Today still wasn't the warmest, but at least we got into positive temperature figures.. just.
A large group from Lisburn headed over to Newtownstewart for the race which was on a low water river Mourne. Unfortunatley Sonya was unable to come today, so instead of racing the open boat completly alone I brought Qiqi with me for company.
There was quite a large turnout, with 8 open boats in total, 5 of which (including me) were put in a separate category for solo paddlers.
At the start the tandems, as expected, took the lead. However, both myself and Paul Strawbridge managed to keep fairly close to them for the first 1km or so. I pulled very slightly ahead of Paul coming into the fisheries, which was the first, and most challenging whitewater section of the 7mile race. I was right behind the last of the tandems, who took a spill at the top, but recovered quickly, but allowed me to cut through the inside of the main wave of the section.
I made it through all the whitewater sections of the race without any problem, but had Paul within sight for most of the race. I couldn't let up and kept pushing for the entire race.
I came in a minute or two ahead of Paul to win the solo category, and apparently was only about 4minutes behind the winning tandem boat.
