The AuSable River Canoe Marathon returns for its 77th year to Michigan with a record-breaking 116 teams on Saturday, July 26.
The paddlers leave Grayling at 9 p.m. and canoe and paddle nonstop for 120 miles until they reach Oscoda the next day.
Kate Reitz with the marathon communications said not all teams make it to the end of the race because they have to endure tough challenges.
“The upper section of the river is very twisty,” Reitz said. “It's turny, it's fairly narrow, it's very shallow. ... You're battling being cold. There's nutrition issues. People get sick if they're not eating and drinking well enough.”
Paddlers who join the race come from a variety of experience levels and cultures. For example, this year there are teams from Great Britain, Belize and a record-breaking number of teams from Canada, Reitz said.
People of different ages compete in marathons as well. This year’s youngest team are two brothers from Texas who are 15 and 16 years old, Reitz said. And the oldest team has a combined age of 141 years.
But Reitz said her personal favorite part of the competition is a mixed division, which means one man and one woman in a boat. She said the last two years Michael Schlimmer and Eve Chamberland won that division, and this year they’re back for the third time.
“We have 27 mixed division teams, and it is steep competition within those teams,” Reitz said. “I'm super interested, I'm very geeked to watch that mixed division race.”
At the end of the race there are cash prizes, but Reitz said many people are doing it out of passion.
“It's a huge personal accomplishment,” she said. “It's a big challenge. And there's a lot of people that are just here just to finish. And we appreciate that.”
The race will be streamed on The AuSable River Canoe Marathon Facebook and YouTube channels, and will start with competitors running to the river through downtown Grayling with canoes on their shoulders.
