Paddler out to keep the team afloat

Energy bars and drinks are ready in the canoes.
Wide-brimmed hats, sunglasses and paddles are in place.
A few dozen paddlers pace back and forth at the boat ramp at Foster Falls State Park on the New River, trying to contain their nerves.
They'd gladly toss their boats in the water and get rid of some of that nervous energy if they could. But they can't. Not yet.
Members of three-person triathlon teams in the annual New River Trail Challenge, which was held on Sept. 16, need to be tagged by their cyclist teammates before they can hit the water after the 40-mile bike leg. They'll paddle downstream for 12 miles then tag a third teammate who will run the 13.1 miles back to the park.
Marshall Ratcliff (pictured) of Eden, N.C., has raced boats before and knows how to deal with prerace nerves.

Holding his paddle, he swings in slow, fluid motions.
Left, right, up, down. Repeat.
"It's important to get the lower back really warmed up because you're reaching forward and pulling back, reaching forward pulling back and it's a continuous thing for over two hours," Ratcliff says while awaiting the call of No. 396 over the bullhorn, which will cue race volunteers to place his borrowed canoe in the river.
Just after 10 a.m., the first cyclists come into the transition area, and it's not helping calm down Johnson City, Tenn., competitor Neal Sanders, who paddles for the Mountaineers.

His gloved hands are patting his life jacket with a nervous twitch.

"This is all in fun, but there's still a certain amount of tension and tenseness and anxiety involved," Sanders says as he glares the trail, searching for his teammate.
Still, Ratcliff keeps his routine.
Left, right, up down. Repeat.
"No. 396," a race volunteer announces. Two heavyset volunteers grab Ratcliff's canoe and quickly walk it to the river.
Within minutes, Ratcliff's biker teammate, Pat Roberts, arrives on her mountain bike. They tag hands and briefly wish each other well.
Ratcliff carefully climbs into his boat, paddle in hand, and pushes off for Allisonia, where 12 miles downstream, several dozen runners, trying to calm their own nerves, await their teammates' tags.

Add a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)