Female paddlers tackle World's Toughest Boat Race

SAN MARCOS The Hippie Chicks hoist their 30-foot canoe up the bank at Rio Vista Falls, ponytails bobbing and purple and turquoise skirts a-swishing.

They're practicing portaging techniques for the Texas Water Safari, a sweat-soaked, hallucination-drenched, 260-mile canoe race from San Marcos to the Texas coast.

The Safari, dubbed the world's toughest boat race, has traditionally been dominated by men, but don't tell the Chicks. The three 5-foot-3-inch paddlers are among 25 women out of about 200 paddlers entered in this year's event.

At 9 a.m. Saturday, they'll surge out of Aquarena Springs and into the San Marcos River alongside 103 other boats. Downstream, they'll merge into the Guadalupe River, which ultimately pours into San Antonio Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. They'll have to check in at 12 points and make it to Seadrift, on the coast, by 1 p.m. June 16 to be considered official finishers.

"It's really, really, really hard and nasty," says Hippie Chick No. 1, Debbie Richardson, 43, a veteran of the race who sells real estate when she's not paddling.

"Snakes, alligators, mosquitoes, poison ivy ... you get dirty and bruised," says Hippie Chick No. 2, Janie Glos, 48, a two-time Ironman Triathlon finisher and lending assistant who will be racing her first Texas Water Safari.

The Chicks, with the words "Peace Love and Paddle" painted on the side of their boat, will race in the female division. Only four all-women boats are registered this year; the other women are paddling on mixed teams.

Among them are Christine Johnson, 39, who along with fellow fly fishing guide (and guy) Banning Collins, 29, make up Team Paddlefish. It's their first Texas Water Safari, and their goal is to get their aluminum canoe across the finish line in under 90 hours.

"We're not the fastest, we're not the strongest, but we're methodical," Johnson says. They're also good at reading water and currents.

What all these women may lack in sheer size and strength, they say they make up for in other ways.

"We're built for endurance, and it's an endurance race," says Hippie Chick No. 3, Ginsie Stauss, 51, an art teacher at River Ridge Elementary in Leander. She's one of just 10 women who have finished the race solo since it started in 1964. (She almost made it five solo finishes last year, but was pulled from the water just 2 miles from the finish after flipping her boat repeatedly.)

Allen Spelce, president of Texas Water Safari, says the women who are entering the race, either solo or as part of all-female or mixed teams, can stand up to their testosterone-fueled competitors. Their boats are typically lighter, giving them an advantage in narrow and twisty sections. And what they might lack in brute strength they make up for in other ways.

"They're just very tough mentally — there's no give, no quit," Spelce says.

Take Johnson, a single mother used to taking charge when her 10-year-old daughter needs a hand.

"I may not be as strong when we're hoisting more than 100 pounds up the bank for a portage, but I know how to tell when someone needs to eat," she says. That's important in a long endurance race, where fuel is important and constant exertion tends to curb the appetite.

She'll set an alarm to go off every hour to remind her and her partner to eat and stick their feet in the water to cool off. Unlike some teams, which will paddle through the night, Team Paddlefish will break twice a day for 190 minutes of sleep.

Johnson has been lugging two 50-pound suitcases around her house to boost her strength, and has been training since last fall for the race. She plans to write a book about the experience, which she says she is doing because of her deep love for Texas' rivers.

And she has imparted this warning to her 10-year-old daughter, Sophie, who will be at checkpoints watching for her mom: "I want you to understand Mommy is going to look worn out."

The first day of the race is nonstop action, with dams to portage, swift water to negotiate, tree branches to avoid and other boats to battle. Each team has a bank crew led by a team captain, the only person allowed to hand them ice or water during the race. All other supplies must be packed in.