Seeing as how the USARA Nationals race is being held in Texas this year, the team figured that a good old fashioned Georgia hill run would be excellent preparation. Or maybe we're just crazy.

This was also my first chance to test out the gps logging capabilities courtesy of MyTracks of my new HTC Hero phone. I must admit, I was quite impressed with the reception, even in the valleys. According to the log we did 32 km with about 1500 meters of climbing.

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Allen took a break from his nearly non-stop adventure race schedule to race with me in an OC2 in the Southeastern Wildwater Championships Sept. 27.

He and I paddle mostly flat water, so we were really looking forward to hitting the fast water of the Nantahala River near Bryson City, N.C., and uncertain at how we'd do in the race. It rained a ton the day before, so we knew we were in for a great ride in our tandem open canoe, which we borrowed from world champion wildwater canoe paddler Jon Pinyerd.

We wrapped the bow and stern with a bunch of duct tape and stuffed the boat full of all the float bags we could find and borrow. Allen steered from the stern, while I took the job of guiding the boat from the bow.

Turns out we won with a time of 55:21 for the 8.2-mile course ... and it also turns out we were the only OC2 in the race! Hey, we can't help it if nobody else showed up in our division!

Hopefully, next year more folks will show up. We'll be there to defend our championship along with the other Wildwater canoes and kayaks. Wildwater's a great sport. Check here for more on races around the country.


- Paul