It’s Not A Party Without Paddlefish Pastries

Well, Team Paddlefish participated in another 10K race this past weekend on Town Lake. You may recall we completed the first Town Lake race in gusting winds in 1 hour 36 minutes. This time we invited friends and family to cheer us on so we could beat our time, but more importantly, so we could pass the hat for our two charities: The International Rett Syndrome Foundation and Project Healing Waters.

A few days before the race I was interviewed by Bettie Cross for KEYE, our local CBS affiliate. A portion of the interview is available to view here.

Race day was magical on all fronts. Plenty of sunshine and our friends were out in full force. I had the chance to meet two Austin-area families that I befriended online whose daughters both live with Rett Syndrome. It was so fun to meet them in person!

Meanwhile Banning and I are getting to know more paddlers at these races and events – which means we are learning more and more from all these Safari veterans. Plus, our friends provided food and drinks and various items that we were able to sell for our charities. MANY THANKS goes to:

• Nueva Onda – the best breakfast taco in ATX — donated four dozen breakfast tacos
• My sweet friend Shawn who brought these adorable (and delicious!) paddlefish cookies
• My equally sweet friend Hillary brought water and coffee
• Ted Mendrick from Sportsmans Finest handmade fish refrigerator magnets that we sold
• Eric from Eric’s Hired Hands who was on hand to offer chair massage
• Kevin Hutchison was offering flycasting lessons and donated Team Paddlefish boat towels
• 1379 brought a big cheerleading contingency and surprised us with 1379 Team Paddlefish shirts; we have lots of kids sizes that we will be able to sell as well
• Fire In The Gut outfitted us in hats and most importantly these super high-tech performance shirts – I am practically living in these FITG shirts these days. Training, running, rowing machine, paddling, carpool. They are my new uniform, so I was very proud to debut the new FITG logo on the canoe. Pssst…check out who is on the homepage
• Tim Cole, who works with Costa del Mar, generously provided new shades and visors and shirts
• John Baltzell and all the volunteers organized The Town Lake Race Series and were very gracious to include our friends, charities and cheerleaders in Sunday’s race

Little Chick was a machine manning the Paddlefish Bazaar, and since it never crossed her mind to make change, we ended up with a whopping $225 for our charities! And all the cheering really made a difference because despite the fact that there was wind again, we managed to beat our previous time: Tosh clocked us finishing at 1 hour and 29 minutes.

Many Thanks to all who came out to wave the Team Paddlefish flag!! Onward to the Safari…

Entertainment, Texas Water Safari