Anyway so far this fall I've done some great races. The biggest and most memorable was the 2009 Charlotte Open/US Nationals. The Open attracted paddlers for Slovakia, France, Canada, Chile, and across the US. I managed to squeeze out a first place finish among the US Juniors here. Among the US Seniors, I finished within the top 8. There were some amazing paddlers here, and the race course was also very hard. Missing gates was a common occurrence, but I walked away after two days of racing with just a few touches. It's very cool to see how I've grown as a paddler since racing at Charlotte early this March.
The second slalom race this fall was the BCE Feeder Classic, this was a low-key local race. I won juniors and finished less then 9 seconds behind some of the best national senior paddlers. I was stoked to finish this race without a single penalty.
Apart from the two slalom races this fall there were also two biathlons. The first was the Team River Runner Biathalon, which is a one mile flatwater paddle followed by a 3.3ish mile run. I was in first after the paddle, but unfortanently my running skills are far worse then my paddling skills. I finish 5th overall. For those of you that don't know Team River Runner teaches veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan how to whitewater kayak. I encourage everyone to check out their website and try and help these guys out.
