Dacks and Toga Active Life August Issue For Web

slalom, and Heidi won the national twoperson
marathon event at age 13).
AL: How did you decide it was time
to move on from the sport?
HU: For me in high school, it was pretty
intense training and the goal was the ’88
Olympics. It’s competitive, like anything
else. I didn’t make the team trials and I
was done with it. I had been doing
Above: Heidi Underwood, formerly Becker,
racing at 1991 ICF Canoe/Kayak Slalom World Championships
in Tacen, Yugoslavia. Opposite: Bob Underwood navigating
rapids on the Ottawa River in Canada. Photos provided.
it for so long. I was like, ‘Oh man,
I don’t know what I’m going to do.
I’ll go for a run.’ I didn’t want to get
back in a boat and do that anymore,
and then Bob’s like, “Here
try this sport. It’s kayaking, but
whitewater.” And I was like, “OK!”
I was a kayaker by trade and I had
done whitewater canoeing with my
dad as a little kid so I knew it, and that’s
when I started whitewater kayak racing.
BU: I actually got out of my whitewater
boat and trained flatwater, so I made
the trials and went to the trials in 1988. I
didn’t make the [Olympic] team, but we
had a really good team that year [the U.S.
Team won two gold medals that year].
They took eight for the team, and I was
like 10th or 12th. I was a better whitewater
paddler, so I went back and just did
whitewater racing.
I kept training and I raced all through
the late ’80s, then we started dating in
’89 and I kind of got her into whitewater
and she made the team with us, and then
the last World Championships we went to
were in 1991. And then after that we had
kids. But you know what? I had been racing
competitively for a long time. We got
married, we had other things to do.
HU: The last whitewater race that we did
[at ’91 World Championships] was very
intense. It was a really, really challenging
river and the end of it was really challenging,
and two girls had died on training
runs. And so I was like, ‘Oh my God.’
BU: It kind of emptied into this one huge
rapid at the end when you’re really tired,
and then at the end of the rapid you had
a hundred yards and you had to pull off
the river or else you were going through
The best part of the whole thing
was that I loved training and I
loved racing and going off to
these different places and racing.
— Bob
this un-runnable gorge. That was really
strange. It’s a pretty safe sport, and usually
when you hear of somebody that’s
died in whitewater kayaking it’s because
they’re doing something crazy that they
shouldn’t have been doing.
AL: What were your career highlights
in kayaking?
BU: Making the Olympic trials and making
World Championships and racing the
World Championships. I think the best I
ever finished was 13th in World Championships
and I had a couple World Cup
races where I got top three, but not very
often, and national champion. Heidi was
national champion a bunch of times. …
The best part of the whole thing was that
I loved training and I loved racing and
going off to these different places and
racing. I got to travel all over the world
and paddle on these beautiful rivers and
be with a great group of people.
HU: I think what I get from it now, and
maybe it’s different because I’m older,
but I really like the working hard part of
it and doing well. I remember my mother
was so mad because I didn’t want to
come home for my high school graduation
because I was training up in Lake
Placid. Not every kid can embrace that
kind of lifestyle and it just suited me, and I
think that was the best part of it.
I think the highlight is being in such
a competitive arena. I felt like I was one
of the best at that time and you don’t
get that feeling often. When I went to the
[Masters] World Championships in Canada
for triathlon, I was nervous because I
looked around and I’m like, ‘These people
are just really good. I’m with the best of
the best.’ That’s a pretty cool thing.
[Last year at the 2016 Ironman 70.3
World Championship in Mont-Tremblant,
Quebec, Heidi placed fourth in her age
group.]
AL: Why did you get into
triathlons after that?
HU: I don’t know. We met some people,
and actually a bike that Steve Fairchild
[who now manages Grey Ghost Bicycles
in Glens Falls] let me borrow was one of
the first triathlete bikes. It didn’t have any
aerobars. I was racing with my mountainbike
shoes.
BU: I think the first three or four triathlons
we did, I borrowed a bike.
AL: What attracted you to the Ironman
(2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike and
26.2-mile run)?
HU: It was so new in this area. It was the
big thing that had come to Lake Placid.
