Sunday, May 27, 2012

The Loop

Until last night I had never heard about the infamous Loop, the 12 mile paddle board race around Coronado starting at Gator Beach and ending at Glorietta Bay Park. When Dougie Mann told me about it at 8:00 in the evening, the night before the event I immediately called Jeff Knox to ask to borrow his paddle board.

Some of the IB/Coronado guys broing out before the event
Having almost no experience paddle boarding my goal was to finish the race. I was done in less than two and a half hours but it was two and a
 half of the roughest hours that I have ever experienced.

I began the race strong, almost in the head of the pack. Being equipped with a 12 foot stock paddle board put me at a slight disadvantage to all the people on the 18 foot plus paddle boards.

I was going just as fast as them but working much harder. Halfway through the race I began to fully realize my mistake. My arms became harder and harder to move and I began to fantasize about fast food. I still had six miles to go.

Here's Dan Mann getting us fired up
Eventually I lost feeling in my arms and fell into a rhythm. I would keep my head straight down and every fifty strokes I would look up, reposition my self and start all over. The bridge came into view with less than four miles to go but it seemed that the closer I would get to it the farther away it would become.

I'm not sure if Dougie's board was long enough.
When I was within a couple hundred yards of it a wind sprang up in the exact opposite direction that I was paddling. I went from being excruciatingly sore to being excruciatingly sore and freezing cold.

As I finally passed underneath the bridge with the end in sight I began to pick up my pace. The only thing in my mind was the thought of eating incredibly large amounts of food that were waiting for me at the finish line. I passed the finish line and immediately started eating.

Finally done...
Despite the feeling as if someone had injected hot lead into my arms and the fatigue that I felt after the race I can honestly say that I had a great time in the Bay. Thank you to the Manns and to Ocean Minded for putting on such an awesome event!!!!




-Israel Dedina

No comments:

Post a Comment