ATHOL — Wednesday afternoon Steve Talbot was alone on the water near the starting line of the River Rat Race in a single-person Wenonah J-203 racing canoe, a light, angular, semi-translucent brown shark of a boat.
Talbot is and isn’t training for the annual Athol-to-Orange River Rat Race to be held this year on April 9. If he can find a partner for the race Wednesday’s paddle will have been a training run, if not, it will have been just some good old outdoor exercise.
If he’s to race this year it will be with a partner and not in the 28-pound Kevlar canoe, more likely something like his heavy canvas Old Town canoe. The race doesn’t allow single-seaters. That’s not the only difference; the water will be packed with paddlers backed up the river from the South Main Street bridge to the Alan E. Rich Environmental Park.
“Everybody stands along the bridge to see the start, a cannon goes off right here to start the race. There’s no mistaking that sound,” Talbot said.
Race director David Flint said the mass start on a cannon was one of the things he agreed to keep 26 races back, when he was ready to pick up leadership of the event but had no idea how to do it and needed former director Ted Crumb’s help, which he was initially reluctant to give.
The race also maintains an 18-foot length limit, excluding the longer racing canoes, through tradition. Flint said he doesn’t know why they wanted to keep racing canoes out, but they did, and there’s room for them Sunday in the pro-am races. That hasn’t always kept the longer boats out of the running Saturday. Flint said some racers back in the 1970s would cut six inches out of the center of their then-cutting-edge Sawyer fiberglass canoes and splice them back together. The company began tailoring canoes to the race when they got wind of it, he said.
He’s expecting about 300 canoes and 600 racers April 9.
Whether he’s in the race or not, Talbot said he’s in it for the exercise. “Stay in shape; 61-years-old, got to do something to stay in shape. And it’s enjoyable,” he said.
He’s partnered with past winner Bill Ellsworth in years past, in the River Rat and longer races in Canada and New York, a 120-miler and a 70-miler, and is just getting back into it. The River Rat is 5.2 miles.
This is the 53rd edition of the race, under the auspices of the Athol Lions Club in conjunction with their Orange sister club.
The warm winter and spring mean that those training for the River Rat are way ahead of where they would usually be with the race two weeks out, Talbot said. Flint had the same sense, and hopes the lack of snow and ice will mean more paddlers this year.
The main event is scheduled for 1 p.m., with pro-am youth and adult canoe and kayak races the following day, beginning at 10 a.m.
More information, including a printable registration form, may be found at www.riverratrace.com sometime this week, although the site has been experiencing technical difficulty. Registration closes April 7, forms can be found in person at the Athol Daily News — 225 Exchange St., Athol — weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. April 7.
The entry fee is $42 per canoe, with no canoes over 18 feet long.
You can reach Chris Curtis at:
ccurtis@recorder.com