This&That
says Jeff. Yet they are keen to race again, mostly for the people. “They were incredible”, remembers Katja,
“After we finished the race we only had four hours sleep and then we were up partying all the next day.” For Jerome, the highlight of the race was
being on the fabled and beautiful Lake Laberge and surfing the runs that picked up with the tailwind. Only two women have ever finished the
Quest as solo kayakers, Ingrid Wilcox and her training partner Linda Bourassa, both Whitehorse locals in their 50s. Ingrid has competed in the race three times, reaching the finish line every time. This is a remark- able achievement considering that 70 percent of the solo kayakers scratched during the 2003 race.
World Record Challenge:
How far can you paddle in 24 hours? An appetizer to this year’s Yukon River Quest will be the Futura Challenge, a head- to-head duel for the 24-hour solo kayak endurance world record. Ian Adamson, holder of the current Guiness record of 327 kilometres, will square off with last year’s Yukon River Quest champ Jerome Truran on the morning of June 20—three days before the actual Quest—at Lower Lake Laberge downstream from Whitehorse.
As the solo women’s kayak record holder
(64 hours, 29 minutes), Ingrid is realistic enough to admit that the year will come when someone younger and stronger will win the women’s division, but for now she will make sure that they will have to work for it. When asked if age is an advantage, Ingrid ponders that her generation seems to stick with it longer—maybe they’re more stubborn or just have an old fashioned work ethic. She is surprised at the fit young men who drop out after the mandatory layover at Carmacks (315 kilometres). “Why are they tired after the first night?
Back home, they’d stay up watching videos all night and not be tired!”
Vancouver paddler Christine McCormack would love to paddle from Whitehorse to Dawson City, but over two weeks, not two days.
10 Summer 2004
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