In June 2003, my brother Marty and I competed in and finished the 262-mile Texas Water Safari. It was our first attempt at the race, and our only goal at the start was to finish the race within the 100-hour deadline. We were happy with our 78 hour finish, and felt that we did a great job despite not being nearly as prepared or knowledgeable as we should have been.
It’s often been said that there is no better teacher than experience. This old adage holds truer for the Texas Water Safari than you could imagine. So, the following list is some things that we learned on the river; things we’ll do differently next year, things we’ll bring next year that we forgot, and things we’ll leave behind.
When Nature Calls—when you drink as much water/Gatorade as you have to during the Texas Water Safari, you’re inevitably going to have to pee. A lot. One of the logistical concerns in a race of this length and duration is how to quickly and efficiently ‘take care of business’ while still paddling/racing (you can’t pull the boat over to shore to find a tree every time someone in your boat has to go).
I had read on the Safari bulletin board that one strategy was to simply go in the boat. The boat would continually have water getting into it and being pumped out. And you would be in and out of the water often enough to rinse out your shorts/pants.
Let me just say that this is not a good idea. You’re boat will smell like urine, and that smell will take a long time to get out of your boat. Plus, everything in your boat will also smell like urine. We found this out the very hard way, and we only used the Pee in Boat method for the second half of the first day.
Over the next 3 days we found that the thing that worked best for us was to use a water bottle. One person could keep paddling while the other person did their business, and then poured it overboard and rinsed the bottle. This might not work as well for the women paddlers. You’ll have to ask them what they do.
Night Lights—try your lights out before the race. Our main light, a Pelican Pro Laser was a very bright, waterproof, and relatively lightweight light. But we didn’t have a good mounting system to secure it to the bow. This resulted in us not using the light during the race, and relying solely on our headlights.
Next year, I’ll make sure to have a very quick, stable, and secure method for mounting our light.
Our headlights worked extremely well, and actually provided enough light for paddling at night. However, the first couple of hours after sunset the bugs (May flies, especially) are brutal. Each time we turned our headlights on, a cloud of bugs would smack us in the face, making it almost impossible to paddle and keep the lights on. A light mounted a few feet in front of the bow paddler will still attract a swarm of insects, but at least they won’t be aiming directly at your face. Another draw back to relying only on head lights is that while they allowed us to pick our way through the river at night, they weren’t bright enough to allow us to paddle at full speed.
Also, next year we are bringing a pair of clear safety glasses and a bandana (to wrap over the bow paddler’s mouth and nose) so that he can continue to paddle without eating half a pound of bugs.
Food—We brought just about the right amount of food this year. We didn’t run out, and we didn’t have too much at the end of the race either (extra weight). But here’s what we’ll do different next year:
- GU—more of it. I think we had about 35 packets of GU apiece. We had to ration the GU the last day and a half. Repeat after me, “You can not have too much GU”. This year we glued about 10 packets to the side of the hull before we saw someone with a hole punch and plastic zip ties attaching bunches of GU to the thwarts in their boat. We ended up doing the same thing with the rest of our GU. Next year, all of your GU will be attached to the thwarts (and under the seats) this way.
- MREs—we had about 4 MRE entrees apiece. I’m bringing a few extra next year.
- Powerbars—fewer power bars. I think I ate about 4 of the 20 power bars I brought with me.
- Sweets—more sweets this year. Candy is good.
- Beef Jerky—much, much more beef jerky.
Next year, we’ll also buy a food sealer. Zip lock baggies are NOT water proof. I lost a full (and huge) bag of cashews on Day 1 after the bag leaked during a capsize.
Checkpoints—we might have been the worst checkpoint team in the race. We spent an unbelievable 22 hours at the 10 checkpoints. Next year we will be much more efficient coming through.
At the checkpoints where we stop to sleep, (next year our goal is Gonzalez 183, Cuero 236, and either Dupont or Salt Barrier Dam) we need to get to sleep quicker, and then leave quicker once we wake up. At our three sleeping checkpoints, it took us an hour each morning to get back into the river. One way to get going quicker will be to eat our breakfast once we get back into the river. It’s better to have one guy paddling while the other eats then to wait on the banks while you both eat.
At checkpoints where we don’t intend to sleep, we’ll stop just long enough to get out of the boat and stretch the legs, refill the water, and then get back under way. Last year we would use each checkpoint to take a break and rest a little. Next year, we’ll take a break after we leave the checkpoints. We’ll just take it easy leaving the checkpoint. Take turns eating and doing some body maintenance. It will be a lot faster to spend just 15 minutes (our goal) at each checkpoint, and then relax a little while still moving down river.
Body Maintenance—we did a good job of taking care of ourselves during the race, but next year, we’ll put the Vaseline under our arms and on our butts before the start of the race, and then reply frequently. This year, we both waited until we needed Vaseline, and then it was too late.
Clothing—won’t change a thing for next year.
- Shirts—We wore matching shirts, which we’ll wear again next year. They were short sleeve Capilene Silk Weight T-shirts from Patigona. They were bright yellow, with a dark Maroon band of flowers around the chest. The shirts (along with our big red boat) made it very easy for our Team Captain to spot us coming down the river. Also, Capilene material is super lightweight, dries very quickly, and is designed to wick moisture away from the body. Some people recommend and wear long sleeve shirts, but we applied sun block to our forearms and never had a problem with sun burn.
- Tights—I wore shorts on Day 1, and then switched to my Patigona Capilene Silk Weight tights for the remainder of the race. We both agreed that having on long, light-weight White tights was extremely comfortable for the entire race. No sunburn and they’re great at night. Marty’s pair did not have a fly in front, as mine did. The fly made peeing much easier.
- Shoes—I wore a pair of Teva sandals the entire race. The Tevas held up great. They gave me all the traction and support I needed during the portages, and allowed my feet to dry quickly when back in the boat.
- Hats—my hat was the greatest. It had a wide brim all the way around, a neck-cover in back, was very lightweight, had ample ventilation, and dried quickly. We found that dipping your hat in the water every 30-45 minutes during the day was a great way to help cool you down and prevent heat exhaustion.
- Sunglasses—bring at least one extra pair per person. Marty lost one pair, and fortunately we had one extra pair.
Music—next year I am bringing music. When I train, I always bring my small MP3 player. But it doesn’t have external speakers, so I didn’t bring it on Safari. There are a lot of very long stretches of river where you really don’t have to worry about turning over or getting any water in the boat, and some portable music would be very nice. The extra 1.5 lbs for the MP3 player, speakers, and batteries would be well worth it.
Pictures—we had a small, waterproof disposable camera in the boat with us, but only took a handful of pictures with it. Next year, I’m bringing a camera also, and we’ll try to remember to take more pictures. It only takes about 30 seconds to take a great picture of somewhere that took you hours to get to. My favorite pics are the ones we took out on the race.
Shannon took a few pictures of us at the race start, Cottonseed, Victoria, Salt Barrier Dam, and the finish line, but none anywhere else. I’ll have to remind her to be ready with her camera at each checkpoint.
