Wednesday
Travel day to Wrightsville Beach from Columbia, South Carolina was pretty casual. We couldn't check in until 4 pm and the drive was just over three hours so we were not in a big hurry. After a quick stop at Ashley's favorite store, Trader Joe's, on the edge of town we arrived at the
Blockade Runner Beach Resort where we were staying. The Resort would also be the center of all race activities during the weekend.
The Blockade Runner was located with one side of the hotel on the beach and the other side was on the Soundside Harbor. We had only seen pictures online of the event location but once we were in our room on the top floor we could get some lay of the land on the Sound side and see where several of the races would start and finish. Beautiful view and sunset and the kids got in some quick paddling time before we called it a day. Thursday and Friday would be warm up days with the coaches and Saturday would be race day. We even started to see some of the pros on the beach like last year's Carolina Cup Champion,
Michael Booth, as well as some of the Grom racers the kids competed against at the
Pacific Paddle Games last year.
Thursday
A morning walk into the more commercial area of town was on tap to look for some additional groceries and a bathing suit for Alex. We found ourselves a great surf shop and cool little grocery store that served sandwiches and salads on one side and smoothies and organic food bowls on the other. We hoofed it back to the hotel with our haul and the coaches decided they wanted to meet up for a quick paddle. Coaches, Shelby and Bicho, paddled up on the Sound side from their rented house and met the kids. About this time I met up with the SUP outfit who would rent me a board for the 10K race. When I came back to the beach with my rental the group was chatting with last year's Carolina Cup champion, Sonni Hönscheid. We had met her at the PPG the last two years, is super nice and good friends with our coaches.
I joined them part way into their short paddle and everyone decided to keep the workout light and pack it in for the day. I needed to get out and get familiar with the new rented board and a borrowed paddle so I went up the waterway on my own for as long as I could against the current, chop and stiff head wind. It is about this time when I wish I had more paddle time back in Mexico and was in a bit better condition for my first attempt at competition. Paddling upwind, against the current is TOUGH!
Friday
The alarm went off early and the kids got some food and then out the door. Alex was meeting Bicho on the ocean side for some ocean time and Trace went with me to the Sound side to explore some of the 10K course that we would both be doing Saturday. Trace has been battling a shoulder injury and some other "funkiness" so it was his choice to change races. At this time of the weekend he seemed pretty satisfied with his decision. He would get a chance to compete against some of the kids who raced at the Pacific Paddle Games as well. This left Alex all alone in the Graveyard race with the exception of Bicho who would be battling with the Pro men well ahead of her during the race. The plan for Saturday would be for Trace and I to start our race, then a half hour later Alex would start on the ocean side. Trace and I would finish our race and then sometime after we were done Alex would pass the resort beach on the Sound side at about the 1/3 completion mark. She would then be on the course on her own for the remainder of the long paddle. The course direction would be decided on race day depending on weather.
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| Friday mid day conditions. If the ocean part of the race looks like this on Saturday, things could get interesting. |
Saturday - Race Day
Another early morning but this time it was time to race! Trace and I reported to their race first. The
Money Island 10K which is actually more like a 10.5 K depending on tides and who you ask. Ashley and Alex hung out until the start then quickly made their way over to the ocean side where Alex began her race.
Almost 160 racers were at the starting line in different age and board classes. I was a little slow and wobbly getting to the start line so I was toward the rear of the pack to begin the race and I was able to spot Trace with some other kids well ahead of me. He was not going to keep an eye on his dad for any reason this day.
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| Money Island 10K Race |
The race ran clockwise from the start which is a race organizer decision based on the day's weather and wind direction. The event began early enough so that the water did not get too choppy but with the wind coming sideways from inland to the race course there was NO part of the course that provided any wind or current assisted paddling. In other words, racers had to earn every stroke to progress toward the finish line. Somewhere on the back stretch I passed Trace who was having trouble with the wind and wakes created by passing boats. Actually everyone was having a hard time but Trace was one of the smallest and lightest competitors in the race so the wind had an even bigger effect as he fought to keep paddling and make forward progress.
Eventually I made it to the end of the race with my legs barely able to move as I hobbled off my board and tried to mostly run to the finish line. Think I may have passed 3 people the entire race and there were several age groups and board classes so I really had no idea who I was actually "competing" against. I was always able to see a LARGE group of paddlers who I just couldn't gain on. Once I saw the final results later I was able to see that this group was paddling 14' boards which are much faster than my 12'6" board. 60 paddlers were ahead of me during the race on 14' boards so when out there paddling I felt like a total SUP racing wash out. After the race I was glad to find out they had an equipment advantage so I was able to keep my chin up about where I finished. I was really in it to participate and get my first race experience so I did not get too caught up in it but when I found out that I was 1.5 minutes out of being on the podium in 3rd place for racers over 50 and paddling 12'6" boards I admit I was a little bummed. All good though.
Not long after I finished Trace came flying in to the finish line looking really strong and nothing like the tired kid I passed a half hour earlier. As the announcers called out his name and time they also declared Trace the youngest competitor in the entire Money Island Race and he received a round of applause from the large crowd gathered. Pretty cool! I think several young girls from the local JR SUP Team were also trying to get a look at the good looking 11 year old blonde racer entering the finish line area as well.
Alex' 13.2 mile Graveyard Elite Race would start on the beach. Another 118 racers of all age categories lined the beach to begin the race. Ashley and the coaches were there to support Alex and one of the kid's coaches, Bicho, was also racing but with the Pro Men's class. He had finished in the top 10 a few years ago and this was his first professional race in several years. A familiar friendly face from last fall's Pacific Paddle Games saw Alex on the beach getting ready for the race and a quick visit helped calm her nerves a bit. 16 year old professional SUP racer,
Jade Howson, greeted Alex with a needed smile, hug and best wishes for the race. Love that the SUP community is supportive like that. Jade would take 3rd place overall in this race. She is becoming the new face of women's SUP racing.
