Duckies Of Fire

August 19th, 2007 8:56pm

Tags: Local Life, Events, Family & Kids, Pets & Animals

John Elliot

The duckies gather at the starting line, ready to race.

Container by container, the duckies go into the drink.

Duckies press against the fence, ready to get the race down creek started.

The crowds line the banks on the final stretch of the race.

The Cat Duckie hybrid has never won a rubber duck race, due to fear of water.

It was a classic Vail summer's day, bright glorious sunshine interspersed with 15-minute-long showers, when thousands of elastic hydrocarbon polymer competitors gathered for what would surely be the race of a lifetime.
My duckie was among them.
Quackers McRubberbeak had long dreamed of competing in the Vail Rotary Club Rubber Duck Race, ever since he was a shapeless synthetic mound waiting to be crafted in a Beijing factory. But I had done him no favors. By purchasing Quackers late afternoon on race day, I had all but ensured the little scrapper would be in the back of the pack at the starting line. I didn't worry. I knew the kid had heart.

Shortly before 3 p.m., Rotary Club members and volunteers start pouring container upon container of duckies over Vail Valley Drive Bridge to the Gore Creek below. After the 15-to-20-foot drop to the icy water, the duckies float to a crude wire fence that keeps them in place, and packed like sardines, until the race begins. A little inhumane? Perhaps. PETRA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Rubber Animals) had planned a lawsuit, but the duckies said no.
“It's tradition,” they squawked. “And besides, it builds character.” Precisely at 3 p.m., the fence was raised and the duckies took off downstream, pursued by one intrepid Plum film crew who would chase the flock down Gore Creek and even brave the chilly waters up to their ankles.

Once the race has begun there is very little for duck owners to do but watch the breathtaking battle of rubber duck against nature unfold. The race begins at the Vail Valley Drive Bridge and ends at the International Bridge, but it is halfway between Vail Valley Drive and the Covered that the first rapids appear, and it is here that early favorite Mad Dash Mallard lost his lead. Blocked by some driftwood, Mallard watched an entire year's worth of training go down the tubes. It was now anyone's race, and the duckies knew it. They raced the currents downstream and from my vantage on the Covered Bridge I saw them, a winding yellow mass sliding atop the water like some great serpent. Then the unthinkable happened.

Just west of the Covered Bridge, an unrestrained retriever leapt into the Gore Creek and began picking off duckies at will. Now you see why we call this “The Most Dangerous Race”. Sure, some locals will tell you of a time when a great Yeti began capturing competitors during the Beaver Creek Snowshoe Shuffle, but it hasn't happened in years and there was never any proof to begin with. For duckies, being attacked by a beast several times your size is an all too familiar reality. Eventually, the dog was restrained, and the duckies, bruised but not beaten, re-entered the race.

It is in the homestretch, halfway between the Covered and International bridges, that things get really interesting. Long distance runners will talk about hitting “The Wall” while competing and deciding then and there whether to break through and finish strong, or to quit. Duckies are not so lucky. A rock, a twig, or even an outgrowth of grass will impede a ducky's movement, and they simply are not strong enough to break through. Dreams are destroyed this way. Fortunately, the river on race day is heavily populated with young children who are more than willing to heave stuck duckies down Gore Creek. With great abandon the masses of children send duckies, who would never know flight, soaring into the air until both water and sky is yellow. Sometimes they hit Website editors in the head ... but we know their hearts were in the right place.

At the International Bridge, the duckies are funneled together and placed and, alas, Quackers McRubberbeak did not win. However, the Rotary Club certainly did. It's safe to say, judging by the number of duckies in the water, that the Rotary club was able to raise a fair amount of money for their scholarships and other fine charitable work.

Also, whoever came in first and won the trip to Maui ... It's safe to say they won fair and square.

As for Quackers and me, we've got a long year of training in the tub.