, the close finishes between many of the competitors was indicative of the level of competition. The presentations were held soon after the last race finished, and after a few words from the organisers, we were able to head off to our various destinations. As a matter of interest, there were a number of paddlers from Sydney; Michael and his sea kayak from Jarvis Bay; Ray (I think) from Canberra; Darren Lee drove down from somewhere west of Lithgow; and Russell and Caroline Lutton drove up from Batemans Bay with a few friends plus small squad of Isons (wherever there is a kayak race, there always seems to be at least half a dozen of the Ison clan competing).

Thirty-five boats competed and I heard nothing but praise about the organisation from both competitors and spectators alike. It was a well organised event and I would recommend it to everyone for next year. I would like to extend my personal appreciation to the ICC club for hosting the races, and a special thank you to all those who gave up their time on the day to make the event such a success. You should be proud of your efforts.

Bill Hick (CSKC)