Ibis to Dip Tank

2 qualifying points and 4 days later my body has recovered from effects of the Popes Allen Gardiener Memorial race. The race was a rather rude awakening after a 2 week Christmas holiday in the Cape. Popes Allen Gardiener Memorial race runs from Ibis point to Inanda Dam and forms part of the route of Day 2 of the Dusi. After a long holiday with no canoe training, very little rest and low water level on the river the race proved to be a challenge.

The Popes Allen Gardiener Memorial race is 26km. My partner and I spent 3 hours 45 minutes battling a rocky, windy and bumpy course where we paddled 20km on the river, portaged for 3km and finished with 4km on flat water.

During this race I learnt a few important life lessons:

1. I learnt that paddling is NOT for sissies – I’ve always considered myself to be a bit of a tough cookie, during this race I found myself feeling otherwise. After a few scrapes (no really, it was just a few flesh wounds) from menacing thorn bushes I caught myself silently longing for the comfort of my cotton duvet covers, hoping that someone would jump out the bush and slay the thorns for me.

   

   Me having a pitty party on my pitty potty after a close encounter with a thorn bush

2. Sometimes the best way to deal with nature is to just “go with it” – Due to the low water level our boat got stuck between rocks with the result we had to get in and out of the boat to try and break free. Whilst stepping out you stepped out onto various surfaces; sometimes you’d get some reed like vegetation, other times you’d find mud or a form of rock. The more rocky surface varied from smooth flat rocks, mossy slippery rocks, loose rocks/overgrown pebbles and some pseudo mud caked rocks (I refer to them as pseudo mud caked rocks as they had the appearance of caked mud, yet stepping on them sent you flying instead of providing the stability you so desperately seek). From the above mentioned description you can imagine that stepping out of a boat and walking on a rock may not be the most graceful endeavour. In some instances I found that the best way to scale down a slippery rock is to just “go with it”. If you can’t find your footing on a slippery rock just whip out your fun pants and slide down-the most efficient stance being that of a surfer on a surfboard.

   

   Me in my fun pants scaling the face of a rock 

3. There is something worse than running into a headwind - I managed to squeeze 2 short runs in whilst I was on holiday in the Cape. Since I have not trained at home in a while I forgot about the wind factor, my chilled run turned into a mild strengthening session compliments of the assertive breeze at Rondebosch Common. I remember thinking “What could be worse than running into a head wind?” Much to my dismay I got the answer to this question on Sunday while finishing the last stretch of the race…Paddling into a head wind for 4km on flat choppy water is way worse (in relation to river water, dam water does not “move” for this reason it is referred to as flat water)

Though I found this race both physically and mentally draining (I was seriously contemplating going for a psych analysis to ascertain why I agreed to do Dusi). It served as a good trail to prepare me for the race to come in 5 weeks time. I took comfort in the fact that most people found the race difficult due to the low water level and the general consensus was “it will never be worse than that”.