Fall 09

Hey you guys haven't heard from me in a while, but I'd like to give an update to what I've been up to. With soccer finished and winter just around the corner, I'm training around 10 times a week. I'm currently averaging more then 10k in the mornings at WCC before school, and then paddling slalom after school. The picture above is me sticking my line at Horseshoe on the Maryland side of Great Falls

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.