I finished the 111km Hawkesbury Classic yesterday morning and wanted to share my initial account of this event:


Race Start to Sackville (31.2km):
The Start at 4:15pm was ok, into a bit of a headwind, set off at a pretty easy but steady pace alongside Chris Hughes (the other Stand Up entrant). There was a little bit of rain as I made it quicker than expected (with the help of the run out tide) into the 1st rest stop at Sackville, feeling quite good (considering) with an average speed of 7.8km/hr.



Sackville to Wisemans Ferry (33.8km):
This leg was challenging, my body was starting to ache all over & it was against the tide. This whole section felt slow, wet & seemed to go forever. I just tried to focus on getting to the next rest stop stroke by stroke, hour by hour. Took about 4:45hrs with an average of 6.5km/hr (I don't think the distances per the provided maps were quite right?). This rest stop was mayhem & took longer than I wanted, canoes were everywhere, and paddlers taking long breaks with lots of people pulling out.



Wisemans Ferry to the finish (~46km):
Back out into the darkness & good to get away from the mayhem, just thought maybe should have put some dry & warm clothes on, too late now. The run out tide was nice, now the speed was up again, rain stopped, I dried out, moon popped thru the clouds, back into a rhythm & going well again. The next stretch was pretty lonely in the wee hours of the morning , I didn't pass or get passed by too many other paddlers. One paddler who passed me suggested missing the next rest stop (as it's about 1km detour from the course) & go straight for the finish? I quickly checked if I had enough fluid & nutrition to get me to the end, yes let's go for it.

Passed checkpoint N (93.5 km) & advised them I'll skip the rest stop at Spencer & to tell my landcrew the change of plans (questioning myself will I regret this?). Passed checkpoint O at about 5:15am, 12.5km to go feeling good & thinking I might actually finish.

Then it all turned bad, rounded the next bend & BAM straight into 20-25knot Southerly in the dark trying to punch thru the 1ft wind chop (built up over a ~3km straight stretch ahead of me).



My K15 wasn't made for this but did a great job of piercing the waves, I had to keep it pointed straight into the waves but also needed to angle across to the other side of the river & get some protection from the wind & waves. After grinding through this section for almost an hour I made the next checkpoint, then crossed again to the other side for some protection. Now I was really cold, wet & starting to feel the effects of the last hour. Changed into a heavier jacket and paddled around the next bend back out into the wind. There was no protection to the next checkpoint, just time to really dig deep & slog it out. After another hour I barely made the next checkpoint 3km up river but could finally feel the end coming. Punched across wind then turned & caught a few quick runners downwind (hang on this is supposed to be a flatwater marathon not a downwinder) before the final turn to the finish. 2km to go into a heavy current & a cross wind, I'm thinking @4km/hr that's ? hr to go let's go. With the finish tent in sight that last stretch took forever. (Per my GPS (before it ran out of battery) this last few hours I averaged 4.4 km/hr).

I finished at 7:45am in a time 15hrs 30 minutes, completely smashing my goal of 17 hrs, stoked with my time & actually finishing it in those conditions (I heard about 1.5 hrs after I went thru the Spencer checkpoint they were stopping paddlers due to the conditions).

Thanks to Stuart Murray for his advice & his Pioneering effort 2 years ago, it was his article in Australian Paddler Surfer that inspired me to give it a crack this year. This is a great event, well worth the effort & all for a good cause. With good preparation & a bit of work this event is achievable for most & would love to see a few more SUPs enter next year.

Here's my Garmin plot (before it ran out of batteries, there's a few straight spots where I put it on charge, the distances per my GPS are slightly shorter than the provided maps), also a link to the Hawkesbury Classic website:

connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/54098852

www.canoeclassic.net/



I'll post some more pictures when I get them off my ground crew.