JP in another article

[ODB]

Yeah, I was standing right next to him during this interview. Damn, the reporters always go for the pretty boys.

FITNESS BAG : Arkansas River race is rowing strong
CELIA STOREY

Landlubbers have learned to fear the mighty Arkansas River, and with reason.
That gushing immensity, fraught with unseen undertows, can grab the strongest swimmer and suck him down to doom. It’s flat stupid to swim in that river.
But river-fear can also blind us to the safe, health-happy pleasures of boating.
In one small push to turn the tide of popular opinion, Dr. Rob Lambert directed the second annual Arkansas River Canoe & Kayak Race on June 27. Lambert, a cardiologist with Heart Clinic Arkansas, is one of the physicians donating time and ponderous amounts of money to improve recreation for all central Arkansans through the Headwaters Partnership (*see "Below").
Lambert sees his local shining stream as a sleek playground that does not charge him entry fees (other than the cost of a boat, storage and transportation for that boat, oars, personal flotation device, sunscreen...).
Other paddlers lucky enough to own canoes and kayaks agree with him. But with no boat vendors to rent crafts in the Little Rock area, paddling has a very low profile and few fitness-conscious people ever think of it as an option.
The race drew out dozens who do. Alone and in pairs, they plied their oars with steady, sweaty determination on a lovely overcast day.
Paddlers took either a four-mile route downstream from Burns Park or an eight-mile route that forged upstream for two miles before rounding a buoy and turning back downtown.
The longer route was for longer boats, as participant Joe Clark explained while hauling his 16-foot-11-inch, 65-pound plastic kayak up the rumpled concrete ramp at North Shore Landing after his 35-minute, 46-second four-mile effort.
"Length of the boat is in direct relation to the speed of the boat," Clark said. "The longer it is, the faster it is, the more narrow it is, the faster. The people who are above 17-foot-6 in kayaks, 18 foot, they’re really at an advantage."
Clark, who works at Ozark Outdoor Supply in Little Rock, said he and his wife began kayaking a year ago. His first race was "a lot of fun," he said. "I’d like to get a longer boat and do the eightmile next year."
John Doramus of Benton also entered his first boat race, using his 13-foot plastic Dagger kayak. While his parents, Paul and Cindy Doramus, stood on tiptoes on shore, the curly-headed teen calmly set out "to see what happens."
"I have the Saline River in my back door, so my friends and I have tried to go paddling every weekend for the past three or four years, since ninth, 10th grade. Just love it," he said.
He used to play baseball and basketball but these days he’s a backpacker and kayaker, which keeps him trim. His four-mile finish time was 37:01.
Andy Balogh, who won the four-mile in 33:10 (beating Lambert to the Interstate 30 bridge by 48 seconds), is an old hand at racing and a regular competitor in Memphis in May’s canoe and kayak race on the Mississippi. But this was his first event on the Arkansas.
"You have to respect any river," he said, "but if you know what you’re doing, you can have fun, and this is a nice river, a real nice river."
He plays soccer, runs marathons and ultra marathons, and he races bikes. "Doing this doesn’t beat you up as much," he said. "It’s not as physically pounding as running and other things are, but it’s a plenty good workout."
Former Olympic kayaker Mike Herbert of Rogers won the eight-mile race (in 50:09) — and there was never much doubt that he would.
Surely any of his eight-mile competitors who treasured a fond hope of out-stroking him gave it up as soon as the pack of long boats took off from the Burns Park launch. Herbert’s massively muscled upper body flipped his double-headed oar with such inexorable speed it made you think of the axle of a big truck: chug-chug-chug-chug.
But at least one person in the race chose paddling for a moderate workout.
Jodi Morris of Jonesboro, who did the four-mile in 41:36, took up flat-water kayaking after she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes five years ago.
"I’ve found that when I go out and paddle regularly it really helps regulate my blood sugar. I’ll go out and paddle for an hour or two. It’s slow, steady exercise instead of a sudden burst," she said. "It tends to have a long-term effect. It will keep my blood sugar down for several hours into the next day."
She values the full-body workout she gets plying one of her five recreational touring kayaks along Craighead Forest Lake.
"You’re twisting your torso as you paddle, and you also use your legs to help brace. And you’re actually kind of pumping your legs as you go. Kind of like a rowing machine effect.
"While I’m out there I can also look at the birds, see what fish are jumping and what’s active. Instead of being in a gym or something, it’s a really nice way to get outside and enjoy it."
Adventure racers were wellrepresented among the competitors, including Laura Singleton of Little Rock and her nephew Dillon Egan of Clarksville. They shared an 18-foot boat that might or might not be named Old Town and finished the eight-mile in 1:33:53.
"If you had a biking injury like a knee injury or a foot injury from running, you can always get out and paddle," she said. "It’s good cross-training."
Also competing were adventure racers Jean-Paul Francoeur, owner of JP Fitness in Little Rock and chairman of the Governor’s Council on Fitness, and Holly Johnson. They finished the fourmile in 40:18.
"The thing that I like most about some of the stuff I’ve been doing with the Headwaters Partnership trail committee is the whole concept of the river as a trail itself," Francoeur said. "Not just the trails on the side of the river, but the river itself. You can get on your boat, get out in the canoes and kayaks and actually use the river itself as a trail."
*" Below": More information about the Headwaters Partnership and its work to better opportunities for fitness fun in central Arkansas can be found online at www.rivertrail.org.