Goose Chase 6/11 and Nashua River Race 6/18

So we have had some good and bad racing weekends behind us that I should catch up on. 6/11 was the Goose Chase Race on the twisty, shallow, Housatonic River out in the beautiful Berkshires of Western MA. We didn’t have the best race here to say the least, the Housatonic river is very challenging and technical and I (Captain Terese) wasn’t feeling my best at all. Normally we love a good technical river but when you aren't feeling well its just tough to keep it together when every corner is almost a 180 degree turn. After about an hour of racing we ended up pulling out early as we cruised past the start/finish line. We needed to make an unscheduled pit stop at the sani-cans. I won’t bore you with the details but I think the DNF had something to do with the drink of choice that day, Powerade. I will say one thing, the local racers in this area put a good whooping on everyone and really ran away with the race. Great job to all the Housi paddlers, they know their pretty little river well!!

The following weekend found us on the Nashua River for a really great little race. We spend A LOT of time on this river but we paddle a different section of it upstream in Harvard. The race course was on the lower section in Groton, and it’s a fun little course because you paddle upstream at the start of the race, turn around a bridge abutment, paddle downstream to the start/finish line and buoy turn around the finishing buoy and head upstream a short while to turn around another buoy and come back down and finish where you started. Kelly Zablonski was at the race once again doing another fantastic job capturing the whole event with her camera. I can basically tell the story of the race through her photos because she was able to catch us at a few different spots. We finished out this race 1^st in the mixed category and had a great time drafting back and forth with the ladies pictured below Carina Peritore in the stern of the boat and Christina Wilson in the bow. These gals are a force to be reckoned with and nabbed us at the end as you can see. It was nice to win the mixed race this year because we have always been the bridesmaids so to speak in previous years coming in 2^nd and 3^rd.  

Great turnout at the 2011 Nashua River Race

All the C2's on the starting line

Waiting for the gun!

And were off!! Not one of our best starts this year. There was a little ramming going on here



First buoy turn on the bridge abutment, Carina and Christina are right there with us. I love this photo cause you can really get a great view of how much you can lean a pro boat without actually tipping over.




Us coming into the second buoy turn which is also the finish line after the second loop is completed  



Sneaking in on the inside

Headed back upstream for the second loop

Sprint to the finish with Carina and Christina

And they happened to get just ahead of us at the end. Nice job ladies!!!