I was asked to join in the Mayor's Cup by Team Achilles in 2008. Achilles International and "The Freedom Team" which is what they call their cadre of wounded veteran marathon racers has been very influential in the physical and emotional recovery of many of this nation's wounded service members. More importantly, ever since the first marathon which Dick Traum (an above knee amputee) ran in 1976, so many disabled people from around the world have had their lives ultimately changed for the better by participating in marathons with Team Achilles! The first Mayor's Cup I raced in was with Mark Cecconi in a tandem Tango Sea Kayak, in what the Mayor's Cup officials titled the "Challenged Athlete Division". We won the money, but we didn't get to finish the race thanks to some mishaps along the way with other boaters, the weather, and the NYPD. Ray Fusco is a fair and honest man and since we were being tracked by GPS for the race there was no doubt as to who was in the lead as we rounded the tip of the island headed for Columbia University. In 2009, Mark couldn't paddle with me because he had promised the race to someone else which left Team Achilles with some pretty big shoes to fill! Boy did they ever. Enter Marcus Demuth, drummer and adventure kayaker. This guy has done things most men only dream of and lived to tell the tale. From his circumnavigation of the Falklands, Ireland, and other expeditions I knew this guy was going to be the indomitable counter part I needed to win this race. To prepare for this race, just as the last one, I trained hard on the Potomac river with Team River Runner and had the fortunate experience of paddling 225 miles down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in fourteen days, an amazing trip. I still wasn't really prepared for what we encountered that morning. I put on a wetsuit provided by Team Achilles, along with a paddling jacket, spray skirt, life jacket, stuffed some cliff bars in my pocket (provided by Ray Fusco), and gathered some water for the trip. Then all of a sudden it looked as if NYPD was going to shut us down before we even got started. This wasn't a beautiful blustery autumn day like '08, but an icy cold stinging rain was pouring down and the chop was even worse than the winds kicked up the year before. After waiting patiently for all the "Elite" boaters on surf-skis to get their special race bibs I walked up to Ray Fusco and said, "Hey Ray, I won last year and I just paddled the Grand Canyon!". Without hesitation, Ray immediately said, "Hey Marcus do you have a bib? You're going!" Thanks Ray!
Now the race is on, but apparently I was the only "Challenged Athlete" embarking on this journey. It was up to Marcus and I to win this for the team! All I really knew was that I was bound and determined from the beginning just to complete the circumnavigation this time around! Having never used 'wing' paddle, I wanted to give it a try. I just saw the big scoop and knew that it had to propel me faster than a flat blade. I was right, but at a certain price. During the first mile of the race I was watching the surf-skis pass us and I noticed the smooth cadence with which they gracefully glided that bladed through the water. Suddenly, there was another tandem sea-kayak pulling alongside of us. Immediately as I changed the way I was maneuvering that blade through the water we pulled out in front and I only remember looking back when I noticed the only surf-ski we managed to beat, a tandem surf-ski was pulling up on the shore. This was during the run down the Harlem. Although, on this day you might have thought you were headed upstream with the current that we fought. We missed the tide heading out and we struggled miserably on the backside of the island all the way around the tip. At one point I yelled at Marcus, "I don't know if I can make it the whole way, my wrist feels like it's broken!". He tells me to take a break, massage it, he'll keep paddling for both of us, "we've made it this far, we can't give up now!" I think Winston Churchill said that once! Immediately I could feel the pace slow and I knew we couldn't be that far ahead of everyone so after a minute massage (yea we counted) I resumed paddling. A couple minutes later after we went under a bridge I told Marcus to go ahead and take a break. That's all we needed, just a brief moment of rest from gripping and pulling ourselves through a 2-mile an hour force moving against us. We got some water, shared a power bar, and all of a sudden I knew what was coming and that's what I had been wanting to see! There is nothing more grandeur than paddling around the tip of Manhattan and staring "Our Lady Liberty" right in the face! I was excited now, the race was coming to end, the paddling was a little easier now. Right up until we rounded the tip of the island. Back to the four to five foot breaking waves, each one of them seeming to pound me in the chest hard enough to erase four of the six inches we paddled with each stroke. The shear determination it took to paddle that last mile was one of the hardest things I have ever had to accomplish in my life. If it wasn't for Joe Traum and many others who came out to support us it wouldn't have been nearly as fun to bring it home for the win! Thank you Team Achilles, Dick, Joe, Genna, Mary, Roy, Mark, Gary, Robin, and especially that guy who just got himself care flighted out of Tierra Del Fuego trying to raise money for Team Achilles and had to ditch all Biff's and his gear trying to circumnavigate the tip of South America! Marcus, you can be my 'wing' man any day! Keep me in mind for that Ireland trip!
Michael Blair
Thursday, August 12 and Friday, August 13
Lessons and clinics from the world's best paddlers.
Contact Ray Fusco for more details.
