Here’s a few links from this years M20:
Suzie Cooney (@suzie) has a great writeup here:
Our Molokai 2 Oahu 32 Mile Race Adventure The Channel of Bones 2014
Here’s the first part of the article:
One would never guess that my biggest fear is of drowning. Who would think that an ocean going person such as myself would admit this fact? The open ocean waters of the Molokai to Oahu channel, affectionately called, the Channel of Bones; was starting to get big, rolling and pitching the boat from side to side.
Stephen Ross, my dear friend and relay partner started the race and was looking solid. His strokes looked strong with a good rhythm, as all of the boat wakes had made for a choppy and interesting first mile. Boy was I glad he started.
It was my turn to paddle and as I inched closer to the side of the boat for our first transition with my confident coach and good friend Jeremy Riggs at my side, I looked up at our team leader and strong boat captain Mike Holmes, and asked, “now?” He said, “Yes, Suzie now.” Gulp.
Little did he know that my adrenaline was racing through my veins and up to my head so that I thought my Garmin would explode. The troughs were deep and the large wind swells were rolling underneath the boat. Without thinking another thought, I closed my eyes and off I jumped. I felt like I was in a time warp for a few seconds. I was so excited I actually forgot to turn on my Garmin until about the three miles in!
We had practiced our transitions with Jeremy the day before and decided that the left side of the board was the way to switch and then off to the right to exit. It proved to be a good plan. He unclipped his leash and our words were “got it”, to confirm and assure that the fresh paddler was ready to take over. We noticed some teams did not use a leash and we thought it best for our first time.
Getting up to my feet I had a rule to count to three to reconnect my brain to my body. This helped to tame the wild, surging rush of jitters, nerves and everything else you can think of that would break you down and tire you out.
Now standing, and I didn’t even look up. I just started to hammer hard and didn’t even know where my boat was, I was just going. I knew at that moment that if I didn’t find my breath I’d be totally spent the whole race. I thought I’d better take a big chill pill and just relax.