The 2008 Shoreline Marathon was a great success. The number of contestants was up by almost 100% from last year and the safety and shore teams were well organized and coordinated. Many CASKA members and friends participated. Here are some of their impressions. If you would like to add your thoughts or images, please email them to Emily Kornak.
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CHEERLEADER
By Paul Doughty
Okay, so I am a rather enthusiastic cheerleader. Positioned off of 50th Street, I was seeing the racers after a rest stop and their spirits were high. The suffering would come later. Nearly every boat that passed by thanked me for being out there. That was cool.
Paul Doughty
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BERMUDA TRIANGLE
By Dave Naudi
I had a great time on the water. I think we were all amused by the pond like conditions today. What a gorgeous day.
Boats/Calm Conditions
It is always rewarding to be part of something like this and to help out in some small way. The time that Tim and Kristin Flenyte and Tom Heineman and others put in is awesome.
Tom Heineman
My orange safety hat is tipped to all of you!
Dave Naudi, Dave Strauch And Safety Hats
Thanks for coordinating such a great event. I can't say enough about Humberto Garcia too; what would we do without his efforts cleaning up the course the whole way through for two consecutive years. Nice job Humberto!
There was definitely a part of me that wished I had done the race myself but every time a racer came by and said thanks for being there the thought faded. The only minor complaint and I hate to call it that is my daughter was hoping to get a t-shirt for helping out but I guess they ran out of them when we got to Leone Beach . I apologize for not hanging around very long for the food, fun and awards and to hook up with you all and chat but I had a couple hungry volunteers who wanted to get moving.
Welcoming Volunteer
I thought it was a great event and very successful; I would like to be part of this next year but maybe on the grueling side next time. :) Bottom line today was a win win win for the kayaking community, Chicago and the race itself.
I do need to add one last thought because I think I found the Bermuda Triangle of Lake Michigan when I first got out there off of 25th Street. Both my marine radio and Garmin GPS suddenly decided not to work. First, my fully charged radio showed one bar left and I could not communicate with anyone. After an hour or so, it came back to life and worked wonderfully for the last 1.5 hours.
But the stranger part was my GPS. The night before, I set my way point for the 25th Street safety kayaker position. After leaving 12th Street Beach, my go to feature pointed precisely to my destination and off I went. I knew the position was farther off shore than you would think. I kept going and going and after nearly 3 miles I realized this can't be right. I reset the go to position and it pointed back toward shore nearly 1.5 miles in the direction I just paddled from. Can you hear the Twilight Zone music playing in the background?? Then the controls on the GPS were not working, which prevented me from navigating around the various features. Anyway, long story short, sort of, I was able to get my location in time and the GPS came back to normal operation. It never did this before and it worked perfectly the next couple hours until I got back to shore. Kind of weird.
It was great talking to everyone and I hope to see you all on the water again soon. I think tomorrow morning I am going to hit Lake Michigan here in Kenosha and crank out a paddle to Racine and back. I have the bug..... A water bug!
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FINS
By Tom Bamonte
I was a sweep from the race start point at Calumet Park to 12th Street Beach. It was hard enough keeping up with the slowest contestants as the sweep. It took a speedboat, appropriately named "Hard Times," to set the pace for the elite racers, who would paddle at around an 8 mile an hour pace.
The launch site was quite subdued compared to the usual raucous sporting events. There was no cheering, no loud boasting, just friendly concentration. Pierre Kornak did confess to being a bit nervous, but this was understandable when comparing Pierre's standard sea kayak to the long, skinny and very fast looking racing kayaks. Putting standard sea kayaks in this race is like putting minivans in a NASCAR race.
Pierre Kornak
Tim Flentye, the Marathon co-organizer, brought people together for last minute instructions.
Tim Flentye
Rich Hodgkins then got the race started on time at 9:00 a.m. with a blast of his horn and the field spread out quickly.
As the last person on the water I didn't see much of the race. Jim DesJardins and Beverly Serrell waved
folks into 63 Street Beach, the first stop. Paul Doughty, Brian Kroening, Dave Naudi and Dave Strauch
got them to 12th Street.
I arrived at 12th Street at little after noon, accompanying the last place contestant. This was a paddle that had pushed the performance boundaries for this person and provided a real opportunity for learning about packing food/water, torso rotation, and navigating in a straight line. The contestant's decision to drop out was a gracious one, meant to spare the safety kayakers and beach crews further north from having to spend significant additional time at their posts.
