Canoe Marathon Story

 Two local athletes, Joey Tatar from Marshall and Cael Brennan from Battle Creek, recently competed as a two person team in the Au Sable Canoe Marathon in northern Michigan. This annual race starts in Grayling and finishes in Oscoda, covering a 120-mile route on the Au Sable River. This was the 77th running of this annual race, with this year’s festivities taking place on July 26th and 27th. “This was a grueling race,” said Brennan. “We couldn’t have done it without our support crew, which included Devin Kavanaugh, Zane Newton, Jordan Marmul, River Karaba, and Devin Wolever. They would meet us with food and drink approximately every 3 hours. Typically, we would have an electrolyte solution to drink. For nutrition, we ate a variety of foods, including fresh fruits, gummy bears, and fig bars. We expended an extreme amount of energy with my Garmin watch recording about 8000 calories burned.” 

Being new to the sport, both Tatar and Brennan were pleased with what they were able to accomplish. “We finished in 17 hours and 9 minutes, good for 72nd place,” said Tatar. “There were 115 teams that started the race, with 103 finishing.” With so many teams, the race utilizes a Lemans style start to minimize some of the chaos. “Teams are seeded based on a sprint time trial done a few days before the race,”  Brennan noted. “Teams run from a designated area near the river access, and when the start is signaled, each duo runs to the river carrying their canoe and starts. The faster your time trial time, the closer to the front of the line you are placed.”

Tatar and Brennan both graduated from Harper Creek, where they competed as athletes. Tatar played lacrosse and football in high school and continued with lacrosse at Albion College, where he earned all-American status his junior and senior years. Brennan also played lacrosse for Harper Creek and also spent much of his childhood competing on the ice as a hockey player. Tatar talked about what led them to participate in this unique type of athletic event. “We have cabins in the Grayling area and have hosted our family reunion each year for as long as I can remember, during the week that the canoe marathon takes place.” As Tatar described, the canoe marathon is a popular spectator event. “Each year, we would go to take in the start of the race and watch participants at various points along the river. I would estimate that there are typically 30 to 40 thousand spectators at the start. There are also crowds at various points along the river, with a large following at McMaster's Bridge at about 23 miles into the race. There is also a very large crowd at the finish.” 

Tatar grew up watching the canoe marathon, and when he and Brennan decided to attempt the challenge of completing the race, they would receive invaluable mentorship locally. “We drew a lot of inspiration from watching Brayden and Dawson Cook participate in the marathon last year, as members of their support crew,” said Tatar. “Two local canoe racers, Andy Weeks and Paddi Thorburg, provided support and trained many hours with us on the river.  Andy and Paddi also introduced us to a group from Homer, known as Hog Wild Racing, whom we canoed with once a week as part of our preparations. This group included Bruce Barton, Roxane Barton, Rebecca Davis, and Mike Davis.”

Training for this race consumed much of their lives. Brennan reflected on the daily grind. “A typical day consisted of getting up at 4 AM for a cardio workout, usually a run. We would follow this up with a session in the weight room and then go to work. Our day ended with an hour or two on the river after work. Much of our water training was on the Kalamazoo River.”  Both Brennan and Tatar describe the difficulties of getting in the hours of training on the water in Michigan for a race that occurs at the end of July. “We trained through the winter but couldn’t start paddling in the river until March,” Tatar recalled. “Much of winter’s brutal conditions were behind us by then, but we still proceeded with caution.”

“There were times when we had to call our canoe runs short early in spring due to hypothermia,” added Brennan. “Each year, the race is scheduled to start at 9 PM, so we tried to do some canoe runs on the river in the dark with 2 night training sessions on the.” The duo spent many hours together running, biking, and in the weight room as they prepared, not including time in the canoe, which consisted of 105 hours from March through July.

As part of their training, Tatar and Brennan participated in some shorter canoe races to help simulate what they might encounter on the day of the race. They were able to work out some of the kinks in these shorter competitions. “The Au Sable Marathon was the only race that we didn’t dump the canoe,” explained Tatar. “Although we never dumped our canoe on the Au Sable River, there were 5 dams on the course which required us to get out and portage.”

Canoeing downstream for 120 miles would seem to test one’s physical endurance and emotional stamina, but there were other challenges as well. “We used a bike-style light mounted on the front of the canoe to help us see during the nighttime hours of the race,” said Brennan, “but with fog and other conditions, we could only see a few feet in front of us during the hours of darkness. The course was GPS mapped, which helped in navigating around obstacles, including rocks, tree stumps, and fish traps hidden in the water. I worked the stern and Joey worked the back, so for these portions of the course, my eyes were locked on my GPS device, while I was in ongoing communication with Joey, giving him a heads up on what direction to turn.”

The Au Sable Canoe Marathon has a history playing out over the course of 77 consecutive years. Tatar detailed a component of the history of this race as part of a series of canoe races. “The Au Sable Canoe Marathon is part of the Triple Crown of canoe racing. The other two races include the General Clinton Canoe Regatta on the Clinton River in New York, held in May, which is a distance of 70 miles, and the Classic de Canoe held on the St. Maurice River in Quebec, held on Labor Day Weekend, covering a distance of 200 kilometers.”

As challenging as this experience was for Brennan and Tatar, it hooked them. “We plan on signing up again for next year’s race. There is definitely a learning curve, and there are things that we learned from our first time. We will tweak some things for our training and race day.”

Tatar and Brennan work together at Solar Mounts LLC in Marshall. Tatar is the director of Operations, and Brennan is a project manager. “Working together at Solar Mounts every day has helped us in our teamwork with our training and for the race,” Tatar stated. “This relationship at work has helped us to hold each other more accountable in showing up early for early morning runs and for trusting each other in the canoe. Working together has also provided convenience in being on the same schedule for the hours spent working out together.”