April & May are some of the best months in the year and this morning at the Ascot Kayak Club John Sims Race it was just glorious, although there was a little cloud to start with. 108 paddlers had registered
for the event which was down to what it used to have, but it was still a good number. With the Australian Marathon Champion taking part, Josh Kippin, champion paddler Brendan Rice and several other top paddlers in the mix it was going to be an interesting race.
There were a few SUP boards and
outriggers so they were the first to leave, then the 16 doubles, soon after 28 K1s including me, two minutes later 34 skis & K1s and last of all a mixture of 10 paddlers on grid 5 & 6.
Taking off with the top guys doesn’t do anything for my self-esteem. They just fly off the start at an
amazing pace leaving me wallowing in their wash and me wondering how the hell do they manage to go off so fast. Surely I must have been like that when I was younger!!
By the time most of the wash had started to ease, I was well behind most of the paddlers apart from a couple to my right. Young Jono
was off chasing other faster paddlers ahead, Ron Clarke was just behind him and John Hilton was to their left chugging along closer to the bank so I had some catching up to do. It usually takes me 800 m to a kilometre to get into my top gear. By then some of the other paddlers who have sprinted like wild men have calmed down and nearly exhausted themselves, the trouble was there were only 3 paddlers I had a chance to catch up with as the others were too far in front. The four that looked too far
ahead and most likely impossible to catch were Chris Buxton, Dave Stephens, Sarah Major and Amanda Bowman. But young Jono, Ron and John Hilton were close enough for me to do a big hard sprint and catch them. By the 1km mark from the start I was on Ron’s wash with John and Jono just in front.
I got my
breath back and pulled up beside Ron who has been my main competition in my age group for several years. He is such a tough bugger and if he was paddling his ski I would never keep up but when in his kayak I have a chance. In the 4km race we had the day before I beat him by 1 min 7 secs so I thought I had an idea that in theory I should be slightly faster today.
My aim in any race is not just to get to the end before my competition but to get to the end with the fastest time that I can achieve as well as beat my competition. With that in mind I pulled away from Ron and sprinted a few metres further onto John Hilton’s wash who was sitting next to Jono.
I could now see Chris, Dave, Sarah and Amanda roughly 200 metres in front. Knowing that they were faster paddlers than I was I still had this urge to see if I could catch them so I took off with John and Jono joining me. By the time my sprint was over we made made a little ground on them but it was a big effort so I dropped back and got on John’s wash for a rest. By this time I think Ron was several metres
behind, and I was hoping I was too far ahead for him to catch me up.
We weaved in and out of a fewer slower paddlers mainly the SUPs and when we reached the pipeline about 4 kms from start the first of the faster ski paddlers from the grid behind started to pass John on his right. It
was Jules Fredonnet an U18 year old and he was on fire. The pace quickened when John jumped on his wash. I was working overtime to keep up on the shallow corner and eventually Jules and John got the better of me and I had to drop back and say goodbye. By now Jono had already dropped back so that was him out of the way.
Luckily for me Jules was too fast for John, so John lost his wash which gave me a chance to catch him again and with an almighty sprint I managed it. I settled in for a few hundred metres behind him and got ready for the turn around the bridge. There was no point for me to fight to get there first.
As we turned I managed to get back on John’s side wash. With half the race over we just needed to keep the pressure on. John did most of the leading with me having a few attempts to pull him along. We had reached Sandy Beach and with less than a kilometre to go the next faster paddlers from the grid behind caught up and luckily for me they were passing on my left. As we turned around Sandy Beach corner and
into the straight I managed to get on Martin Watson’s wash. Martin is fast, real fast. I wish I was as fast as him. I have the looks, he has the speed!! Well that’s what he told me!!
I didn’t know if I would be able to hang on, but I was going to give it a good try. Next to him was Tim Cornish and Paul Waters and John was next to me. They must have had a good race. Anyway the
closer we got to the finish line the faster Martin paddled but somehow I managed to hang on and crossed the line a fraction behind Martin, with Tim, Paul and John just behind.
Well what a great race it was thanks to John. It felt fast and after getting the results I was really happy with my time
of 59:49.3 so I broke the hour, yippee.
The top paddlers were:-
Josh Kippin 47.09
Brendan Rice 48.21
Kent Jenkinson 49.09
Results from AKC John
Sims Race
