A few days after Petrovsky marathon, when I came back to Moscow, an announcement of the next race in the St.Petersburg region appeared: "The White Day Marathon". I wrote a comment:
-- Thinking of getting a train ticket...
Alexei Platonov responded:
-- I'll give you a fast boat!

Well, what could I do? It was not easy to buy tickets to St. Petersburg - just these days there was the International Economic Forum. But apparently, I again found myself first at the Leningradsky station in Moscow, and eight hours later, at the Moscow station in St.Peterburg. I managed to have a snack on the way between Moscow and Baltic stations, caught the "Lastochka" ("The Swift") express train and was in relative comfort (only sometimes standing on one leg, because cyclists also need to go). About an hour later, I reached Siverskaya station, grabbed a bottle of drinking water at the local store and had a couple of kilometers walk to the local kayak club. While I was walking along the road with a large heavy bag and a paddle, several cars with kayaker brothers drove by. Not a single brother stopped. No worries, they did not have to.

"The White Day" marathon is held on the picturesque Oredezh River in the Leningrad Region. Wikipedia kindly tells us that the Oredezh River is famous for its Devonian sandstones. The same Wikipedia tells, that the Devonian period began approximately 420 million years ago and ended 360 million years ago.
The first significant evolutionary radiation of life on land occurred during the Devonian, as free-sporing land plants began to spread across dry land, forming extensive coal forests which covered the continents. By the middle of the Devonian, several groups of vascular plants had evolved leaves and true roots, and by the end of the period the first seed-bearing plants. The earliest land animals also became well-established early in this period. Fishes, especially jawed fish, reached substantial diversity during this time, leading the Devonian to often be dubbed the Age of Fishes. According to the latest archaeological excavations, during this period Roman Sotnikov came up with the idea of holding "The White Day" paddling marathon.

The name of the marathon "The White Day" came from "the white nights": time of the year in St.Peterburg, when it never gets dark.


Roman Sotnikov and his team did their best: at “White Day” everything was done so that the paddlers get the most wonderful emotions. First of all, they arranged a good weather. Indeed, it was really perfect: not hot, not cold. The sun was shining, but it's not burning. The clouds were beautiful... Secondly, the starting area. A grass lawn with access to the water: from the sandy beach, or from the pier of the local paddling club "Oredezh". Thirdly, the starter pack: a dry bag with an individual number, a chocolate-protein bar in case you run out of power, a bottle of water, a booklet on the race course. Delivery from the finish to the start was organized for car drivers. And that was not all. There were still nice surprises waiting at the finish, but no spoilers...


I arrived at the start quite early, there was still a couple of hours before the race. Received a starter package, met Alexey with boats, changed clothes and, taking advantage of the free time, decided to warm up and test the boats Alexey made. They all were surf skis, with the same name "Ёрик" ("Yorick"), referring to "Alas, poor Yorick" and the brand "Epic". All his boats were different, made specifically for each of the St. Petersburg marathons. Unfortunately, I was unable to adjust the footrests (as that required a screwdriver) and test them thoughtfully, but I still had nice rides on three of them: red, yellow and green. I found all the boats to be very stable, similar to Epic V10Sport, but with a low, yet pretty confortable seating position.

"Yoricks" attracted much attention of the paddlers. Many of them have never seen surf ski class boats before. People came, asked questions, only a few were brave anough to the make a test ride .

As a warm up, we raced sprints on Yoricks.

Tried remount:


While everyone was enjoing racing and socializing, Roman announced that there had been a problem with the bus for the drivers, and the start is delayed by one hour. To avoid overheating and dehydration of the public, some drinking water was immediately delivered to the spot. Well done, orgs, my respect!

It must be noted, that from the very beginning of the event, three professional photographers worked at the start spot: Alexander Kulish, Alexey Babuk and Mikka Hallakas, so we have heaps of stunning photographs. I would especially like to note the dedication of Alexander, who spent a few hours standing in the water.


During the briefing, they once again explained the features of the course. Although, this did not help everyone.


Finally, it was time to start. Since the river was pretty narrow, and there were more than a hundred crews, the start was arranged in pairs, once every 30 seconds. The order was determined by the registration number: first registered -- first started. My number was 101 and I had the opportunity to watch almost all the boats departed. I got to start together with Valentina Nesterova -- the lady, who landed me her boat for Petrovsky Marathon two weeks earlier.

The signal beeped, and the two boats ahead of us set off. Roman, sitting on the pier, announced: “Boats 101 and 102, enter the starting zone!" In a few seconds, the race will begin for us. The signals beeped and “the goat rushed along the hippodrome!”

The first segment, 1.9 kilometers long, appeared to be the easiest part of the race: just a quiet river, no obstacles. The segmend ends with a portage over a dam. There, I met Galina Zhukova (No. 96) on a white sea kayak Storm Kayaks R17, which started 1.5 minutes before me. Such a good pace for a sea kayak!


The launch area beyond the dam was crouded with a huge number of rental SUPs. Apparently, Oredezh river was a great SUP destination due to it's unbelievable beautiness. From now on, there were SO MANY SUPs on the course! And there were plenty of underwater rocks too. Unfortunately, it was not always easy to recognize them. Every now and then, some of the SUPers in front of me hit a rock with a fin, and someone fell. My "Yorik" had an over-the-stern rudder, so it was pretty safe. The main problem was hitting the rocks with the paddle. I had to stick the paddle into the water gently. Additionaly, there was quite a lot of long-stem weeds in the water, which also did not have a very positive effect on paddling efficiency.

