Published: July 09, 2009 11:38 am      

Watson finishes 24th in ‘World’s Toughest Canoe Race’

By Jay Neal

sports@jacksonvilleprogress.com

SAN MARCOS — The Texas Water Safari bills itself as “The World’s Toughest Canoe Race.” It’s doubtful any of the 99 entrants of last month’s yearly undertaking would argue that claim.

The race covers just over 260 miles and is a non-stop, marathon canoe racing adventure that takes place over several challenging rivers and bays in South Texas.

Beginning at Spring Lake in San Marcos, participants, which this year included Jacksonville’s own Steve Watson, travel down the San Marcos River to Gonzales where they enter the Guadalupe River that takes them through the cities of Cuero and Victoria onward to Trivoli, through the San Antonio Bay, finally to the finish in Seadrift.

Racers must battle low water conditions, log jams, periodic head winds and seemingly constant, at least during the daylight hours, heat indexes that often top out in the triple digits.

According to the rules of the race, which first started in 1963, entrants must have all provisions, equipment and repair items in their vessel at the start of the race. Nothing may be purchased or delivered to a racer or race team during the event except for water and ice.

Each team has a team captain who has the duty to follow the team by vehicle, monitoring the racers’ location and physical condition and provide them with water and ice.

Watson’s team captain this year was his son-in-law, Anthony Jackson.

Participants also are not allowed to receive assistance of any kind, except verbal, and must be prepared to travel day and night — often in non-stop fashion to be competitive.

There are checkpoints scattered throughout the journey, and if racers are not up to par timewise they are not allowed to continue.

Oh, and if the aforementioned challenges were not enough, there is a time limit to the race — 100 hours.

Just over 80 hours after starting the jaunt, Watson crossed the finish line in his 16-foot kayak, finishing in 24th place overall, seventh place in the solo category.

The modest Watson said he reached his goal — to simply complete the race.

“My goal was to just finish, so I am not a world-class paddler,” he said. “As the 2009 results show, solo winner at 50 hours and me at 80 hours.”

And the award for completing the race?

The Texas Water Safari patch, which all racers who come from across the globe to compete have a hankering to take back home with them.

The true reward, however, is the intrinsic sense of personal achievement that is found in the inner psyche of those who reach their goal.