Local kayaking duo breaks record and inducted to elite club

Boundary County kayaking duo and life partners Josh Friedman and Julie Kirk not only beat their best race time at the Yukon River Quest, a 444-mile race on the Yukon River, they also made history by being inducted into the Yukon River Quest Great River Club.

In order to enter the club, paddlers have to complete 3,106 miles, equal to 5,000 kilometers, on the Yukon River.

Friedman and Kirk completed their seventh Yukon River Quest, taking 13th overall with a time of 51:43:27, and having reached the paddling milestone of the Yukon River, they were then inducted into the elite club.

Kirk is now the first American female to be inducted into the club, and Friedman is the second American male. Kirk and Friedman race until the team name “Team Spirit of America.”

Friedman said she feels wonderful, noting it was the couple’s best race finish so far. They had their best time, knocking three hours off their previous personal record for the race.

By the seventh time of racing on the Yukon River, the pair said they had learned the water and the route. To compete in the YRQ, there is no designated route; instead participants must get from Whitehorse to Dawson City, Yukon to by water. Those are the only stipulations.

Friedman and Kirk said they had an advantage over other competitors due to their knowledge of the river.

Friedman said in one instance they were moving toward an island with the New Zealand team and a canoe hot on their tail.

“The canoe went left of the island and we went right,” he said. “We never saw the canoe the rest of the race,” he said, pointing to small details and decisions that can make all the difference when out on the water.

The weather conditions were also favorable for this year’s event compared to past races on the Yukon.

“We had a heat wave of 90 degrees in the last leg of the race. It gave us motivation to finish,” Friedman said.

Like the other teams, Friedman and Kirk said they have specific duties when racing. Kirk tracks their strokes, trying to keep it up to 70 strokes a minute. She provides the endurance, steers and keeps the pace, Friedman provides the power and navigates.

This year, the pair were blazing fast.

“I could see how fast we were going by looking at the segment we had completed, I wanted to go faster on this race than previous attempts,” Kirk said.

Team Spirit of America has two important rules when racing, never stop and never get out of the boat.

“The first 12 hours of the race, we don’t stop, then we get a one-minute break at the top and bottom of the hour,” Kirk said.

The team never leaves the boat until the end of the race, due to seeing other competitors drop out because one team member will not return to the boat. Disembarking also cuts into a team’s overall time.

Kirk said the team gained additional strength this year by implementing weight training and kettlebell exercises. Kirk still continued her regular aerobics training and getting out and paddling on the Kootenai River.

But paddling is more mental than physical; Kirk said since the duo was in the boat for so long that they began to bleed and had rub spots from sitting.

“You have to get right in your head, compartmentalize the race in four-hour sections,” she said.

She said during those physically hard times on the water, the pair think about friends and family members they have lost. Both of them carry a list of names in their bags to remember.

One person in particular they thought of during the YRQ was Naomi Irene Flowers Sumter, the daughter of Karen and Weezil Sumter of Boundary County. The race marked her birthday and the anniversary of her death at 18 in 2003.

“We do things for those who can’t,” Kirk said. “She had so much life in her. When you do things like these races you remember people like that. When we are on the water in Deep Creek passing her memorial bench and when we’re out racing, heavens yes, we're thinking of her every year on the water.”

Over the years, the team has learned that a key aspect of competing is their diet. Coming into race season, they cut out gluten. By doing so, they have found they can stay awake longer which helps when you’re paddling through the wilderness for 50 or more hours.

Up next for Kirk and Friedman is the 18th Missouri American Water MR340, a 340-mile race on the longest river in North America — the Missouri.

The pair will be competing in a dragon boat alongside 15 other athletes from the U.S. and abroad, forming the Pan Am Express dragon boat team; with a goal of breaking the world record for the longest voyage completed in a dragon boat. The team will complete the 340 miles and go an additional 30 miles to break the record.

Kirk and Friedman were invited to participate in the team by national dragon boat champion Rod Price.

This is the first time Friedman and Kirk had paddled with others and the first time they have been in a dragon boat. They will sit side-by-side with another paddler in rows of eight, with a pacer sitting in the front and someone in the back steering.

Every 15 minutes paddlers will switch seats in order to exercise their other side. Kirk said the whole team will only have one day to practice before the race.

Kirk and Friedman said they are looking forward to the opportunity and the changes that come with it, such as using a single-bladed paddle instead of their regular double blade.

“We’re not in charge, just power,” Kirk said, adding that being on the team will alleviate the typical stress that comes with only being a team of two alone out on the river.

They said they are excited to see how fast they can move in the dragon boat.

Friedman and Kirk are leaving today to travel to Missouri to compete on Aug. 1.

They wanted to thank their customers at Mountain Mike’s Health Food Store, their fellow racers, support crew, staff and trainers at Iron Mike’s Family Fitness and everyone wishing them the best.