West Hansen stops to meet his crew Monday morning on Day 3 of the Great Alabama 650. Photo by Robert Youens

The rain stopped, the sun came out, and West Hansen hung onto the men’s solo lead on Monday, Day 3 of the Great Alabama 650 paddling race.

By 5 p.m. Monday, last year’s winners, the tandem team of Joe Mann and Paul Cox, had taken a 40-mile overall lead in the event, which starts in northeastern Alabama and finishes at Fort Morgan on the Gulf Coast. Solo racer Salli O’Donnell of Florida was second, with West Hansen of Austin, also racing solo, less than a mile back. A tandem boat paddled by Rod Price and Bobby Johnson was not far behind.

Hansen has paddled almost 300 miles of the 650-mile course. With such a close field, exact position doesn’t mean much now. Teams will stop periodically to rest, and those that take the shortest breaks will gain an advantage.

“Salli looked like hell. West looked like hell,” Robert Youens, a member of Hansen’s support team, said this morning. Hansen had gotten about two and a half hours of sleep in the team’s air-conditioned support vehicle. He described the paddler as “stoic and focused.”

By this afternoon, Hansen’s spirits and condition seemed even better. He barely slowed just before 5 p.m. to pick up water, sunscreen, glow sticks and a headlamp from his crew. He turned down an offer of fried chicken. He’s getting his calories mainly through liquid nutrition and electrolyte supplements, with the occasional handful of Fritos, bite of sandwich, or trail mix tossed in.

“Let’s do this,” he said as he paddled away from shore.

West Hansen talks to his wife Lizet Alaniz on Day 2 of the Great Alabama 650. Photo by Barbara Hansen Edington

Weather on Day 3 of the Great Alabama 650

Heavy rain has caused flooding around Alabama, and support crews are dealing with muddy portages and impassable roads. After two days of near-constant rain, the sun came out and temperatures warmed to 89 today, allowing the team to spread out and dry some of the soggy gear. The forecast calls for decreasing chances of rain, with high temperatures around 80 until Wednesday, when the high drops to 73 degrees. Thursday looks sunny and cool.

“This river is hauling,” Youens said. “The river’s up really big.”

Hansen passed a 7-mile stretch that typically includes rapids last night, but the water was flowing at 12,000 cubic feet per second and the whitewater was washed out.

Last year’s winners finished the 2020 race in just over five days and 23 hours. Youens predicted the fast-moving water would mean a new record this year. If he’s right, the top boats will finish sometime Thursday.

Hansen is switching boats as the race unfolds. He had been in a fast, sit-inside kayak, but he’s switched back to a C1 canoe typical of boats raced in the Texas Water Safari. It’s got a higher back seat.

“It may not be quite as fast as the other boat, but we know comfort makes a difference,” Youens said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if because of that comfort he gains time.”

So far, the support teams of the leading boats are cooperating, but that could change as the teams get closer to the finish.

“It’s the caginess of the game. Eventually this chumminess is going to fall apart because they’re racers,” Youens said. “We just don’t know where.”

West Hansen on Day 2 of the Great Alabama 650. Photo by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

West Hansen takes a breather after reaching Matagorda Cut while paddling up the Texas coast in this file photo taken on May 23, 2020. Pam LeBlanc photo

Rain is still falling in Alabama, where West Hansen is running side by side with another veteran solo paddler, Salli O’Donnell, in the Greater Alabama 650 paddling race.

The two are tied for second place in the long-distance race, which starts in northeastern Alabama and finishes at Fort Morgan in Mobile Bay.

At 9:30 p.m. Sunday, the two veteran paddlers – both leading their classes – had paddled 195 miles of the 650-mile race. After more than a day and a half of paddling nearly non-stop, both looked stiff and shaky getting out of their boats at an evening portage, par for the course in long-distance paddling events.

The route of what’s called The World’s Longest Annual Paddle Race follows the Coosa and Alabama rivers, passing Montgomery and Selma as it winds its way toward the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way, paddlers alternately encounter swift moving rivers, slack-water lakes and, at the end, a tidal delta.

Read more: Great Alabama 650 gets off to a soggy start

Hansen, 59, and O’Donnell, who finished first solo female and second overall in last year’s Great Alabama 650, are chasing a tandem team paddled by last year’s winners, Joe Mann and Paul Cox. They spent much of the day tied for third place, but tonight caught the second place boat, a tandem paddled by Bobby Johnson and Rod Price.

“We’re moving the pawns around in a long chess game,” support crew member Robert Youens said from the riverbank Sunday afternoon.

Unlike the Texas Water Safari, which Hansen has completed 21 times, this race is so long that racers must stop and sleep along the way. Hansen caught two hours of sleep Saturday night and will likely stop to sleep for a few hours again tonight.

O’Donnell has completed the race twice and is familiar with the course. It may be to Hansen’s advantage to stick with her, at least for now. “She knows the course and in some of these big lakes it just makes sense to run with someone who’s done it twice,” Youens said.

“I think it’s helping them keep the pace up and enjoy the race,” Youens said. “They’re extremely focused on working together to reel in the lead teams.”

Read more: When West Hansen needs a break from society, he goes with the flow

 Almost a third of the way through the Great Alabama 650

The leaders are about a third of the way through the race, which Mann and Cox won last year in just under six days.

The racers have been running ahead of pace so far, but more rain is expected tonight. “It’s going to get ugly,” Youens said.

Some of the portages that were designated drive-around portages have been switched to walking portages because roads are too muddy for vehicles to traverse. And an upcoming stretch of what would normally be whitewater is expected to be washed out because the river is flowing at more than 22,000 cubic feet per second, Youens said.

Hansen’s support crew meets him roughly every 20 to 30 miles. Today they spotted a snake at one of the portages; they’ve dealt with mud and slippery rocks, too. Their job, besides keeping him fed and hydrated, is to keep him as comfortable as possible. That means changing clothes, offering lubrication to ease chafing, and cheering him on.

“When we see him, we clean him up and lube him up,” Youens said.

Hansen’s paddling resume is extensive. He led an expedition down the entire Amazon River in 2012 and the entire Volga River two years later. He’s finished the Texas Water Safari, a 260-mile race from Spring Lake in San Marcos to the Texas coast, 21 times, and has wins at the Missouri River 340.