By Anita Miller
San Marcos — If you haven’t already noticed, you will by this afternoon — the cars, pickups and SUVs headed into San Marcos with boats on top. Kayaks and regular canoes, some of them. Others, more exotic looking — long and slim, with rudders. All of them will have numbers on the side and most, a catchy name or phrase.
They’re the men, women and teenagers who will put their physical and mental abilities to the test beginning Saturday in the 2007 running of the Texas Water Safari.
Billed as the “World’s Toughest Canoe Race,” it is a grueling 260 miles down the San Marcos and Guadalupe rivers, then across San Antonio bay to the finish line at a flagpole in Seadrift.
Entrants range in age from 14 to 74; and hail from Texas, California, Virginia, Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Colorado, Utah, Delaware, Illinois, Oklahoma, Belize and the UK.
They range from veterans of dozens of Safaris to first-timers. And if they’re like their counterparts in Safaris past, most of them aren’t looking to win or place, just to say they have finished the race.
The Texas Water Safari kicks off in Spring Lake at Aquarena Center at 9 a.m. on Saturday.
Entrants will be able to enter the water 30 minutes before the race, and bystanders will be lining up early for prime spots to see the lake erupt in a paddling frenzy.
The next good vantage point is at the University Street Bridge, where teams will scuttle down or around the rapids by Clear Springs Apartments to enter the San Marcos River.
Their first obstacle is Rio Vista Falls, which will be thick with onlookers by the time the first teams arrive just minutes after the race’s start.
Competitive teams — those in the long boats with rudders that may have as many as six paddlers — will portage to river left; kayaks and some canoes will shoot straight through the series of three drops.
Another popular in town spot is at Thompson’s Islands, just east of IH-35. A little farther downstream, there is public access at both Martindale Dam and Staples Dam; both of which the racers must portage.
Safari teams must have with them everything they will need for the race except for water and ice, and their designated Team Captain is the only person that can pass on those items.
The 260 mile course includes 11 checkpoints prior to reaching the finish line, and teams must get to each within a set amount of time or be disqualified.
Just how long it will take the winning team is anybody’s guess, but the race should be significantly faster than last year because the springs that feed the San Marcos River are flowing at twice the rate.
Last year’s winning team reached the flagpole in 38 hours flat. The fastest year on record was 1997, when the winners reached Seadrift in 29 hours and 46 minutes; the slowest was 1984, when the same river trip took 54 hours.
The Safari is limited to 100 hours; competitors who do not reach the finish line by 1 p.m. on Wednesday are disqualified. One traveling trophy is given the first-place winners; the top 15 in each category receive a plaque and all finishers are awarded the coveted Texas Water Safari patch.
For more, including a link to a web cam live at the finish line, visit texaswatersafari.org
