 
 This weekend was the Deerfield River Festival. They tried a new event this year. It was well organized by Zoar Outdoor Center’s Fergus Coffey. The competition was a mass start down the Deerfield River, a run up the steep take-out hill, and a 8 mile bike ride. The course was short, I figured it would take me a little under an hour to do the whole thing, and I knew it was going to hurt.Â
After passing a few people right the start I made my way down the river as fast as I could go. Fergus was on my tail the entire time putting the pressure on, and making me go faster. When I reached the take-out of the river I ran up the trail threw my boat down, took my gear off, and started running. At this point my heart rate must have been about 190. Fergus actually caught up to me in the beginning of the run but quickly figured out that he couldn’t keep the pace all the way up the hill. As I got to my bike and started riding away I looked behind me to see some people finishing up the hill by walking, and I knew the race was mine. I gave the bike everything I had and crossed the finish line at45:11, finishing about 5 minutes before the second place competitor.Â
 I finished up the weekend with a few more Speeder laps on the Dryway. There was a whole posse of paddling around in obnoxiosuly long kayaks. We found out that not only do long boats go fast, they are really fun to do attainments with.Â
 I’m off to the Northwest tonight. It should be awesome.Â
