It's the horse, not the chariot

The first in the 2009 series of Wednesday-night paddling races came off in quick, cold, quiet fashion last night at Magnuson Park. Susan Roth's pictures of the small group (just six of us) are here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019878&id=1320698757&l=c44ff

We felt secure in predicting that the evening in the high 20s, with a brisk North wind that laid a mildly challenging side swell across our course, was to be remembered as the coldest race night of the year. We're counting on the weather doing nothing but getting better from here.

In spite of all my coaching from Don, and my lightning-fast Eddyline Falcon S18, this guy just didn't have it. In fact Don smoked me by a couple minutes over the 3-miler, and he was paddling with his hands, lying on his belly. More training!

All the news about the Wednesday-nighters, which are non-hosted and are for all levels of paddlers, can be found on the Google group, SWIFT Paddlers:
http://groups.google.com/group/swift-paddlers?hl=en