On Saturday, July 15th I drove to Seaford, DE to participate in the Nanticoke Riverfest Canoe and Kayak Race. This was to be my third race. I was excited about racing the surfski again and anxious to see what my pace would be on another river. I left the house around 7 am and got to the put-in a little after 9 am. I had planned to do some casual paddling on the river before the race. But what I hadn't planned on were allergies.

I have allergies. In fact, I'm allergic to so many things (cats, dust, mold, pollen, ... air) I just stopped keeping count and decided to take the allergy pills every day. Only sometimes I forget. And sometimes I forget several days in a row. And sometimes the days go by like weeks. So I hadn't taken the allergy pills for a long time.

I was about 30 miles outside of Seaford when the sneezing started. Acute allergic reactions always start so innocuously. By the time I got to the put-in my eyes were tearing, my face was swollen and my hands and feet had started to swell as well. I've been hospitalized 3 or 4 times for acute allergic reactions which progressed to anaphylactic shock so I was starting to get a little concerned. I took an antihistamine. And I waited.

I met some of the other racers and killed time by chatting about kayaking and racing. This guy who goes by the nickname "Ice" entertained me for about an hour with various stories. Occasionally I'd ask for his assessment of the swelling around the face and eyes. Things weren't getting any better. Another antihistamine.

By the time Susan and Kathy drove up I was starting to wheeze a little bit and I felt faint. Susan took one look at me and asked, "Do your hands always shake like that?" No. I took another antihistamine. I knew if the antihistamines didn't kick in I'd have to shoot myself up with adrenaline. I carry an Epi-pen which is a one shot dose of adrenaline. But it's a heavy dose and I didn't want to resort to extreme measures unless I had to.

Around noon we took the picture at the top of the post. My hands and feet had stopped swelling and everyone agreed that my eyes were recovering. I concluded that it wasn't my day to die, so I decided to race. I usually feel a normal rush of adrenaline when I'm competing and adrenaline is the drug of choice for allergies ... so I'm thinking that the race might actually be therapeutic. At least that was my rationalization.



The race started at 1 pm. There were maybe 20 kayaks total. A few surfskis, two outrigger canoes, a few plastic bathtubs. There was pretty much one of every type of boat. I didn't do any paddling before the race as planned so I was unsure of the current. It turns out the current was much stronger than I had expected. And there was a lot of gunk in the river. I set the GPS to beep at me if I fell below 4.5 mph. It beeped at me alot for the lap up the river. I wasn't sure if it was the current that was slowing me down or if there was seaweed wrapped around the rudder. So around mile two I decided to take the bold step and stop a casual rec boat kayaker coming down river and ask her to clean the rudder. She pulled off a big chunk of seaweed.

My pace picked up a bit but I was still struggling. Just as a group of us were nearing the turn around I decided to ask for one more swipe of the rudder. Kathy very graciously pulled off another chunk of seaweed.



The return lap down the river just flew by. It's always reassuring when you see nice big numbers in the MPH screen on the GPS. I finished the race at 1:22, which was not a good pace. Only two guys finished before me, but I was still disappointed. The first lap up the river really hurt me alot. I need to talk to some people about the rudder and seaweed issue. I have a kelp guard in front of the rudder, but obviously it wasn't keeping gunk from accumulating. Some racers keep two rudders and use a cut off rudder for racing. I'll have to ask around till I find a solution. And train harder. Wye Island is but two months away.

-Susanita