Racing, Life, and Rediscovering Passions 2.0

Funnily enough I started off the last post on here with the following passage;

“As most of you will have noticed, I’ve been rather quiet on the race/blog front recently. In typical me fashion, I got injured. Again! But this update is going to be a wee bit different to anything I have done in the past. It is going to be a review of the last year, relating to work, racing, life, and rediscovering my passions. I apologise in advance if any of you fall asleep while reading this, I have discovered that putting my thoughts on paper (or in this case online document) is a valuable tool to remind myself of lessons learnt through either success or failure, and ensure I keep moving forward. As someone far wiser than me once said, “don’t bury your failures, let them inspire you!”

Annnnnnnd guess what… I did get injured… again. And just like the last post, I started a new job a year ago as well. This time though I finally followed my heart and took a step towards my dream of working on a rescue helicopter by accepting an incredible opportunity with St John on a residential training program to fast track working on the ambulance as an EMT. Unfortunately, I had a meeting with a tree (more about that later) a few weeks before my final assessment and was unable to sit the clinical assessment day. While I guess I technically failed, the past 7 months in a “light duties” capacity have given me far more opportunities for growth and development within the organisation than I could have achieved working on the road (that almost sounds like a statement from a past life and a commerce degree…).

So what has happened over the past year? Here is a brief summary

August 2021

• Did my first kayak race in a double near Queenstown. Swam 200m off the start line. It started snowing. Pretty much came last. It was awesome.
• Accepted a position on the St John EMT residential program
• Quit my role as an auditor at Moore Markhams after almost 4 years
• Stepped down as Vice-President of the Down River Kayak Club due to being unable to dedicate the time required to give the club my all

September 2021

• Effectively moved to Queenstown for the EMT residential program. The program involved being based at a hotel in Arthurs Point, doing on average 12 hour days of learning and scenarios followed by many hours writing assignments and a few weeks of road blocks to help reinforce the information learnt in the classroom.

October 2021

• Participated in my first 24 hour solo mountain bike race in Hanmer Springs. Or rather, I did 18 hours work on assignments that were due that weekend and 6 hours of laps for a mental break from the studying/writing. I’d love to go back and give this race a proper attempt as 24 hour racing was something I really wanted to do when I was focusing on 10/12 hour solo races in 2017/18.
• Had my first couple of weeks work experience on an ambulance. It definitely reinforced I had made the right decision changing careers but I remember slightly crapping myself when the very first job was cardiac related. I wasn’t quite expecting to need those skills straight away!

November 2021

• More learning. More assignments. A few adventure weekends in Wanaka. A huge thanks to Ben for effectively adopting me each weekend and showing me how great of a spot Wanaka is for the wannabe athlete. Oh and thanks for the introduction to Firebird…. If you know you know, if you don’t know, you’ve got to give them a try next time you are in Wanaka.

December 2021

• It’s not all learning, assignments, and working on Christmas day, I managed to squeeze in a wedding as well! The bride wasn’t too impressed though that I was straight back to work afterwards to continue the learning and development.

January 2022

• Revenant. The most incredible event I have ever been involved in. Incredible location. Incredible views. Incredible weather. Incredible people. I’ve been fortunate enough to be there the past 2 years and it’s honestly too incredible to accurately describe in writing. If you are crazy enough to compete, or happen to be in the area when it is on, I’d highly recommend going along to watch. Head over to Welcome Rock’s website, Slate Hut is well worth the trip for a night.
• Fracture time… A gentle scrape of a tree while mountain biking, not even enough to make me crash, caused a fracture significant enough to require surgery. 2 titanium plates and 7 screws later I found myself unable to complete the residential program I had worked so hard towards passing. A real bummer to have been so close to sitting the final assessment and passing the course, but as they say, shit happens, and I think in this case it has actually provided a bit of a silver lining with some exciting opportunities that will hopefully be announced soon.

February 2022

• Westport experienced another flood event, this time with it being expected to be worse than the flooding they had experienced in July 2021. Due to my hand being in a splint I was fortunate to be allowed to deploy. I found myself in the Emergency Operations Center helping with the coordination of the response teams and also with leading the evacuation of vulnerable people from the community ahead of the flooding
• Safety/Medic at Coast to Coast. I love being involved with this event. It doesn’t matter whether I’m competing, support crewing, or assisting on the river, it has had a huge impact on my life over the past 12 years and who I am today.
• 4 weeks post operation and I find myself strangely able to paddle despite having ongoing pain with any finger movement. I make the slightly crazy goal of racing marathon nationals at the end of May with no base and no idea of how my hand would handle sustained training

March 2022

• Thanks to a qualified OT, the inability to straighten my little finger following surgery results in me being placed on light duties and unable to complete the residential program. As a side benefit, I find myself with flexibility to train. I pretty much had to start at square one again due to 5 months out of the boat with the residential program and breaking my hand, however I was stoked to do just over 300km of flatwater training during the month.
• I participate in my very first kayak sprint event at Lake Crichton. I place 1st B final K1 200m, 1st B final K1 500m, and 3rd B final K2 200m after a spectacular near swim in front of the crowd just before the finish line

April 2022

• Another month, another 325km in the bank towards marathon nationals. It’s actually almost starting to seem like a possible goal, with potentially not just being a finish, but if things went right maybe a podium performance

