ATHOL — There’s a minute to go before the start of the Athol-Orange River Rat Race. Racers sit tensed at the paddles, working to keep the small boats still. The race is set to start with a bang. Then a canoe breaks free of the pack, sans paddlers, and drifts semi-submerged toward the bridge.
Firefighters in a rescue boat corral the wayward craft and, a few minutes after the scheduled 1 p.m. start, a cannon blast releases the racers. Paddles churn the water as 239 canoes speed down the Millers River. Serious racers lean furiously into their strokes, and even those in it just for the ride are generally intent on a fast start. A team in rubber rat masks pauses to wave at the throng of spectators on the Main Street Bridge.
The finish line is 5.2 miles downstream in Orange. There, members of the Northfield Dive/Rescue Team fanned out into the water in dry suits and life vests, ready to wrangle the incoming canoes to shore. Their work starts out slow. From the close-packed start, the race ended with the winners so far in the lead that the next canoe was hidden by a bend in the river.
The currents, as well as rigorous training, favored Ben Schlimmer, 27, and Trevor LeFever, 37, of Oneonta, N.Y. The two have been training for a 70-mile race in their home state.
It’s a second River Rat win for Schlimmer, a third for LeFever. “It’s just fun, man. It’s a fun race,” said LeFever. Their run was also done in memory of Major Rocco Barnes, with whom he served in Iraq. “He passed away in 2009 and his birthday’s today, so it’s for him.”
Schlimmer and LeFever’s Fine Architectural Woodworking canoe blended in in the parking lot, as the first dozen or so finishers were mainly in sleek wooden racing canoes of various brands.
Joe and Eddy, a half-local racing duo, guess they finished somewhere near the top 10 in Eddy Euvrard’s older Kevlar canoe. It’s Euvrard’s 36th race. “We’re 60-year-olds; we don’t belong in this race,” he said.
Partner Joe Shaw of Worthington is a newcomer compared to Euvrard, with about 10 races under his belt, and two wins.
This year, they even trained, Shaw said. “We got on the water once. Usually on the way down to the water we decide who’s going to paddle front and who’s going to paddle back,” he said.
Roland Jean of New Salem and Roger Ballard II of Orange stood out in a silver aluminum racing canoe, but a rough start doomed this year’s bid.
Jean and Ballard started out fast, but lost their place in the lead pack as the canoe went under the bridge just after the start line. “Just after that we got spun around and shoved into the bank and the whole field went by us, and then we had to pass a whole lot of canoes getting down here. It was a long day,” Jean said. Good days and bad, they’ve been at it a while.
“We started 14 years ago, said we’re only going to do this one time, and this is our 15th race. Why? I have no idea,” Jean said, standing in the park before the start.
“Yeah, ‘We’re just going to do it once’ he says,” laughed Ballard.
Ballard has since gotten into the swing of the thing, as evidenced by the 53 shaved into the side of his head. He’s been marking the years for the last decade of the 53-year-old race.
Chuck McMahon and Kevin Bittenbender, an Orange native, drove down from New Hampshire for the race. Like Jean and Ballard, they had a mishap early on, but they were never in it to win it with the peeling, lead-heavy dinosaur of a canoe they unearthed from under the barn. They got knocked into the water at the start, but got back in and kept going. They crossed the finish line with water sloshing in the canoe but in good spirits.
Many preferred to stay dry, watching the race from the land.
Megan Burpee of Templeton watched the start from the bridge with boyfriend Tim Hazelton. It was his first time at the race, not hers. Burpee said grandfather Kenny Young was in the group that started the race in the ’60s, and she grew up watching the race. As a long-time spectator, she said the trick is to park on the west side of the Athol bridge or take the back roads after the start in order to avoid the bottleneck at the bridge and catch the finish in Orange. The start is the exciting part, she said, as the canoes bump and jostle under the bridge.
The race is a production of the Athol Lions Club, with the Orange Lions Club and a host of sponsors race director David Flint thanked for keeping the race afloat through a couple years of lean attendance.
Matt Rudnitsky of Gilbertsville, N.Y., and Shane MacDowell of Michigan took second in the race; Mike Schlimmer of Rochester, N.Y. and Adam Gelinas, an Athol native living in Leomister, took third. Mike and winner Ben Schlimmer are brothers, and the whole top-three group regularly place well in various configurations. Top finishers this year took home trophies and a total of $6,000 in cash prizes.
The canoes were the second race of the day, and some hardy souls competed in both.
Jaime Ollendorf-Talbot of Orange was one. She drafted friend Melinda Dennis for the canoe race, after kicking off the day with the Big Cheese 5k. “Why not,” Ollendorf-Talbot said. “For fun.”
The footrace leads the River Rat parade Saturday morning. Runners outnumbered paddlers this year, with 520 registrants. Greenfield resident Aaron Stone, 32, won the Big Cheese overall with a time of 17 minutes and 50 seconds. Dylan Chartier, 16, of Phillipston, was second overall in 18:12, followed by Brian Vaidulas, 26, of Athol in 18:14. Julie Dragon, 36, of Sturbridge was the top female finisher in 21:38, followed by Ali Tyburski, 24, of Brighton in 22:37 and Deanna Deacon, 28, of Athol in 22:54.
You can reach Chris Curtis at: ccurtis@recorder.com