Journey to the 70
By Katie Peck
2018 marks the beginning of my 12th paddling season, but my first time to complete the
General Clinton 70 miler. In 2007, I started my paddling career as an amateur dragon boater in
Philadelphia. I eventually wanted to paddle competitively, so I joined the Philadelphia Dragon
Boat Association’s Yutes (youth) Team. In addition to winning various local races, I have
paddled in crews that have won Nationals in Mixed and Women’s boats, and I have competed
internationally at four World Championships on Team USA.
Knowing that if I wanted to be a better paddler, I decided to branch out to other paddling
disciplines. I always wanted to try marathon canoe, and in September 2016, the opportunity
presented itself through Glen Green’s Philadelphia Fall Classic. Linda Lensch had broken her
neck, leaving Betsy Ray without a C2 partner. I jumped at the opportunity to paddle with her. It
was my first marathon canoe race AND my first time ever in a marathon canoe. I don’t
remember how we fared, but I didn’t feel tippy, and I felt a decent amount of power throughout
the race. The only major mistakes stemmed from me not knowing how to post, lean, and do
other skills that bow paddlers do to help steer. The race really opened my eyes to the world of
marathon canoeing and how much I still had to learn about paddling. For the rest of 2016, some
teammates from PDBA, Erik Werner and Sharon Adamski, took me out in the marathon canoe
and I competed in my second race on the D&R Canal.
After graduating from Temple University at the end of 2016, I spent most of 2017
focusing on dragon boat and working my first teaching job of my career. That summer, I moved
to New York City to start a new job. In NYC, it is much harder to get to water time. A 20-40
minute car ride on the Schuylkill Expressway turned into an hour or more on public
transportation. I chose not to focus on dragon boat going into 2018, partly due to the difficulty to
getting to Flushing. I also developed an injury from overuse that only manifested itself while
paddling one-sided in a dragon boat and not while paddling two-sided in a marathon or outrigger
canoe. I joined both Ke Aloha in Hoboken and the Wanda Canoe Club in Ridgefield, NJ, and I
committed to paddling the 70 in C2 with Betsy Ray.
We competed in Wanda’s Hack Race in October 2016 and didn’t do particularly well;
however, we dedicated the winter to training. We spent many weekends on the Hackensack
River, dealing with terrible weather and finicky tides. When the river was frozen, we perged
(Concept 2 rowing erg with a PaddleSport Training Systems paddle adaptor) in my apartment. I
resigned from the job that brought me to NYC and started a new one while Betsy planned her
wedding (congrats Betsy and Tim!) While telling others about the race, I was told I was crazy,
that it was impossible, and that I “could just get in a car and drive 70 miles.” I learned to paddle
stern (sort of) and learned all those steering strokes that would have helped me not scrape up
the boat in the 2016 Fall Classic, along with how to lean the boat and read water---skills one
doesn’t need to know much about in dragon boat.
We traveled to Cooperstown before the race to practice portages, starts, and some
tough parts of the upper section, including the “concrete monster.” We got to the start on the
later end, and heard the start horn about 2 minutes after we got on the water. I didn’t get a
chance to start my camera or my GPS watch. We missed some vital supplies at pit stops,
including much needed sunscreen and ibuprofen, and we swamped the boat during the
Goodyear portage. We anticipated a slog during the second half, but to our delight, my GPS
watch kept reading 11 kph or higher during rapids, and we finished the race in 9 hours and 26
minutes.
So far, I have learned a lot this year about paddling, race preparation, and what to
improve for next year. I hope to go to more camps, and find more opportunities to paddle with
others. I feel I learned the most in the trips we took to DC to train with Pam Boteler, Kelly
Rhodes, and the women’s outrigger team at the Washington Canoe Club, and to Gary McLain’s
mini camp in March. Through my training this winter, I made many connections in the marathon
community that reminded me of those I made through dragon boat. It’s a completely (almost)
different community, but it shares many of the same values that kept me in dragon boat for so
long. I look forward to meeting more marathon canoers, becoming a better paddler, and doing
many more 70s in the future.
