Karen Pleasant claims she isn’t a very adventurous person.
But if you heard about her love for competing in canoe marathons, you may disagree.
Greenfield’s Karen Pleasant began competing in canoe races in the 1990s, and fell in love with the sport.
She progressed to bigger and bigger races before deciding to attempt the ultimate challenge in the sport: the Consumers Energy AuSable River Canoe Marathon in Grayling, Mich.
The 51-year-old first competed in the Marathon in 2000, a race that is considered the toughest, richest non-stop canoe race in North America, and has competed in it four times after, most recently in 2010.
After nine years away from the event, Pleasant is heading back to Grayling to compete in the 72nd AuSable Marathon, set to begin on Saturday.
“It’s crazy, but so exciting and fun,” Pleasant said. “I love going out to do this race. I wanted to try it again. I was ready to train for it and go back out and do it.”
The race begins at 9 p.m., with teams of two in canoes. The first step is racing with the canoe and putting it in the AuSable River, where the teams will embark on the 120-mile course which takes over 14 hours to complete and ends in Lake Huron. The racers must also navigate through six dams, exiting their canoe and hauling it around the dam to get back on the course.
With such a late starting time, the racers are forced to navigate the course throughout the darkness of night with just a front light on the canoe. A GPS tracker is attached as well to assure the safety of racers, but in the depths of the river, everything from rocks, fish hides and other natural obstacles can appear out of nowhere. The temperature also dips to around 50 degrees at night.
Even with its challenges, Pleasant says the night-time portion of the race is what drew her in.
“The paddling at night is exciting,” she explained. “The river is beautiful. It’s a physical and mental challenge to know you’re going to start at 9 p.m. It’s about having a really good attitude going in and knowing you’re going to have some adversity, no matter how hard you prepare.”
When the sun comes up around 6 a.m., the water is the most dangerous.
The sunlight can create a thick fog on the water, making it nearly impossible for Pleasant and other racers to see what is in front of them.
“In the fog, it’s tough to know where you are,” Pleasant said. “You have to try to stay in the channel, but some people get turned around. It’s like trying to drive a car in intense fog. It’s a huge challenge and it can make you feel nauseous.”
Pleasant explained that one time, the fog was so bad in the morning that when it eventually dissipated, her partner told her she could finally see her shoes again.
Pleasant has a “feeder” team with her that will bring food, water, clothing and medical attention every two hours.
To keep her body going, she has small, carbohydrate-rich food and high-energy electrolyte drinks to give her a boost. Her favorite is pasta with salt, as she likes the texture, while the salt and pasta give her necessary replenishment to continue on with the grueling course.
At night, she has chicken noodle soup to keep her warm.
Pleasant has completed the race each of the previous five times she participated, with her best finish coming in a time of 16 hours, 25 minutes and 12 seconds.
“After each race, I feel fine,” Pleasant said. “Then I look at pictures of myself and I look like I’ve been through the wringer. You do start getting aches and pains. Your body starts breaking down.”
Her nine-year hiatus from the race was a result of multiple factors.
Pleasant got married in 2012 and bought a house in 2013 — factors that precluded her from having the vast amount of time needed to train for the event.
In 2016, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Through 2017, she wasn’t able to do anything physically active, but as she began feeling better, she decided to get back on the water and begin training.
She trained a little harder last year, and this year, she felt good enough to give the race another go.
“I re-fell in love with it,” she offered. “The thing cancer taught me was to do things that make me happy. [Racing] was my fight song and getting back into it and going back at it hard, it was a good thing for me.”
Pleasant is competing with Tommy Cramer, a 40-year-old from Rock Rapids, Iowa. Cramer has done the AuSable race three times, with two completions.
The two met in Florida at an unofficial training camp for the AuSable race, where paddlers from all over the country train together. She and Cramer felt they were compatible on the water, and signed up for last year’s AuSable. But an injury to Cramer forced them to postpone to 2019.
With Cramer living in Iowa, Pleasant has been training with other paddlers in western Mass., practicing two nights a week with the Paradise City Dragon Boat team out of Northampton, a group made up of cancer survivors and supporters.
Each weekend, she’s done five hours of paddling on the Connecticut River, totaling over 170 hours of training since March.
“It’s a major undertaking to get ready for the race,” Pleasant said. “You have to dedicate your time to make sure you have a good race.”
While Pleasant admits the race can be tough mentally, there are over 50,000 fans throughout the course, cheering racers on and offering encouragement. She loves the race itself, but the people of Michigan are what keep her coming back.
“The people who live in that area are so wonderful and so helpful,” she said. “They make you feel so welcomed.”
The time trials, which determine starting position, wrap up today, and the race begins Saturday night.