Second longest canoe race in the world

Well, La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge began at 7 AM precisely, March 8th, in San Ignacio, Belize. Once again I found myself inexorably in it's midst, again e questioning our sanity and that of our last minute replacement (Sue), from Ladysmith, BC, Canada. The stroke (Amanda) and I (Allie) had been preparing for this race for months.

At the start line, I was fighting food poisoning- bad luck for the beginning of a 49 mile leg of a 170 mile race. Nevertheless the canon roared and away we went. Unbelievably we stayed in first place (in the women's) for about 20 minutes! And one hour into the race we sat comfortably at third. Our 16-foot canoe weighed about 110 or more pounds. The top canoes were $5000.00, 20-foot river racing canoes built for this race. They weighed 52 lbs. or less. So we did great by finishing the day in 7 1/2 hours and solid third place.

Day two started from Banana Bank and winds to Bermudian Landing 60 miles later. The river gets fun and crazy, we blasted through the rapids and the eddies and decided to go right over Big Falls instead of wasting time going around them. We saw the Howler monkeys way before we saw them. It took us just over 8 1/2 hours to arrive, we were strong enough to maintain our third place position. . We stayed at the Howler Monkey Lodge, I recommend all to visit that Lodge, it was gorgeous; the owners Mel and Ed and staff went out of their way to make us comfortable and even boiled two potatoes for me. The next morning they also cooked me a single egg, a slice of Creole Bread, these folks were nice! They sent us off with a smile and a wave.

Although I had had more nutrition than in days, the race was taking its toll on me. The rest of the crew quietly debated our chances of maintaining third. Amanda's back protested every stroke; Sue's hands had finally burst through and were raw. My butt was in tatters and we slipped to fourth. But it was ok, we still were far enough ahead overall to let this day slide. We got into Burrell Boom only 5 1/2 hours later, pretty good really, that day it rained on us, and we got uppity with each other. I couldn't figure out why 36 miles seemed so long! But oh it was nice to get in off the water that day!

Tomorrow was only a 25-mile run to Belize City. The water was fast and we'd raced the course the month before and came second in 3:55 hours. We should be able to finish in that time at least. We could all hang in there for a mere four hours, I was completely confident in our teams' abilities.

But the start of Day Four came far too early, it was pouring down rain, I was sick again and I did not want to finish the race. I was ready to pack it in, we kept busy bandaging various body parts when the rain stopped and the sun came out. Then we prepared mentally to race one last morning, after all we could die later if we had to.

At the race start line we picked our spot, we were the first women's team off the start line as usual but were passed by Chalillo (14, 16, &18 year olds) who were, Then Bakers Dozen (named so because between them they have 13 children!) had a hard time with us but slipped through, then the Skinny Dippers whipped by us in dogged pursuit of the Bakers Dozen! Well the only thing we could do is get into Belize City in time to give us third overall. We were so hyped we passed two men's teams in a tight canal, something totally unheard of for the end of La Ruta Maya, We came in under the Belcan Bridge in 3:35 hours, we still held third over all. It was over, thank God. The race results can found at www.bighjuices.com.