Well this weekend saw the Start of the Marathon Races for the year with the Back2Back at Murray Bridge.

Before I jump in, When I got home, one of the things I did was to check and see if the HCC entries had opened, and yes, Entries did in fact open over the weekend.  I wasted no time in submitting my Entry and was the first paddler to do so!  All support and sponsorship greatly appreciated  – HCC 2013 Profile

A quick summary –

• Day 1 – 2:30:15 for 20.4km @ 8.1km/h
• Day 2 – 2:25:03 for 20.1km @ 8.3km/h

The Conditions were pretty good with the Temperature between 10 and 20 both days.  Saturday afternoon saw just a little bit of wind from the South, and Sunday saw a good strong 25km/h+ North Easterly that was pretty harsh for part of the course.

2013 Back2Back Day 1 Map

Above, Saturday course is (starting at the bottom) Start from the Swanport Sailing Club up to the Town Bridge, Back to the Southport Bridge, then back up to the Town bridge and finally back to the Sailing Club to finish.

2013 Back2Back Day 1 GPS Plot

I was pretty happy with a consistent speed for most of the day, the “dip” was when I stopped to see if a Capsized paddler required assistance, but with 3 other Paddlers already stopped, I could not really offer any more help than they already had.

On to day 2….

2013 Back2Back Day 2 Map

Day 2 on Sunday Morning we again started at the Swanport Sailing Club but this time went upstream and turned around a Buoy near Avoca Dell, then back.

2013 Back2Back Day 2 GPS Plot

That Wind that I mentioned earlier, well my speed plot really shows what it was like! Yes, we had a reasonable head-wind for about 3.5km before turning around the buoy.  With an out and back, of course, this means a tail wind as soon as you do turn around!

If I look back at my post from earlier in the year my target was to be under 2:30:00 each day.  Well, 15 seconds out for day 1 is so close that I count this as a success, considering that I did stop to check on a capsized paddler and not ask for a reduction in time.

I just did look back and pull up my 2012 Results and note that I was about 10 minutes faster on day 1 and 13 Minutes faster on Day 2.  All things considered, a good weekend.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to try out a few new things as preparation for the RPM (as this is why the event was originally started).

I tried out some changes to clothing and seating.  Clothing, last year I suffered from Cramps in my legs from the cold – so I got some Long Neoprene pants to try.  Day 1, I wore just the neoprene and suffered for it – yep, got leg cramps during the night!  This was the first time in over 2 years that I had paddled without compression pants.  Day 2, added the compression pants as the bottom Layer – I will see how that works out and get it right before the RPM.  The Neoprene’s worked very well in so far as when getting into the boat, only my shoes got wet as the Neoprene kept my legs dry right from the start.

The Next thing was to grab a couple of sheepskins (Thanks to the generous donation of off-cuts saved from the bin from Pip) and add 1 to the seat.  As my seating has been very good to me, I didn’t really expect much from it – but I was surprised.  Yes, it was a very worthwhile addition and I will use one from now on!

Now, with only 4 more weeks of training until the RPM, it is a case of getting as much boat time as possible to sort out the last few little issues..