In
June, my brother Marty and I competed in and finished
the 262-mile Texas
Water Safari. It was our first attempt at
the race, and our only goal at the start was to finish
the race within the 100-hour deadline. We were happy
with our 78 hour finish, and felt that we did a great
job despite not being nearly as prepared or knowledgeable
as we should have been.
It's
often been said that there is no better teacher than
experience. This old adage holds truer for the Texas
Water Safari than you could imagine. So, the following
list is some things that we learned on the river;
things we'll do differently next year, things we'll
bring next year that we forgot, and things we'll leave
behind.
When
Nature Calls—when you drink as much water/Gatorade
as you have to during the Texas Water Safari, you're
inevitably going to have to pee. A lot. One of the
logistical concerns in a race of this length and duration
is how to quickly and efficiently 'take care of business'
while still paddling/racing (you can't pull the boat
over to shore to find a tree every time someone in
your boat has to go).
I
had read on the Safari
bulletin board that one strategy was to simply
go in the boat. The boat would continually have water
getting into it and being pumped out. And you would
be in and out of the water often enough to rinse out
your shorts/pants.
Let
me just say that this is not a good idea. You're boat
will smell like urine, and that smell will take a
long time to get out of your boat. Plus, everything
in your boat will also smell like urine. We found
this out the very hard way, and we only used the Pee
in Boat method for the second half of the first
day.
Over
the next 3 days we found that the thing that worked
best for us was to use a water bottle. One person
could keep paddling while the other person did their
business, and then poured it overboard and rinsed
the bottle. This might not work as well for the women
paddlers. You'll have to ask them what they do.
Night
Lights—try your lights out before the race.
Our main light, a Pelican Pro Laser was a very bright,
waterproof, and relatively lightweight light. But
we didn't have a good mounting system to secure it
to the bow. This resulted in us not using the light
during the race, and relying solely on our headlights.
Next
year, I'll make sure to have a very quick, stable,
and secure method for mounting our light.
Our
headlights worked extremely well, and actually provided
enough light for paddling at night. However, the first
couple of hours after sunset the bugs (May flies,
especially) are brutal. Each time we turned our headlights
on, a cloud of bugs would smack us in the face, making
it almost impossible to paddle and keep the lights
on. A light mounted a few feet in front of the bow
paddler will still attract a swarm of insects, but
at least they won't be aiming directly at your face.
Another draw back to relying only on head lights is
that while they allowed us to pick our way through
the river at night, they weren't bright enough to
allow us to paddle at full speed.
Also,
next year we are bringing a pair of clear safety glasses
and a bandana (to wrap over the bow paddler's mouth
and nose) so that he can continue to paddle without
eating half a pound of bugs.
Food—We
brought just about the right amount of food this year.
We didn't run out, and we didn't have too much at
the end of the race either (extra weight). But here's
what we'll do different next year:
Next
year, we'll also buy a food sealer. Zip lock baggies
are NOT water proof. I lost a full and huge bag of
cashews on Day 1 after the bag leaked during a capsize.
Checkpoints—we
might have been the worst checkpoint team in the race.
We spent an unbelievable 22 hours at the 10 checkpoints.
Next year we will be much more efficient coming through.
At
the checkpoints where we stop to sleep, (next year
our goal is Gonzalez 183, Cuero 236, and either Dupont
or Salt Barrier Dam) we need to get to sleep quicker,
and then leave quicker once we wake up. At our three
sleeping checkpoints, it took us an hour each morning
to get back into the river. One way to get going quicker
will be to eat our breakfast once we get back into
the river. It's better to have one guy paddling while
the other eats then to wait on the banks while you
both eat.
At
checkpoints where we don't intend to sleep, we'll
stop just long enough to get out of the boat and stretch
the legs, refill the water, and then get back under
way. Last year we would use each checkpoint to take
a break and rest a little. Next year, we'll take a
break after we leave the checkpoints. We'll just take
it easy leaving the checkpoint. Take turns eating
and doing some body maintenance. It will be a lot
faster to spend just 15 minutes (our goal) at each
checkpoint, and then relax a little while still moving
down river.
Body
Maintenance—we did a good job of taking care
of ourselves during the race, but next year, we'll
put the Vaseline under our arms and on our butts before
the start of the race, and then reply frequently.
This year, we both waited until we needed Vaseline,
and then it was too late.
Clothing—won't
change a thing for next year.
Music—next
year I am bringing music. When I train, I always bring
my small MP3 player. But it doesn't have external
speakers, so I didn't bring it on Safari. There are
a lot of very long stretches of river where you really
don't have to worry about turning over or getting
any water in the boat, and some portable music would
be very nice. The extra 1.5 lbs for the MP3 player,
speakers, and batteries would be well worth it.
Pictures—we
had a small, waterproof disposable camera in the boat
with us, but only took a handful of pictures with
it. Next year, I'm bringing a camera also, and we'll
try to remember to take more pictures. It only takes
about 30 seconds to take a great picture of somewhere
that took you hours to get to. My favorite pics are
the ones we took out on the race.
Shannon
took a few pictures of us at the race start, Cottonseed,
Victoria, Salt Barrier Dam, and the finish line, but
none anywhere else. I'll have to remind her to be
ready with her camera at each checkpoint.
Next—Getting
Ready for the TWS