I tried to keep left, as the organizers recommended. They mentioned, there was a dangerous underwater ridge somwhere after the second portage. I was convinced, that if I kept left, then I was safe. And that made a cruel joke on me. At some point, my Yorik hopped on a rock and froze motionless. I tried to shake and rock the boat, but that did not help. Thanks to that fact, Yorick was a ski, I easily exited (the river was not deep there), resolved the problem and continued the race.

The second portage happened at the beginning of the eighth kilometer. Here I had another confuse. Keepin in mind the org's instructions, that the boat should not be launched into the water immediately, but a little later (apparently this referred to the first portage, not to the second), I, ignoring all the kayakers who launched just next to the dam, rushed along the road. I walked with the boat through some vegetable gardens and thickets of hogweed and found a way out to the water. I spent about 5 minutes instead of 15 seconds on all these adventures with a kayak in my hand, but I finally launched, catching the surprised glances of the other competitors, watched me from water.

I continued moving, more or less successfully avoiding slow SUPs and underwater rocks, taking time to admire the beauty of the Oredezh river. Reddish sandstones replaced and spruce forest, water weeds and underwater rocks, all this was spiced up with occasional rapids and frequent beautiful SUP-ladies in bikinis.

A red "Optima" K1 kayak appeared on the shore on the left. It was Alexander Kryukov who “caught” a rock with his rudder and damaged the hull. Unfortunately, I couldn’t help with anything other than a kind word. Alexander eventually reached the finish line, despite he had to paddle a boat with a hole and without a rudder.

It’s hard to say how many competitors I overtook, since the traffic on the river was busy. I could miss positions only while I was sitting stuck on a rock and while my extended portage. Well, due to the separated start, it was not clear to undestand the actual positions.

Mikka sat in ambush and loudly warned all passing by paddlers about the huge rock in the middle of the river.


The distance was slowly coming to an end. A few kilometers before the finish, Oredezh became wide, flat and slow. The current disappeared, and I found myself in a hude field of water lilies. It was very difficult to paddle, as the lilies grabbed the blade and they didn’t want me to go. It was impossible to develop a good speed in such conditions. Fortunately, my boat didn’t pick this vegetation on it. Although, not everyone was so lucky. A few kilometers before the finish, I reached Dmitry Pogorelov on a Nelo surf ski, which had a bunch of weeds on its bow. I spent a few seconds to remove that "water brake".


Shortly, a huge red bouy appeared, which was my goal. As usual on a finish stretch, I switched on a "cool kayaker" mode, accelerated and finished honourably and proudly, letting the photographers do theit job.

Once landed, I received a finisher's medal. This medal is worth special mentioning. The fact is that the paddling community is divided into two parts: some believe that medals should be awarded to all finishing participants, while the others disagree and believe that the medal should be awarded only to competition winners. The organizers of The White Day found the Solomon's decision: gingerbread medals! Those who want a medal can keep it, and those who don’t want it can eat it!


The guy, who paddled the yellow Yorick, Nikolai Aprelev, approached me, and said, “You managed to pushed me out of the third place!” I didn't even understand what he was talking about. I went to change clothes and got my meal: the traditional portion of buckwheat with meat and tea. The best food after hard work, so delicious!

Alexey Platonov came up. We swapped our caps: his “Yorik” and my “Epic”.


The boats kept arriving and I came up to the display installed next to the judge's table. Here I understood, what Nikolay told me. My name appeared in the thrd line of the finishers list! As I started almost the last, there was no a chance, anybody could overtake me.

That was something really new to me. Here in Australia we race with athletes of all grades, including the very top level. It's just almost impossible to be as fast as them. That's why it was so new and unusual to step up on a podium. Moreover, my neighbours were the winner of the Petrovsky maraton Alexey Platonov and the Olympian (Sydney 2000) Vladimir Grushikhin

Then, there were the podium, presentations and prize draw...

After the presentation and prize drawing, I had to resolve the problem of getting back to Petersburg quickly, as the start was delayed and I had to catch the train to Moscow. Luckily, there was room in the car of the guys with whom we met on Petrovsky race: Alexey and Evgeniy. Alexey kindly took me straight to the Moscow railway station.

What would you like to say about "The White Day" marathon? First of all, this is the most beautiful race I have done.
Secondly: many thanks and endless respect to Roman Sotnikov and his team for organizing it. I can only regret about one thing: Roman himself did not paddle the race. I really wanted to race face-to-face with him. I hope, there will be another opportunity to do it later.

And of cause, many thanks to Alexey Platonov for the boat and for inviting me. Alexey and Evgeniy for taking me to the station, so I did not miss my train. And to all nice people -- paddlers from St.-Petersburg for being a grat company!

The race result: 3rd in K1M class and 11th absolute, with 0:38:17 gap.
Interesting fact, my 7 minutes of delay cost me only two total positions, but if I delayed 7 minutes more, I would loose more than a dosen positions.