Grateful Shore Crew Member
After a lunch break, I paddled directly back to Calumet Park in three hours, trying to approximate the slowest speed necessary to finish the full course in seven hours. It was a bit of a challenge, but I made it. The long slog back certainly gave me renewed respect, not just for the elite racers but also for the pluggers in their standard sea kayaks who had by that time long since finished the course.
The image that stuck with me from the race was of boat fins attached to the improbably long, thin and tippy racing boats.
This year's second edition of the Shoreline Marathon was a really well done event. Hopefully, it will double in size again next year.
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What a great day to be on the water! I arrived early at 12th Street beach to get a little rolling practice in. Afterward I paddled along the submerged sea wall just to check it out. With the mild sea conditions I didn't really expect it to be a concern. I was shocked to find a nasty looking I-beam protruding up from the South end of the seawall like a spike. It loomed only a few inches below the surface ready to pierce a hole in an unsuspecting kayaker's boat. Once the lead kayakers came through I quickly learned that this section of the seawall was going to be the preferred route. Therefore as the at 12th Street beach safety boater I spent most of my time holding my position right in front of the submerged I-beam and warning everyone about the seawall. For next year it may be wise to have someone place a marker at that point and warn the racers before the race of this hazard.
I was impressed with the speed of the lead kayakers and how gracefully their boats sliced through the water. Of the remainder of the race fleet I can only say that I found them all to be very inspiring. I am looking forward to increasing my own endurance and maybe next year joining the race as well.
Dave Strauch
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What an impressive race! As a safety kayaker posted in front of Diversey harbor, I had the pleasure of watching the racers pass by while bobbing amidst busy boat traffic in and out of the harbor. I launched with Mark and Kate from Montrose - by agreement we met there early, around 8:30 am - 2 hours prior to our scheduled launch time. Mark and Kate can vouch for the craziness we found there due to a (regioanal?) school track meet going on - we got lucky and still snagged parking in spite of the early crowds. Greg, staffing the beach check in point, was already posted and ready for duty. He helped us haul our gear (thanks Greg!) and launch by 10:30 a.m.
I paddled slowly to Diversey, chatting with other kayakers and boaters coming in and out of Lincoln Park Boat Club about the marathon, thinking I had plenty of time before the first racers came past my location. Shortly after 11 am I was shocked to see the first wing paddles flashing in the distance - I certainly had not expected to see the first boats already! The three lead racers sped past me before I even had reached my exact coordinates. Whoops. Shortly behind followed a string of surfskis and racing boats, and after that a flotilla of sea kayaks - also going at a pace that made me very glad I had opted out of racing this marathon. No way could I have kept up. Congrats to CASKA paddlers Tim Philosophos & Haris Subacius for placing first in their divisions!!!! After the last sea kayak past me, I followed back to Montrose. It was a challenge keeping this boat in my sights as well (and thanks from the safety kayakers to the Coast Guard and Chicago Police units for their support - and offering me a tow! Tempting...)
What a fun day - if you missed it, don't next year. There's safety kayaking, other event staffing on shore, relays, and an 8 mile race that all look like a ton of fun. I'm glad I was there, and definitely plan on being back next year! Great event, Tim & Kristin - and fantastic organization.
Emily Kornak
P.S. All of the above photos are courtesy of Tom Bamonte. Waiting for Humberto's report - until then, check out more great race day photos taken by Humberto here.
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I was really impressed with the Chicago Shoreline Marathon. Many thanks to Tim & Kristin Flentye for the tremendous organizing effort, to Tom Heineman for the recruitment and support to all the safety kayakers (very, very professional support communication and documents), to the many, many other volunteers on land, to the sponsors, for the announcer keeping everyone up to date with race news and other timely info, and for the fun meal as the day came to a close. And many thanks to all the racers: whoa, are those people good! I mean really, really good! What weather we had, too. Just a wonderful, wonderful day.
And what a hoot: I was fortunate as a safety kayaker to be posted at Leone Beach, and to see the start and finish of the other 2 races was a lot of fun. Those racers had fun, too. I overheard a couple people in the relay race say that it was only their second time in a kayak. But there they went, 2 miles down and 2 miles back, smiling. And then there were these 2 big Irish boats with 3 or 4 paddlers each and these big ugly oars moving out in the relay race. (Hopefully they made it back to Milwaukee OK: we saw them stopped on the side of the road on the interstate on the way home.) And the excitement of the start of the short race and the competitive spirit making that race as exciting for them as if they were in the long race.
The Chicago Shoreline Marathon 2008 was a super event, and I'm glad to have had a small part in it. I've seen some of the pictures and read some of the impressions posted by others already, and there just aren't enough nice things to say about the event, the day, the racers and, importantly, the organizers.
Bruce Stromberg
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