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| Alex and Coach Bicho get ready |
The men's divisions were off first and before Alex could back out at the last moment her race began as well. The conditions were beautiful and the race organizers decided on a clockwise direction for the race based on the wind. The race started on the ocean, went inland then back out to the ocean to finish where the race began. This direction would put the racers back out into the ocean for a longer final stretch than if the race ran counter clockwise. This meant that the exhausted racers would be paddling a longer final stretch trying to get to the finish in demanding choppy conditions if the wind picked up a lot.
Not long after Trace and I finished our race, Alex was supposed to pass by the start/finish line for The Money Island Race. This way we could hang out and still see her briefly before she disappeared into the twists and turns of her remaining race. Though it was only for a minute it was great to see her paddling by, knowing that we were cheering for her and going after her goal.
Now, all we could do was wait. We put Trace's board away, returned my rented board and got a quick snack then went over the beach side to watch the finishers. The first finishers were the Pro Men who began to arrive at about the 2 hour mark and the first women began to finish just 20 minutes later. We watched Coach Bicho come to the finish and celebrated with him for his 13th place overall finish but returned scanning the ocean with our binoculars for Alex. Fortunately though the increasing wind didn't stir up the ocean like the previous day.
At about the three hour mark Ashley spotted a familiar paddler making her way up the coast. We watched 104 paddlers finish before Alex crossed the finish line. Again, the announcer at the finish line told the crowd Alex' name, time and just like her brother, was the youngest competitor in the Graveyard Race that day. She actually finished 3rd overall for her age since there were very few racers under 17 who could tackle that length race. We found out later that no one really realized that Alex was only 13 years old plus, she completed the race on 12'6" board and not the faster 14' board most of the field was using. Big kudos to this girl from many people for her finish including 2x Carolina Cup winner Sonni Hönscheid from Germany. She was very sweet to Alex and the hugs and "high fives" were very much appreciated.
Her coach was pretty stoked too.
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| Proud coach. |
One of the most admirable things Alex did that day happened at the finish line. There was a table set out for race finishers with snacks and water. The water was in single use plastic bottles and being the "ocean plastics warrior" she is she said NO to the water even though her CamelBak had been out of water for quite a while. Not to worry, Ashley hooked her up with some fluids that were not in a plastic bottle and Alex began her recovery though she was pretty loopy after her 3 hours and 14 minutes on the water. Water, food and a quick nap were needed and deserved.
The kids returned to the room for some time out of the sun while Ashley and I got some food, beer and checked out the final results postings and we were both excited for the kids each finishing 3rd in their age group in their races. The kids did extra training almost every week after they decided to attend the race and that was the important part. Commit to the process and give it your best come race day. We were pretty happy to see them on the podium at the end of all practice, travel and energy it took to come from western Mexico.
While the lessons learned by committing to the process of preparing for something like this are priceless, some of the relationships made are equally important. We met up with the
Wrightsville Beach JR Elite SUP Team while we were there. They are a team just like ours but at this race they were the "home team". They train weekly on the same waterways the races were on and were extremely nice hosts to us and our racers. Alex made friends with a girl a few years older than her who was on this team and shared the podium with. She also provided a bit of race advice and a friendly face that helped calm Alex' nerves a bit. Trace also made friends with a paddler who also had to make a tough decision about what race to compete in when injuries and illness prevented training to do as well as he had hoped to.
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| Trace with a few members of the Wrightsville Beach Elite JR SUP Team |
We love to see these kind of friendships, though distant, develop between kids who have similar interests. These days they can look on Instagram or whatever and see what SUP friends are doing on the water thousands of miles away. If Trace and Alex continue to paddle they will continue to see some of these young athletes at future races so walking away with some new friends is a great benefit of making a trip like this. We will certainly be staying in touch with them.
Sunday/Monday
Sunday we checked out of the Blockade Runner for the short trip back to Columbia to stay with Ashley's folks one more night. At 4am, yes 4am, we left Columbia to drive to Atlanta for a flight back to Mexico. Once again we had to get the boards on the plane so we had to go to the "Special Services" desk to coordinate all our luggage and get approval to put the oversized boards aboard. We were waved over to the next available agent. She saw that we were going to Mexico and said something brief in Spanish. Alex provided a short response and suddenly the agent's professional demeanor changed. After a few more questions to the kids(not to dad) the agent realized that these were not American kids who could speak a little Spanish but they sounded Mexican too. The kids told her we have been living in Mexico for most of their lives and suddenly we were family with this lady who we assume to have been from Mexico earlier in her life. She happily made sure our extra and oversized luggage was taken care of as we ran off to get into the security line. Pretty fun interaction but not unique when the kids converse with native Spanish speakers. We have had some fun but brief visits with some nice people this way.
Lots of time, sweat and energy went into this Semana Santa. Getting the kids race boards for Christmas was a great decision even without knowing at the time we were going to The Carolina Cup this year. We are happy we made the trip, how the kids performed and represented their team back in Mexico and stoked about the new friends we made. Trace is a little bummed that he did not compete in the BIG race, the Graveyard, but we feel like he made the right decision paddling the 10K. He really wanted the bragging rights for completing the longer distance especially after Alex was declared the youngest competitor in the race. So, perhaps the fire will burn strong enough for Trace to continue to focus on going back next year....but it is a long way away and who knows what the SUP world will throw our way by then. For now, some time away from the water.
This just in. The highlight video produced by the Carolina Cup. If you look carefully you can see Alex and Ashley with Coach Shelby getting ready before the Graveyard Race.
