The Tingalpa Trot, although only a 10 kilometre race holds a lot of prestige amongst South East Queensland canoe clubs. The overall winner spends the next 12 months bragging that they are the reigning 'Trot' winner. Dave and I (Kim) had never paddled on the stretch of river which starts from the Wynnum Canoe Club near the bay and winds it's way 10.6km upstream to the finish line. The river starts off about 50m wide but gradually gets tighter and tighter until there's only room for one boat to squeeze through the mangroves. There are also a couple of tight 180 bends in the Creek which catch many unaware.
Dave and I were both in the first start of the day with all the other K1's. There were about 30 boats in our start so things were very hectic particularly at the start. Dave got away to a flyer with the lead boats, whereas I (despite my unquestionable explosiveness!) was left to battle through what could only be described as a washing machine. Things settled down about a kilometre into the race where I found a few other boats to work with. In the mean time Dave was up the front with just one other boat going into the narrow section. Unfortunately he was caught unaware going into one of the last tight corners and finished a very close second overall in a very strong field. I'm not sure where I came overall, but I managed to win the women's section by a couple of minutes in 54.40mins, plus paddle past several paddlers who were taking unintentional dips in the sludgy waters!
All in all, a great day out in what turned out to be the hottest day in Brisbane in over 12 months - the humidity felt like it was at about 500%.
I'm looking forward to reading about Damon and Josh's day out in their 50km ultra trail run.....
