The Great Alabama 650 Paddle Race starts 9/30/2023. Here is the current list of entrants:
Female Solo
Salli O’Donnell
Brooke Vaughn
Male Solo
Bobby Johnson
Jim Lewey
Trey Reaves
Mirko Pruefer
Chuck Scheidt
Christian Logan
Jeff Matonis
George True
Brad Friesen
Goran Gustavsson
David Forshee
Sean Hawes
David Miner
Teams
Ryan Gillikin & Rod Price
Julie Ardoin & Carmen Gustafson
Gregory Peters & Corbin Peters
Matt Taylor & Myles Sumerlin
I got to see a little bit of that route this spring paddling on the coosa. I paddled up from fort toulouse, portaged into the lake and then portaged back out onto the main stem and back to fort toulouse. Nice area. I think that was around 24 miles and wore me out. I can’t imagine 650 miles in less than a week!
The race has a shotgun start at 10 am 9/29/2023. The race continues for up to 10 days. There are mandatory portage points and check in spots, with minimum times for the portage (which can be support team facilitated.) Support teams are required but cannot be in the watercraft. The watercraft types are limited to kayaks, canoes and SUPs. No motors, pedals or sails are allowed. Racers must have completed at least one qualifying race in the last 5 years (see list.) The race map is updated in real time via SPOT trackers.
At the bottom of the page I linked to (above) are links to the rules and additional information.
Just over 1 day of the race has elapsed. The top 4 are:
Salli O’Donnell
Matt Taylor & Myles Sumerlin
Bobby Johnson
Trey Reaves
These 4 are within about 6 miles of each other, the other contestants are at least 20 miles back. These leaders have had very little down time so far (Salli’s downtime is about 2.5 hours) and are averaging around 6 mph when not stopped.
Salli O’Donnell
Matt Taylor & Myles Sumerlin
Trey Reaves
Bobby Johnson
Salli has a current lead of about 6 miles (or about an hour at the average speed.) The next group of racers, after these 4 are about 45 miles behind. The top 4 have passed the first checkpoint (Coosa River Adventures - 231.9 miles) which is more than a third of the way to the finish.
So far the leaders have each taken 5 to 7 hours of rest, some mandatory and some voluntary.
These people are true athletes! No way could I keep up that pace!
That is an insane pace. I think Bobby Johnson set a course record last year so I’m sure they are gunning to beat that.
I’m cheering for Trey - I met him on the beach at Wiggins Pass in the EC last March. Super nice guy. His EC partner Julie Ardoin is also in the AL 650 racing with a different partner - I’m cheering for them too. Trey and Julie helped me carry my boat up the beach after a long and difficult day. We all would have liked to hang out for a bit but the bugs were so bad that we had to retreat to our tents.
At a little over 3 days, the top 4 remain the same, though the order is slightly different:
Salli O’Donnell
Trey Reaves
Matt Taylor & Myles Sumerlin
Bobby Johnson
Salli currently has a 20+ mile advantage over Bobby, but that could change at anytime. All the racers are slowing down as the miles start to tell. For example, early in the race Salli’s average moving speed was 6.3 mph, now it has dropped to 5.6 mph… still faster (for much longer) than I have any hope of achieving!
Yep. Salli led Bobby by ~ 25 miles at this point, last year. Then Bobby was able to storm back and win comfortably. I expect Bobby to go on a tear, tomorrow. But Salli is a tenacious competitor, as well.
The top 4 racers have all passed the second checkpoint (Miller’s Ferry Campground) and are closing in on the last portage (Claiborne Dam). The field has been reduced to 12 boats from the 15 that started. The current milage for each of the top 4 is:
481.1 Trey Reaves
478.8 Salli O’Donnell
457.9 Matt Taylor & Myles Sumerlin
451.7 Bobby Johnson
At about 5 days and 8 hours into the race, the gap between 1st place and 4th place has shrunk from roughly 30 miles down to 21 miles. Bobby has moved from 4th to 3rd and is now ahead of Matt and Myles, but will he be able to continue at his current faster pace?
572.7 Trey Reaves
564.4 Salli O’Donnell
555.5 Bobby Johnson
551.7 Matt Taylor & Myles Sumerlin
These paddlers are nearing the Mobile Bay portion of the race. I am not sure exactly where the open water starts, but if you say that it is at the I-10 bridge, Trey should be there in about 2 to 3 hours.
Bobby continues to close on the leader and has moved into a solid 2nd place position. He is now about 11 miles behind Trey, the leader. But Trey is within 34 miles of finishing, so Bobby may not be able to catch him. Could we have a photo finish?
616.4 Trey Reaves
605.1 Bobby Johnson
597.8 Salli O’Donnell
587.7 Matt Taylor & Myles Sumerlin
Trey and Bobby are in the bay, Salli is an hour or less north of the I-10 bridge.
