World Masters Games...Here I come.

I've done it. I completed and paid for my entry this morning. It feels great to finally have made that step. Hopefully I'll win one of those 'Skins' prizes for entering before the end of May. Yeh, right. Anyway, after a lot of grovelling to Mick, I've convinced him to do the sprints with me as well. I really wanted to do them, but wasn't really keen on doing them on my own. Now that I've convinced him to do the K2 sprints with me I'm so excited about that too. So my events are...
Womens 35+ Marathon K1
Mixed 35+ Marathon K2 (with Mick)
Mixed 35+ Sprint K2 200m
Mixed 35+ Sprint K2 500m
Mixed 35+ Sprint K2 1000m

Heavy schedule, but it should be sooooo much fun!

Howdy partner

On my way driving to school this morning I was excited to see Mick's car parked on the side of the road (where he waits with his children for the school bus). I pulled over, jumped out and got his medal out of my glovebox to give to him finally. It was his silver medal from the TK2 race we did together at State.
After a brief chat he asked me if I would like to paddle with him in a K2 at the World Masters Games. ABSOLUTELY!!! This was a great surprise as I thought he was going to paddle with another male. But this will be unreal. We paddle so well together, and I'm so excited at the prospect of paddling in a K2. This is looking fantastic!!!!
So at least 2 of my entries are sorted now. My 2 marathon races...My 35-39yr single K1, and now a 35-39yr mixed K2. Sweet. Now I just have to work out if I'm definately going to do sprints as well, in what, and if doubles with who (as a definate). Still plenty of time.

And so it begins

Well, after the successful completion of the 2008 Hawkesbury Canoe Classic (see my other blog), I felt sad that I now had nothing concrete to aim for. Initially I thought I'd set my goal on the 2009 Winter Marathon series, and maybe do the State Marathon Championships in March 2009.

Earlier in the year I recieved an email about Early Bird entries for the 2009 World Masters Games to be held in Sydney in October 2009. My initial thought was - there's no way I'd be good enough, and immediately put the thought out of my mind. However, whilst surfing the net after the HCC I came across the World Masters web site and began exploring it. I discovered that the marathon kayaking events will be held at Penrith (my old training place), and little thoughts started entering my head. How can I pass up an opportunity of competing in a World Masters Games held at my old training ground, on a river I know very well! I then looked up past results of the World Masters and Australian Masters competitions and was pleasantly surprised - maybe I could do this and not embarrass myself too much. Since the HCC I competed in the State Sprint 5000m Championships as a last minute entry. I won the Open Female Long Rec class in my Mirage 580 in a time of 32:41. I was the only entry in that category, so I was always going to win it - but I was still happy with my time (being in the Mirage). I also competed in a TK2 with Mick, a guy from the club (who is an excellent paddler). We had never paddled together before but clicked straight away. We were the only mixed TK2 entry so we were put in the Mens TK2 class, and we won that (by 2 seconds) in a time of 27:31. That was pretty cool and definately gave me the bug for racing again.

So as I sat at the computer I came to the realisation that this was something that I wanted to do. After 5 years of paddling nothing tippier than my Mirage, I decided to borrow a club K1 to see if I could still stay upright somewhat in one. I hopped in and paddled off straight away - hmm that went rather well. Since then I've paddled the K1 a fair bit and have only fallen out once (when I stupidly looked over my shoulder whilst stationary and talking to another paddler - duh!). And today, I thought - why wait for New Years resolutions, lets start a blog today.....and so it begins, the log of my journey towards the 2009 World Masters Games.