I have written a book on my experience training and racing in the 2010 Texas Water Safari, a 260-mile paddling race from central Texas to the Gulf Coast that has earned the moniker, ‘The World’s Toughest Boat Race’. The book, titled PADDLEFISH, is available at select retailers as well as here on FFC. If you’d like to order a copy here, please indicate in the box below if you’d like me to sign it, write something custom/specific (you can write what you’d like me to say), or leave it blank and I will just send it in the shrink wrap. If you have any questions about purchasing/shipping please email me at flyfishchick [at] live [dot] com. (More about the book below.)

 

 

 

Considering I had never even run a 5K, some would say competing in an ultra endurance race at age 39 was a bit of a stretch. But from the start I was inspired to do it and 100% driven to finish. In the book, I share my personal experience with this legendary race, including the grueling physical challenges, the sensational anecdotes that come along with such competition, and the lore of the Texas history along the race route.

In addition to vivid descriptions of my hallucinations during the race, I also answer the two questions that I am asked the most: Where did you sleep? Where did you go to bathroom?

PADDLEFISH, it’s about a novice paddler, an extraordinary race, and it’s a river story. It’s been a wild ride from start to finish and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to tell my tale.

 

Be glad they have yet to invite scratch-n-sniff video technology because this footage captures the grit, grime and intensity of the Water Safari. Sneak a peek from our journey and enjoy some good Texas tunes from Nathan Hamilton and Band of Heathens:

 

 PUBLISHER’S JACKET FLAP BLURB:

On a sweltering summer day in 2010, Christine Warren stepped into a 24-foot canoe and paddled toward a goal that she never previously imagined possible.

The Texas Water Safari is a 260-mile paddle race from the Texas Hillcountry to the Gulf Coast. Run continuously since 1963, the course follows the San Marcos and Guadalupe Rivers to the coastal fishing town of Seadrift. Paddlers must complete the race in 100 hours with barely more than which they started. While the exhausting pace and blistering heat are reason enough to bow out, it’s the ancillary hurdles that often eliminate racers long before the finish line: dam portages, water moccasins, logjams, mosquitoes, dysentery, alligators, sleep deprivation, and equipment failures.

Paddlefish is the first complete narrative ever published on The Texas Water Safari. With a mixture of humor, misery, history and triumph, Christine has written an engaging and entertaining memoir of her yearlong transformation from a mom, writer and fly-fisher, to a viable competitor in “The World’s Toughest Boat Race”.