2018 marks the beginning of my 12th paddling season, but my first time to complete the
General Clinton 70 miler. In 2007, I started my paddling career as an amateur dragon boater in
Philadelphia. I eventually wanted to paddle competitively, so I joined the Philadelphia Dragon
Boat Association’s Yutes (youth) Team. In addition to winning various local races, I have
paddled in crews that have won Nationals in Mixed and Women’s boats, and I have competed
internationally at four World Championships on Team USA.
Knowing that if I wanted to be a better paddler, I decided to branch out to other paddling
disciplines. I always wanted to try marathon canoe, and in September 2016, the opportunity
presented itself through Glen Green’s Philadelphia Fall Classic. Linda Lensch had broken her
neck, leaving Betsy Ray without a C2 partner. I jumped at the opportunity to paddle with her. It
was my first marathon canoe race AND my first time ever in a marathon canoe. I don’t
remember how we fared, but I didn’t feel tippy, and I felt a decent amount of power throughout
the race. The only major mistakes stemmed from me not knowing how to post, lean, and do
other skills that bow paddlers do to help steer. The race really opened my eyes to the world of
marathon canoeing and how much I still had to learn about paddling. For the rest of 2016, some
teammates from PDBA, Erik Werner and Sharon Adamski, took me out in the marathon canoe
and I competed in my second race on the D&R Canal.
After graduating from Temple University at the end of 2016, I spent most of 2017
focusing on dragon boat and working my first teaching job of my career. That summer, I moved
to New York City to start a new job. In NYC, it is much harder to get to water time. A 20-40
minute car ride on the Schuylkill Expressway turned into an hour or more on public
transportation. I chose not to focus on dragon boat going into 2018, partly due to the difficulty to
getting to Flushing. I also developed an injury from overuse that only manifested itself while
paddling one-sided in a dragon boat and not while paddling two-sided in a marathon or outrigger
canoe. I joined both Ke Aloha in Hoboken and the Wanda Canoe Club in Ridgefield, NJ, and I
committed to paddling the 70 in C2 with Betsy Ray.
We competed in Wanda’s Hack Race in October 2016 and didn’t do particularly well;
however, we dedicated the winter to training. We spent many weekends on the Hackensack
River, dealing with terrible weather and finicky tides. When the river was frozen, we perged
(Concept 2 rowing erg with a PaddleSport Training Systems paddle adaptor) in my apartment. I
resigned from the job that brought me to NYC and started a new one while Betsy planned her
wedding (congrats Betsy and Tim!) While telling others about the race, I was told I was crazy,
that it was impossible, and that I “could just get in a car and drive 70 miles.” I learned to paddle
stern (sort of) and learned all those steering strokes that would have helped me not scrape up
the boat in the 2016 Fall Classic, along with how to lean the boat and read water---skills one
doesn’t need to know much about in dragon boat.
We traveled to Cooperstown before the race to practice portages, starts, and some
tough parts of the upper section, including the “concrete monster.” We got to the start on the
later end, and heard the start horn about 2 minutes after we got on the water. I didn’t get a
chance to start my camera or my GPS watch. We missed some vital supplies at pit stops,
including much needed sunscreen and ibuprofen, and we swamped the boat during the
Goodyear portage. We anticipated a slog during the second half, but to our delight, my GPS
watch kept reading 11 kph or higher during rapids, and we finished the race in 9 hours and 26
minutes.
So far, I have learned a lot this year about paddling, race preparation, and what to
improve for next year. I hope to go to more camps, and find more opportunities to paddle with
others. I feel I learned the most in the trips we took to DC to train with Pam Boteler, Kelly
Rhodes, and the women’s outrigger team at the Washington Canoe Club, and to Gary McLain’s
mini camp in March. Through my training this winter, I made many connections in the marathon
community that reminded me of those I made through dragon boat. It’s a completely (almost)
different community, but it shares many of the same values that kept me in dragon boat for so
long. I look forward to meeting more marathon canoers, becoming a better paddler, and doing
many more 70s in the future.
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