I had done Tupper Lake [half Ironman]
a whole bunch of times and people who
were doing Tupper Lake were doing Ironman.
It was like, ‘I did a half, I’ll sign up
for a full.’
BU: For me, it was the challenge of doing
it. The training’s really hard, to put all
those hours of training in, especially when
we were doing it because we had kids.
So we would split forces. Heidi would go
and then I would go.
HU: The first Ironman I did, I remember
every Saturday I’d do a long ride, and
there was about four times I’d be out
there for at least six hours and Bob would
be home with the kids all day. I’d feel so
guilty because when I got home, you’re
useless. You couldn’t take care of a
hermit crab or make dinner or do laundry;
you’re just spent.
BU: When I was coaching, I used to
bring my bike sometimes. I’d bring my
bike to the Eddy Meet [in Schenectady]
and I would ride my bike home after the
meet… or the Hudson Falls Invitational, I
would run back from Hudson Falls after
the meet was over. … The Ironman, I
remember the first one I did, that was so
cool. Then you’re done and you’re thinking,
‘Holy cow, I just did 140 miles today.’
AL: What are your main sports now?
HU: I really love to ski. I’ve learned to
love to alpine ski, and I love to train
triathlon. I’m not so gung-ho about
racing as much, but I like the people. I
like that intensity and that wanting-tobe-fit
group. But it’s petering out for me.
I would race every weekend or every
other weekend, and I have one race on
my docket this year [the Ironman 70.3
World Championship in Chattanooga,
Tenn., on Sept. 9]. We’ve gotten
into mountain biking and we
both can do that together. It’s
just something that I really enjoy,
something new and different and
challenging and you can get
better at it.
BU: I love to ski in the wintertime,
and I love to bike and run… I just
went whitewater kayaking [in early
May], but whitewater kayaking
is kind of limited. When I was training
whitewater, I would paddle all year long,
all winter. You’d travel or else you’d wear
warm clothes.
HU: That’s really unappealing.
BU: But now, when it’s snowing out, I’m
not gonna go whitewater paddling. I just
love to be outdoors, and like Heidi always
says, it just makes you happy.
AL: What other sports or fitness
goals do you have?
HU: They say you should do yoga, but I
don’t really like it. Bob seems to like it a
little more than I do. I really would like to
do more mountain biking, and I’m going
on my first big hike trip this November
[a five-day hike up Mexico’s 18,000-foot
Pico de Orizaba] so I could be a hiker.
I don’t know how much I’ll like it…. I’m a
little afraid of getting altitude sickness.
I remember my mother was
so mad because I didn’t want to
come home for my high school
graduation because I was
training up in Lake Placid.
— Heidi
BU: My biggest thing at this point it just
to stay in shape … and feeling like I can
still go and do the things I want to do. I
don’t have any big races or goals that
I’m going towards, but I want to be able
to go ski and ski hard, and we’re doing
a mountain-bike trip, and another one, a
hut to hut in Colorado for seven days from
Durango to Moab. It’s 230-something
miles. They bring all your food and water
to the hut, so you just have to make it to
the next hut. It’s like 35 miles a day.
AL: What do you think this area could
use from a recreational standpoint?
BU: I’ve always thought passive recreation.
The hiking trails, the mountain biking
trails, the Rush Pond trail. … I think it’s
great to have hiking trails and mountain
bike trails and once you put them, they
don’t really cost anything. There’s very
little maintenance costs and they’re used.
HU: I just think anything that’s going
to promote kids to be outside playing. I
really love that the Queensbury School
is starting to get the mountain-bike team
together.
BU: We started back up the Bill Koch Ski
League this winter [with Friends of Cole’s
Woods] and we had 40 or 50 kids there.
We didn’t have a great snow year again,
but even when most of the snow had
melted and we could just use the field, we
played games. The kids had so much fun.
HU: Just to be able to pass down some
of the things that we enjoy. A lot of racing
is not in our future, but to be able to give
that opportunity back for kids to experience,
that’s pretty fun. I would love to see
more of that outside stuff.
28 | DACKS & TOGA activelife DACKS & TOGA activelife | 29