May 2022

• Another 230km in the bank and it’s time to head to Wellington for nationals. I was pretty proud of my build up considering the circumstances and was quietly hopeful for a good race. Nationals was supposed to be a 30km race consisting of five and half laps. I lasted 12km… An unfortunate swim in the middle of Porirua harbour spat me out the back and took a long time to swim to shore to empty the boat. By the time I got going again my core temp had dropped dramatically and my day was done. It was still an epic experience and I can’t wait to do more marathon racing the future

June 2022

• While nationals was a bit of disaster, I was more motivated than ever to keep building my paddling and get faster. The month totaled 300km on the water but included two races and also the start of a coaching relationship with Ben Fouhy.
• With the first race of the month cancelled due to the conditions, I put on my race organiser hat and arranged a fun race from Hagley Park to Little Poms on the Avon river. I was fortunate to get some help with timing so I was able to race as well. Due to a tight spot on the river near the start, we started with a short Le Mans style run to the kayaks, then paddled down through town with a few confused onlookers. It was my first race in a K2 and we were pretty pleased to cross the line in 1^st against a reasonably classy field
• The following weekend was a 18km race down the Waimak. Once again we were racing in the K2. We finished 1^st in the doubles category but were disappointed to have made a couple of poor line choices which meant we only finished 4^th overall. Our goal was definitely to finish 1^st overall: https://www.webscorer.com/racedetails?pid=1&raceid=280597

July 2022

• I’m sure by now you can guess the theme, a lot of paddle training, 3 races, but also a short volunteer deployment to assist with flooding in the Selwyn District.
• The first race was also the first race on the Topsport Pro-Am series. I was pretty stoked when the race changed from the Waimak to a 8.5km marathon style format on the Kaiapoi River. With this being a relatively rare format in New Zealand for races, I knew we had a distinct advantage over many others due to the nature of our training. We had a great race finishing 1^st double and 3^rd overall behind a couple of really classy athletes: https://www.webscorer.com/racedetails?raceid=282751&did=333773
• The second race was organized by the Down River Club Race and was 12.5km on the Styx river. Once again we finished 1^st double but also managed to finish 1^st overall: https://www.webscorer.com/racedetails?raceid=284270
• The third race for the month was the second race in the Topsport Pro-Am series. This race was 25km down the Waimak and to be perfectly honest, I was pretty nervous about it as the river was flowing high at roughly 214 cumecs. I didn’t need to be nervous as we had another great race, finishing 1^st double and 3^rd overall again with a thrilling sprint finish against Sam Newlands: https://www.webscorer.com/racedetails?raceid=284838

August 2022

• To round off a couple of months of racing, I decided why not race every weekend?!
• The first race was once again organized by myself as a replacement for a club race which had been cancelled. It was a fun (well I thought so anyway) 15km race on the Avon which was comprised of 2.5km laps with a short 100m portage. There may have been a wee bit of contact during the first turn and found myself swimming… Another swim a few kilometers later and I could only manage a sprint for second place
• The second race was organized by the Down River Club again and was 18km down the Waimak. Not every race can go perfectly, and this one certainly didn’t. I made a couple of poor line choices due to making selections that had worked well historically rather than where the water was going on the day. I ended up having to carry my boat a couple of times to find deeper water which lost a lot of time. In prior years I probably would have been happy with 3^rd Open Men and 6^th overall, however I know I was definitely capable of more if I had have just focused more and raced smartly: https://www.webscorer.com/racedetails?raceid=286321
• The third race was the final one in the Topsport Pro-Am series. We knew we just had to finish to wrap up the series win for the doubles category however we wanted to finish the final race with an overall win. We had a plan and we executed that plan to perfection. There was once again a thrilling sprint finish against Sam Newlands however we got a way with 1^st doubles and 1^st overall: https://www.webscorer.com/racedetails?raceid=287124&did=340699
• To round out the month of racing, I once again put on my race organiser hat and turned my training session of two 5km time trials into two 5km races. The first race ended in me getting a little bit of schooling in the necessity of a proper warmup and ended up 3^rd. The second race was far better with my arms actually feeling warmed up and ready to race. I made a bit of a tactical error and was outsprinted to the line, finishing 2^nd however I well and truly achieved my goals for the training session turned race

So what’s next and probably more importantly, why am I putting this much effort into kayaking suddenly? Well as many people who will actually read this are probably aware, I’ve decided I want to head to South Africa to compete in the Dusi Canoe Marathon. Over 3 days of racing, the course makes paddlers navigate weirs, grade 3 rapids, and run with their kayaks on their shoulder over hills. It’s one of those races that are an achievement just to finish, especially as an international due to the unique nature of the racing, however I don’t want to just finish, I want to be competitive and show what New Zealand paddlers are capable of. Big goals require a lot of hard work so you can guarantee pending any injuries you will find me training most days. I'm definitely lucky that despite everything over the years and all the injuries/health issues I have been able to keep rediscovering kayaking in all of its different forms. I love paddling and I'm stoked I can do it every day. 

If you’ve never heard of the Dusi, here is a video with a bit of the history and some snippets what I can expect come race day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22VDAyawlFw&t=2s

With a whole calendar of events coming up I will be posting on here frequently again, a) to keep you all informed as I progress towards Dusi, b) because I've personally had great joy reading through all my old posts and seeing how I have developed over the years, relearning a lot of gems of information I wrote but have subsequently forgotten. 

“Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.”