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Rasdex Classic River Race 2014

Better late than never! This year I was fortunate enough to be given permission to compete at the Rasdex Classic River Race, a 70km kayak race, rather than do safety like I have in the past few years. It was good timing as well, with having just received a brand new Flow kayaks Rush to try out. Although I didn't get a chance to paddle the new boat down the river before the race, I had paddled the river several times in other boats in the weeks leading up to the event, so I knew the river like the back of my hand. To increase the excitement of getting to race again I was named as someone to watch out for in the pre race predictions. www.sportzhub.com/news/rasdex-classic-river-race3

I was (fortunate) enough to still be in the junior category so I knew there was little chance of getting any competition from other juniors, so my main goal going into the event was to try and get into the top 10 overall and not have the open men catch me who were starting 15 minutes behind me. The novices, veteran woman and open woman started before me which gave me something to focus on as I chased them down the river.



By the time I got to the top of the gorge (25km into the race), I had passed everyone who started before me except for Sophie Hart and Olivia Spencer-Bower who were having quite a battle for the win in the Open Women's category. I would catch glimpses of them every now and then but couldn't seem to pull any time back. The rest of the gorge seemed to fly by fairly easily with the Rush being amazing to paddle, feeling super fast and smooth through everything the river had to offer.


Normally by the time I reach Woodstock (55km) I feel pretty tired and struggle to push hard for the final 15km. However today I still felt fresh and apparently even had a smile on my face as I was passing through! I was now getting constant views of Sophie and Olivia in the distance so I pushed as hard as I could to try and catch them before the end. Unfortunately I didn't quite have it in me to catch them but still managed to hold off the open men like I had hoped for. I knew I had had a near perfect race and now just had to wait and see where I came in overall.



In the end, the 70km paddle took me 3:56:33 which meant I won junior men by over 26 minutes! And was a good enough time for 9th overall (8th open men if I had have stepped up). With the race having basically been an individual time trial for me, I was left wondering how much quicker I could have gone if I had have started with the Open men and had them to flow along with. Next year I will find out!

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