RUMFORD — Judy Lovejoy was stunned to learn Tuesday that she was the subject of a news report this month for New England’s largest canoe and kayak race.

Lovejoy, 62, who has canoed since childhood, said Wednesday that she simply registered to compete in the 30th annual Run of the Charles Canoe & Kayak Race on the Charles River on April 29 in Weston, Mass.

“This was quite a surprise for me when I received the email,” the Rumford woman said. “I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a professional paddler. It was weird. Why would they do that?”

Last year, Lovejoy entered the women’s category of the event’s 24-mile relay race just for fun, and the team placed 29 out of 50. She had so much fun she signed up for it again.

Like the Androscoggin River Source to the Sea Trek in Maine and New Hampshire, the Charles River race also celebrates ongoing improvements to the river. It’s also a fundraiser for its watershed association.

It features paddling races for all skill levels and offers a $5,000 professional flat-water canoe marathon, attracting elite paddlers from across the nation and Canada, Meg Schermerhorn, race spokeswoman, stated March 1 in the report.

Its other races include the 24-mile relay, 19-mile, 9-mile and 6-mile races for recreational paddlers ages 11 to 80.

Schermerhorn explained Wednesday in Weston why Lovejoy headlined the news report.

“We try to do it for people who are entering local, to let people know that there are people from all over the country that are coming in for this event,” she said.

“It’s about just getting the word out about this event all over the place. There’s nothing of this size, and people come from all around the country.”

Last year’s event attracted 1,200 competitors, 600 less than the most they’ve ever had, Schermerhorn said.

Unlike other team members, Lovejoy said she didn’t train for the race.

“I just decided that I could wing it, and it worked out fine,” she said. “I just wanted to stay upright.”

When she’s not paddling rivers, Lovejoy works as a medical staff coordinator at Rumford Hospital.

She also participates in many charitable events, such as the American Lung Association’s annual bike trek across Maine, which she’s done 15 times, the 7-day New England Classic bike ride for the American Diabetes Association and a Tufts 10-kilometer run. She also participates in The Dempsey Challenge, a non-competitive fundraiser for The Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

Rumford Hospital encourages its employees to participate in charitable events and community involvement to “give back” to their community, Lovejoy said.

“I try to do at least two charitable events a year, whether it be running some little fundraising run or like I said, I always do the Trek Across Maine,” she said.

She has a cottage on Worthley Pond and a canoe and kayak, but until last year had never entered paddling competitions.

“I had never heard of the Run of the Charles, but thought it sounded like a great event,” she said. “This really is a big event. It’s an international event. For us, even though they call it a race, it was fun.”

Comparing it to the Androscoggin, on which she has paddled from Shelburne, N.H., to Rumford, Lovejoy said the main difference was bridges they had to paddle through without hitting abutments.

“And, you know, like the Androscoggin, there were trees in places that you had to avoid,” she said of their 5-mile paddle with a portage at the end.

The 24-mile relay has five legs, with each leg paddled by a team of two women. Her teammate was an Arundel woman. The team’s ages ranged from 50 to 75. It took them five hours to finish.

“It was an absolute blast,” Lovejoy said.

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