The 76th annual AuSable River Canoe Marathon kicks off Saturday at 9 p.m. Hundreds of paddlers will race 120 miles down the Au Sable River from Grayling to Oscoda.
Among the duos are teenagers, father and sons and co-ed pairs of all ages. But the past few years have seen an increases in all-female teams competing. Last year's race had the most all-female teams the race has ever had at nine pairs.
According to race organizers, Michelle Laprade and Cecili Bugge are a duo expected to finish high atop the leader board this weekend. They spoke to WCMU's Ellie Frysztak after their time trial about their love of the sport and offered advice to future female racers.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length
Ellie Frysztak: That's the sound of Michelle Laprade and Cecili Bugge paddling down the Au Sable River to record their time trial for the race. The time will determine their starting spot in the marathon. By day, Laprande is a doctor from Canada and Bugge is a local optician. According to race officials, they are one of the best female canoe racers in this year's competition. They met like many people do these days over the internet. Here's Bugge and Laprade.
Cecili Bugge: Social media, I guess I don't know I just heard about her.
Michelle Laprade: So, I think she knew of me and I had heard of her.
EF: The marathon is 120 miles, and one of the triple crowns of canoe racing events, alongside races in in New York and Quebec. For Bugge, her family has been racing in Texas since the 70s, and her husband got her into competitive racing. She said she loves going on the long journey with just another person in the canoe.
CB: Like I really like the idea of, like just going as hard as you can for as long as you can. And then also it's just like you get to be on the river with your best friends for 17 hours and like no phones, no nothing, so it's pretty cool.
EF: For Laprade, she loves the journey of racing the marathon. She switched to the sport after an injury sidelined her time as a competitive swimmer.
ML: Not a 100% sure why I'm here like after 14 hours I'm falling and wondering why I came back. I especially like the training part of it than just being out of water and I can go hours at a time on my own.
EFS: The race didn't allow women until 1968. According to Phil Weiler, a marathon committee member.
Phil Weiler: And they got made fun of because they used compasses, and everybody's like, oh, you just should know the river, you should know that they beat a bunch of the boys.
EF: The duo is continuing that tradition and has seen this work grow among women over the years. For Bugge, she's seen it since childhood.
CB: Growing up in Texas, we didn't have a lot of women racing. My mom was one of the first ones to start, and she often would be the only woman in the race. But now we have, I don't know, like 40 or something, I don’t even know how many, there's a lot of women racing now, and it's really cool.
EF: For Laprade, she says that women who race against men break all kinds of stereotypes.
ML: Lots of people think, oh we’re women, we’re weaker, we can't do this. But, really that's not true. Like them and time again, there's been teams that have proved that it's not true like we can do everything at least as well. We might not be as fast, but it doesn't mean that we're not as good as, you know, men can be.
EF: Bugge’s best advice to female paddlers is to jump right in.
CB: Just getting out there and not being afraid like she said, and really leaning on the other women that are out there, don't be afraid to ask them to go. But the girls are, I think, pretty good at, like welcoming everyone and wanting to share advice because it helps us to have more people or more women racing.
EF: Although they would love to be the first female women's team to win the race, the pair says they really just want to compete, and enjoy the marathon.
CB: First and foremost is to have fun, because why are we out here for not having fun?
ML: Pass a lot of teams. That's the goal.
EF: Laprade and Bugge had the fastest time trial among all the women's teams competing and placed 30th overall among all competitors at 5:54. I'm Ellie Frysztak, WCMU news.
