An update from Kirsty

By jim on Monday, May 3, 2010 - Related Tags:- dream, kirsty

Hi everyone, well it feels like a while since I last put pen to paper and a lot has happened since my last blog. I have done 6 races in a little over a month over the Christmas/New Year period starting with the 20 Beaches Race in Manly on the 20th December and finishing on the 24th January in my home town on the Sunshine Coast.    On reflection this was a tough schedule and I think next year I will be a little more selective with which races I do.  By the last race I was well and truly overdone and looking for a bit of recovery.
 
20 Beaches
I had a great race that day in what started out with many people, including myself, not wanting to race given the mill pond conditions that we were presented with.  However as everyone who was there can attest,  “huey” delivered right on cue about 10mins before the start with a beautiful south-easter that picked up and built throughout the race.  I got a shocker of a start being about 100m off the front and well inside the cans while much of the field started well east of the start line cans.  The only advantage of that I guess is that I could see my competitors and could monitor my progress whilst chasing them down.   I managed to do that fairly quickly and I found myself having a lot of fun in the process.  By the time I reached long reef the only girl I could see was Jasmin Kelly who was a little wider out than me and eventually she dropped back and out of my view.  The runs were very easy to catch which enabled lots of rest and it was shaping up to be a great downwind.  I possibly was having too much of a leisurely run and by the time I reached the last headland I could still not see any other girl.  Much to my dismay about 500m before the finish I turned around for one last time and there was Lauren Spalding about 40m behind me.  I knew she had to have come home really strong and was possibly camoflaged against the rocks.  She later told me that she saw me up ahead and was nearly not going to challenge but decided to have a go.  Well by this stage I was faily spent and knew I had my work cut out to hold her off.  She managed to pull up along side me just before the buoy and my plan was to stay with her and hopefully grab one last run into the beach.  However, once we past the turning can someone yelled out ‘that’s it’ and even though I thought the finish was on the beach I figured there must have been a change so when Lauren stopped so did I and we thought the race was over.  I conceded defeat and was quite disappointed in myself to lose by a nose.  Two seconds later I realised we were wrong when the next guy paddled past and said the finish was the beach and so we both got the same wave in and I was lucky to get my nose on the sand first.  Not a satisfying way to finish a race but it could have gone either way and I was happy to take the money and run!!  Lauren is always a good sport and although disappointed was happy she did the race because the conditions were fun.  I think the good thing about the sport is that the pleasure comes not only from the racing but just being in a fun ocean.  

Fenn Cup
Next on the Calandar was the Fenn cup races on the 3rd and 4th January at Long Reef.  I teamed up with Bruce Taylor from the Gold Coast on the first day which saw us race 10k up and back from long reef.   Bruce put in an awesome first leg to give me a nice lead ,however I had Shannon Eckstein (who teamed with Ruth Highman) chasing me down.  Not a nice feeling when the conditions were quite flat with minimal wind.  I managed to hold him off though and we won the teams.  Day two saw us race from Long Reef to Pittwater with a great south easter behind us.  I went out hard to grab the $250 hot spot and then settled into a solid pace.  Again I couldn’t see anyone around me and it wasn’t till we hit the headland at whale beach that I spotted Hayley Bateup.  We hit Barren Joey headland together and I knew I’d never hold her off in the flat.  Hayley is showing awesome form in the Ironwoman Series at the moment and I think she’s be close to being the fittest woman in Australia and also possess the ocean skills to compliment it.  We’ve been racing each other for 15 years, so I knew what she is capable of and that she was always going to be hard to beat.  I was happy enough with my race but I did find it was one of those races that took a lot out of me.

The Doctor
Two weeks later we raced the Doctor in Perth.  Although the direction was reversed – Fremantle to Rotto Island, the conditions turned out to be awesome and I had a great race with Lauren again.  Unlike the Fenn Cup this race felt easy and the runs throughout the race made for some fun paddling.  My race plan was to not go out hard at the start and instead just build into it.  Lauren was out to my right and we traded run for run and it felt like we were cruising.  I was feeling great by about the half way mark and so I decided to pick up the pace.   I was unaware of it but according to Lauren I had about 150m on her with about 3k to go and she tells me she was already thinking that 2nd isn’t bad for her!!  I chose a direct line as the wind had a slight northeast direction in it but the swell was the predominate south west swell and as we got closer to the island the swell was apparent and we were able to take advantage of it.  Again there was confusion over where the finish was as none of us had done it before and we were not familiar with the landmarks. Turns out we were on the perfect line, however the lead boat didn’t turn up and the men had not yet caught us so while I was searching for some sign of the finish line I was missing runners!!.  By this stage Lauren and the other guy I past had caught me back up and we had a chat about where to go.  In the end it came down to one run that Lauren got ahead of me and it was all over.  Damn it!  Regardless of the result the race was awesome fun and proved that it didn’t matter that the Doctor didn’t show up because the runs were great the other way.  I would highly recommend heading across the country to do this one.  Day 2 wasn’t quite so fun with 43 degree heat and no wind – very unusual for this time of the year.  I teamed up with fellow blogger Tony Schuey and we slogged it out from Fremantle to Sorrento along the coast.   Tony managed to secure me a good lead in the first half and I was able to hold off our competitors for a win.   All round a really fun weekend.

King of the Coast
A week after Perth and we were back racing in my home town.  This race has been a long time coming up the Sunny Coast as we have many great paddlers up here and yet still didn’t have our own race.  Thanks to Kirk and Nat Jarrot and Shane and Kylie Dalziel and the many more supporters, sponsors and helpers the race got off the ground , so it was a race I had to support.   Unfortunately the weather didn’t come to the party and the wind was light east nor-east and not much fun at all.  It was a hard slog from Yaroomba to Mooloolaba and with  a fair but of fatigue under my belt I just didn’t have the spark I normally have and faded toward the end.  Jasmin Kelly who came 3rd in the 20 Beaches raced me from the start and grabbed a 10m lead on me going into the river mouth where we had about I k to go up river.   I was completely spent at this point and Jaz was too strong for me going on to claim the win.   All in all it was a great success and one to put in your Diary for next year.  

To be completely honest I’m totally ‘over’ paddling at the moment and have had a couple of weeks off.  I’m back into it this week to do some sprint work in preparation for this years Aussie titles at the end of March.   Looking forward to a change of pace and some short sessions and hopefully I’ll do enough to be a challenger for the open ski title.  If I managed to do a few board sessons between now and then, I’ll have a crack at that too.  Until then....

Happy paddling and surfing,

Kirsty