Whitehorse Star, June 29, 2005

THEY'RE OFF! - Yukon River Quest participants leave the start line on
the Whitehorse waterfront at 12:30 this afternoon. Sixty-seven teams
are heading to Dawson City for the 7th annual race. © Photo Whitehorse Star

'It's just going to be a sufferfest, basically'

In the six years the Yukon River Quest has been running, a local team has never been awarded bragging rights.

But that may all change this year if Whitehorse's Stephen Mooney and his partner Greg McHale have their say in it.

Mooney came in third overall last year as a solo kayaker, behind the winning duo of Steve Landick and Bruce Barton, as well as Chris Gerwing and Tim Hodgson. This year, he decided to take on a partner, because he's serious about winning the overall race.

"The first priority is to have a Yukon boat win the race," said Mooney in an interview prior to the River Quest team meeting Tuesday evening. "The second priority is to set a record."

McHale said Mooney approached him almost immediately after last year's race and said, "You 's got to race with me next year.

"We talked about doing it together (for the 2004 race)," said McHale.

"But I'm an adventure racer first, and another race came up so that took priority. This year, I committed early to doing this."

Mooney said he and McHale have competed in adventure races together before, as well as paddled, so the RCMP officer was his first pick for a River Quest partner. McHale said they paddle quite similarly, so there won't be too many problems.

"I know that Steve can tough it out."

Both men acknowledged they will have tough competition in their quest to conquer the race, especially since Landick is returning with a new partner - Texas native Fred Mynar, who is a 13-time winner of the Texas Water Safari.

Hodgson is also back, this time with local Thane Phillips. But that doesn't change Mooney and McHale's training or strategy.

"We've got our own game plan for the race and we're sticking with it," said Mooney, adding a lot of it is paddle rate.

"There isn't going to be a time or place in this race when two paddles are of out of the water," stated McHale.

While McHale is always training year round for adventures races, he wasn't able to start training specifically for canoeing until this past spring, when the river was finally thawed, something that Mooney admitted can be a bit of a disadvantage for local teams - it can be near impossible to get 100 hours of paddling in when the river opens up just five weeks before the big event.

"Teams from down south...100 hours, they could have that booked in February or March," he stated.

But McHale said if the talent is equal, "it comes down to who can suffer the most, who can stay awake the longest and who can stay motivated.

"It's just going to be a sufferfest basically. If you're not suffering, you're not working hard enough."

The first-half goal for the duo, who are travelling under the sponsor name Northwestel High Speed Internet, is to complete the trip to Carmacks in 20 hours, and then be in Dawson City by early Friday night.

"We want to be there around suppertime," smiled Mooney. "Some people eat a little earlier and some a little later, so I'll leave it at that."

Mooney said the part of last year's strategy that worked well for him was remembering to just take one portion of the river at a time, and not get ahead of himself. He said on the Yukon River, you get into a lot of bends, and it's important to focus on each one.

He anticipates the most challenging part of this year's race for him will be about four hours before Carmacks, where "it just winds and slows down," also known as the tantalous bute.

Not having done the race before, McHale said it's tough to pin down what the most difficult part of the race will be for him.

"I imagine it's just going to be the confinement of being in a kayak, just the body aches and the pain. After 12 hours, it's going to hurt, but it's just pushing through the pain and keeping the paddle rate up."

One of the best parts of the race for all the competitors is finally making it across the finish line and for McHale, that could be just a little bit sweeter, since he's been residing in Dawson for the past couple of years.

"Dawson has been really good to me and it will be really nice to get to Dawson. A lot of people have supported Denise (his wife) and me in our adventure racing. We've been lucky to live there, so it's kind of nice for me to be finishing it off in Dawson."

Denise will join Mooney's girlfriend and Greg's mother as the support crew for the duo, who have also received great support from numerous sponsors, including Epic Paddles and Vaude. They'll be running the race in a Seaward Passat G3 kayak. With everything in place, Mooney can't wait to get started.

"Stephen's been running around the past couple of days with his head cut off," Greg laughed. "I just have to calm him down."

The pair won't have long to wait, as the 2005 Yukon River Quest gets underway at 12:30 p.m. today in Whitehorse. Sixty-seven teams - a new event record - will take off from Main Street, using a LeMans-style start, and race down to the river bank at Rotary Peace Park before
jumping in their canoe or kayak.

The River Quest organizers had to deal with their first controversy of this year's race at Tuesday's meeting, as numerous people commented on the boat brought by Australia competitor Tom Simmat. The general consensus was that it's much faster than the others, said Peter Coates, president of the Yukon River Marathon Paddlers Association, which runs the race.

"We do not want this race to turn into an event for racing boats because that's just a stupid idea on this river and it goes against the spirit of this race."

Coates said Simmat originally tried to enter the race with an even less appealing boat, but organizers said no. The Aussie then proposed another boat, and was given the go ahead.

"Now we have to deal with the fact we made a mistake with that decision," said Coates. "And we have to make as many people as possible happy."

In the end, Simmat was awarded a one hour time penalty, which will be served at Carmacks. Coates admitted one hour might not make a difference, but said the two per cent time penalty was about as fair as organizers could get, given the situation.

"Everyone is reasonably happy about it I think," he said.

While Coates himself has never had to make a ruling in the same situation before, he said there was an even bigger "mess" in 2001, with another boat that was modified for the race.

"Someone complained about it, but not until Dawson (when it was over)," he exclaimed. "It was a mess. So we really wanted to deal with this as soon as possible, so everyone would be happy.

"This is a happy race."

The Star will be on the water throughout the 2005 Yukon River Quest, providing full coverage of the event for both the Thursday and Monday, July 4 editions.

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