Manoel Island Race, 2005 edition

Sunday morning was windy, heh.

Little Sis and I trekked down to the next village at about 7:20am, where we would have a better chance of getting a bus (because the bus though my locality only starts at 9am on a Sunday). We'd been waiting a little while when one of the canoeists drove by, recognised me, and gave us a lift! :-)

When we got to the start/finish line in Sliema, we found that someone had messed up big-time... we had permits from three different entities saying that we could hold the race at that place and time, but then someone had gone and granted a permit to a fishermen's club to be there too... aaaaggrrrrrhhhhh...

Eventually it was sorted out, the fishermen moved, and it was all systems go to get ready and out on the water. Some people had to be recalled from the water to come and sign the registration papers, lol.

The situation vis a vis female competitors wound up being just like last year - just me and the same other woman in the race! I did my three laps and completed the race, so... if there are the two separate catagories like last year, with one for Elite athletes and one for amateurs, then I get the Gold again... and if it's just one catagory then I get the Silver :-D

I'm not sure which it is because there was no awards ceremony yesterday as the trophies and medals weren't ready on time. Maybe there was something at the very end, but we didn't hang around long after I finally finished (I was filthy from the slime at the quayside and desperate to get into dry clothes).

Oh yeah, like last year I was last again! There were two newcomers who have barely paddled before - one of them finished ahead of me, and the other was pulled out by the organisers after his second lap because he was having too much difficulty with his kayak - otherwise I would have been one-before-last.

Heh.

Mind you, I did improve on last year - I finished three minutes earlier at 1 hour and 32 minutes, but when you consider that most people did WORSE than last year (and only 3 people lapped me, as opposed to most of them), then that's an even bigger improvement than it looks :-) The wind slowed everyone down. At some points, I wasn't even paddling forwards, it was everything I could do just to keep the boat pointing in the right direction! There was a time when the waves looked like they had waves on them. And then there was a time when even the waves on the waves had waves on them...

It wasn't nearly as dramatic as last year for me though - there was no rescue boat to swamp me (although I was wearing a spraydeck this time, just in case!) and although the sailing class had started by the time I was on my third lap, it was in another area of the bay, closer to the Msida Marina, so I didn't have to help rescue stricken sailors. Lol.

One of the highlights was that a couple from church came to cheer me on, I saw them on the bridge when I was on my third lap. Funny, I had just been thinking to myself "would have been nice if someone had come"! After the bridge, the wind died down and I enjoyed that half of my third lap, but then I rounded the point and found out why... the wind direction had shifted so I got stuck with the strong wind again for the final stretch. meh.

I finished with a sigh of relief, and although I have plenty of aching muscles and joints, I'm happy that the race went ahead, that the weather wasn't too bad, that I finished, and that I didn't capsize :-) Coming first/second is just the icing on the cake!

Little Sis was a great photographer :-) and here are some of the shots she took. The ones with poor quality are because I was so far away that even the optical zoom couldn't cope. (And digital zoom decreases the quality tremendously).

This is me trying to sort out my number. Little Sis helped me out :-)

Paddling off, grateful for the guy who helped me get my kayak into the water AND held it steady while I got in... 10km while soaking wet wouldn't have been much fun...

And they're off! This is a few seconds after the start.

Beautiful, huh? It can be a real pain to live in Malta sometimes, but days like today more than make up for it :-)

When that tower finally rots altogether and collapses into the sea, we'll have to find another marker for that part of the route... If you squint, you can see my kayak behind it.

Having finally made it around three times, I come in for my less-than-triumphant finish, lol, while Coach and another kayaker look on (and encourage me to keep going!)

This is me trying to get out of the kayak in a hurry because they want it for the Fun Race, while every major muscle group in my body is screaming "You want us to do WHAT?!?" and my brain is going "Please don't fall in now. Please don't fall in now." (THANK YOU to the guy who helped me onto shore... I didn't so much exit the kayak as roll out of it, lol)

That's all folks.

Until next year's at least...

Heheheheh...

P.S. if you're in Malta and you think kayaking sounds like fun (no, you don't HAVE to race) then drop by www.mcu.org.mt, membership for 2005 is Lm18 and that includes unlimited use of Club equipment (non-members also welcome but have to pay Lm2 for rental per session).

Comments

[Boo and Nancy]

Great job! Thrilling to see you as you rounded the bend for your last lap. Little Sis did a great job with the photos, too. We were thinking the wind was a bit calmer -- guess it makes a difference where you are experiencing the wind. "You are the wind beneath my sails."

[MaltaGirl]

Thanks for coming!!! It was a very nice surprise to suddenly see you there on the bridge, and very encouraging too!

[Kenneth]

I think you got a mention here ;)