Second on the St. George

Saturday I took the girls up to the St. George river to watch Brad in his first kayak race. He has this friend who has introduced him to the sport, and convinced him to start racing this year. Mostly for fun. Saturday was a beautiful day. The girls and I headed out for the 1.5 hour drive and enjoyed the scenery near the coast. We met up with Brad just before he started his warm up, so we got to see him put his kayak in and then take his turn at the start. The race was a staggered start, 2 boaters starting at a time. Brad was in the second group. As soon as he started, we ran up to our car to drive to the first watching point where a bridge crossed over the river. We climbed through a snowy riverside to get to a great place where we could watch, and got there just in time to see Brad turn the corner 200 yards from where we sat. We got to see him pump through some rapids and keep upright =0) (way to go! That water looked COLD!). We ran to the car again to try to meet him at the finish line, but miss guessed where we were supposed to go, drove 10 minutes out of our way before I figured it out and turned around. Luckily, I turned off of a random side road and guessed right the second time around. We met him pulling his boat out of the water about 10 minutes after he finished. We stuck around to watch the rest of the boaters come in, while the girls had fun throwing rocks and covering innocent bystanders shoes with sand/dirt (oops!). Then we stayed to watch the awards ceremony. Brad's goal was to finish in the top half, and he ended up getting 2nd place! He did a great job. Way to go BR we are so proud of you! Gwen keeps saying, "Daddy did a good job racing." "I like Daddy's racing." It turned out to be a fun way to enjoy a beautiful day.