By Sue Scheible
The Patriot Ledger
PEMBROKE, Mass. — Leon Granowitz was determined to win the 6 1/2 —mile race Saturday, but he was lucky to even finish it. He couldn’t see clearly, and once he was near the end by Old Washington Street, he called to other kayakers for help.
The problem: Granowitz became dehydrated. He wound up in the emergency room.
“My water tube broke early in the race,” Granowitz, 69, of Bedford said later as he sat on the dock, tended to by paramedics. “Once that other fellow passed me in the race, I just went all out and something happened — I think I may have had heat stroke.”
It was the first time in the 20 — year history of the annual Great River Race that 911 emergency help had to be called, said Paula Christie, assistant director of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association. The nonprofit Norwell group sponsors the fundraiser.
There were 94 entrants in the different race categories, from novice to racer, and winners are posted on the group’s website. The boats included canoes, kayaks, rowboats, and rafts.
Race volunteer Ron Robertson said the staff poured cold water over Granowitz while he was still in his kayak, and then he asked for assistance getting out of the boat. They helped him into the cool river and he seemed to improve slowly. Even with his problems, he finished sixth in the men’s category.
“This shows the importance of drinking enough water,” Christie said. Granowitz was wearing a large water bag or camelback strapped to his back, connected by tubing to a mouthpiece.
Pembroke Fire Department paramedics treated Granowitz at the scene around 12:50 p.m. and then transported him to South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, where he was treated and released.
“I am fine,” Granowitz said Sunday, back home after going to the race party last night and then being checked out by his own doctors.
He said he had been racing to win. “I really poured it on, and then suddenly I didn’t have anything left and realized I was in trouble,” he said. At that point he stopped paddling.
Granowitz was described by a fellow kayaker, Lisa Huntington of Carlisle, as an expert kayaker who recently “aced” a stress test. “He really is a competitor and he said he would have won if this hadn’t happened,” Huntington said afterward.
The competitive spirit was in abundance Saturday at the event, as a crowd of onlookers stood on top of the bridge above the finish line on the Hanover/Pembroke line and cheered the entrants.
The Great River Race, started in 1991, began about 11 a.m. at the Union St Bridge in Norwell/Marshfield.
Copyright 2010 The Patriot Ledger