BELFAST – The 35th running of the annual Passagassawakeag River Race didn’t go exactly according to plan, but that was a good thing.

Although paddlers were greeted with rain and even snow early Saturday morning, the foul weather went away and never affected the race. Another unexpected turn was the race field of 74 boats despite the dire forecast.

One more pleasant surprise was the overall winning time of 40 minutes, 25 seconds by kayaker Fred Ludwig of Houlton. The time was the fastest in three years (since Kenny Cushman’s 38:05 in 2005) and showed how much faster rainwater made the 8-mile course over the previous three days.

“The rain helped a lot because we did a practice run on Thursday and it was rocky,” said 20-year-old Nicholas Lunt of Tenants Harbor. “I’d say it was about four inches higher today.”

Lunt paddled the race with father Bill, a fellow lobsterman, in a two-man canoe. Mother Paula, who also traps lobsters, did the race solo in a kayak.

“Paula’s been doing this about four years longer than us,” said Bill Lunt. “She kind of started us in this. If we wanted to spend time with her on the weekends, we had to start paddling.”

“It’s pretty cool to be back and doing this and it’s even more fun to be doing it together. I wanted to do it all together today, but we didn’t have the third seat put in for the canoe,” said Paula Lunt, who also does bicycle races and marathons despite having undergone three back surgeries in an 18-month period.

“I ran a marathon in November and qualified. I did another 10 to 12 weeks later,” added Lunt, who competed her first in 1996. “I’m also learning to swim.”

Still, the river races – 132 of which Paula Lunt has paddled in since she started in 1996 – remain her favorite outdoor activity.

“It’s just a lot of fun. It’s not really hard, but it’s not really easy either so it makes you focus, and I’ve met pretty much all my friends through doing these races,” said Paula Lunt.

Lunt probably won’t see those friends at the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race in two weeks because she’s running the Boston Marathon.

“It’s not because I think I’d be pooped out. It’s all the travel,” she said.

The Lunts aren’t the only family to make races like the Passagassawakeag a regular rite of spring.

Aaron Winslow and 10-year-old son Jackson decided to discount the early morning rain and go out anyway.

“This is the second time we’ve done this one together and our fourth or fifth race overall,” said Aaron Winslow, a 28-year-old Belmont resident and swimming instructor. “I started doing these when I was 11 or so and now that he’s gotten older, he’s doing them too.”

The younger Winslow likes the challenges offered by canoe racing.

“I like the last part, probably. I like the exercise and trying to do better every time. I think we were at least under an hour today,” said Jackson, who helped his father turn in a time of 54:10. “All the turns make it tough trying to keep the canoe straight.”

Logan Feeney of Knox and Dan Pellerin of Montville couldn’t agree more.

“We swamped pretty hard at one rapids and got turned around and went through another one backwards, but we got turned back around,” said Pellerin, 22.

This was the first race Feeney and Pellerin paddled together. Feeney is the veteran paddler with five races under his belt. This was only Pellerin’s second.

“My experience is minimal. I did the Kenduskeag last year,” Pellerin said. “I did it with someone else and we lost our canoe at Six Mile Falls, but we got it back three days later.”

Feeney also used last year’s Kenduskeag as his shakedown cruise.

“I guess we just jumped right into the belly of the beast,” said Feeney with a chuckle. “This one was fun. It had a bit more whitewater than I expected.”

The pair finished with a respectable time of 58:13.

Both plan to keep on paddling, especially now that Pellerin has had his damaged canoe fixed in order to take it back to the Kenduskeag.

“I’d like to think we can do this one each year and make this more of a regular thing,” Feeney said. “We’ve found that there’s a great culture of people that do this. Everyone’s friendly and helpful.”

aneff@bangordailynews.net

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