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March 25, 2008 -- Hershey, PA
The second and third events of the MADS series were run this past weekend by Colby Zebel in Central Pennsylvania. A good rain
during the week brought Codorus Creek to a great level and, even though the level was falling, it was perfect for racing by
the weekend. Unfortunately the rain also brought up the level of the Susquehanna to levels that almost washed out the planned
race courses, Combined with a howling wind that makes a huge difference on a river over 2/3rds of a mile wide, we decided to
concentrate on racing the Codorus for the weekend. Hopefully next year we will be able to contrast a river running at 500cfs
to one flowing at over 100,000CFS in two days of racing.
On Saturday we ran two sprint runs through Upper and Lower Dees, the most significant rapids on the Codorus. The lines are very
tight, and a prominent piton rock sits in the middle of a wave right in the racing line in Upper Dees, ensuring that hitting the
right line is at a premium. Local Pat Reily found this on his first practice run of his local river, and decided to sit out
the racing for the day. Another local, Bob Horlacher, had never run the river before and made it down safely on his practice
run but couldn’t reproduce his line during the race. Sporting his brand new boat Colby Zebel made it two of two wins in the
MADS series as he produced the two fastest runs of the weekend through the sprint. Just behind him Chris “Cannonball” Norbury
had a horrendous first sprint run but then learned that actually trying hard was a good thing, and was only a second off of
Colby’s time for the 2nd run. Mike Warren was consistent over the two runs, producing a cumulative time that placed him
joint second. Given that Mike has a habit of getting up close and personal with the piton rock in the middle of Upper Dees, he
was more than happy to escape with an intact boat and a good time. Our final competitor was Ed Spayd, a local flatwater
paddler (and cross country skier) who raced an Outburst and was astonishingly fast. Look for Ed to be out in a Wavehopper
and trouncing us all soon.
Sprint Results
| Name | Club | Class | Time 1 | Time 2 |
Cumulative | MADS |
| Colby Zebel | CWC | K1M | 105 | 106 | 211 | 100 |
| Chris Norbury | CWC | K1M Masters | 114 | 106 | 220 | 95.7 |
| Mike Warren | CWC K1M | 110 | 110 | 110 | 220 | 95.7 |
| Ed Spayd | - | K1M Rec | 135 | 137 | 272 | 71.08 |
| Bob Horlacher | - | K1M Masters | DNF | | | 1 |
| Pat Reily | - | K1M Masters | DNS | | | - |
On Sunday we ran a Classic race over the more interesting part of the Codorus. A couple of folks bagged out from the day before
but Pat Reily was back with a duct-taped boat for more abuse, and Hollie Noble made the drive up from Frederick. Colby “I hate
paddling downstream” Zebel once again took the honors, putting him well up in the over MADS standings at present. Chris Norbury
overcame the bottom drag produced over the shallows by five years of inactivity, pizza and ice cream to place second (on his
second race run – we’ll get to that in a minute). In third, Mike warren reproduced his styling lines from the previous week’s
Tohickon race to flip and piton a rock wall in Upper Dees. Still, he finished under 10% behind Colby for third. The real drama
of the race was provide when Pat overtook Hollie just before the entrance to Upper Dees. A bad line saw him sitting sideways
in the current with no way around and ended with both paddlers in an eddy, although only pat was upright by that point. At
that point Hollie abandoned her boat, but curiously recovered her enthusiasm for the sport at the same time. Fearing he would
be passed Pat took off down the river like a bat out of hell, leaving the arriving Norbury to help out Hollie (once he had stopped
laughing). Hence the second race run that Chris put in to get a result.
Overall a great time was had by all over the entire weekend. We all had fun, and we hope other folks who paddle wildwater
in the Mid Atlantic will soon see the advantages of racing regularly. Next race is the Red Moshannon, with the next MADS race
at Little Falls on the Potomac on April 13th. You can find pictures of the sprint race at
picasaweb.google.com/ruenkaew3/CodorusRace32208
Classic Results
| Name | Club | Class | Time | MADS |
| Colby Zebel | CWC | K1M | 14.12 | 100 |
| Chris Norbury | CWC | K1M Masters | 15.17 | 92.47 |
| Mike Warren | CWC | K1M | 15.34 | 90.38 |
| Pat Reily | - | K1M Masters | 16.30 | 83.80 |
| Hollie Noble | LFWC | K1W | DNF | 1 |
Current MADS Standings
| Colby Zebel | 300 |
| Chris Norbury | 280.18 |
| Mike Warren | 277.86 |
| Peter Lutter | 99.39 |
| Charley Bartlett | 91.09 |
| Pat Reily | 83.80 |
| Ed Spayd | 71.08 |
| Bob Horlacher | 1 |
| Hollie Noble | 1 |
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