In our final race of the season, the hard-learned elements of two long months came in alignment. Off the gun, we surged as one, hitting together at a blistering rate of 60 strokes a minute. Twenty paddles flashed in the air, plunged deep, and ripped through the water as our boat sprinted towards the finish line. Neck-in-neck with top-seeded RBC Golden Lions, we muscled ahead in the final 50 meters, with one of our strongest finish series of the season. Our team crossed the line a full three seats ahead of the second place finishers, getting just under 2.5 minutes. A mighty victory for the Fighting Carps!
(Yes, it all happened exactly like that!)
That was my play-by-play of our GOLD MEDAL WINNING race this past weekend at the 13h Annual Great White North Dragon Boat Challenge at Marilyn Bell Park.
It was an exhilerating, exhausting weekend, but I'm so happy to come home with a gold medal. Here is a list of the times and placings of some of the other races that weekend:
DAY ONE Saturday, Sept 8
FIRST RACE
Race #13, lane 2
Finished in FIFTH place (of 6 teams)
Time of 2:23:95
-- Assisted with a strong headwind, this was the BEST time ever achieved by the Fighting Carps in its two season history. --
SECOND RACE
Race #37, lane 5
Finished in FOURTH place (of 6 teams)
Time of 2:33:85
-- This time was averaged with the time of the first race, putting us in I-division. Going into competition on day two, we would be seeded 105 of a total 134 teams. --
THIRD RACE (for the Education Cup)
Race #60, lane 2
Finished in THIRD place (of 6 teams)
Time of xx:xx
-- This for-fun race saw us matched up with the top six teams registered in the Education Industry category. As the final race of the day in the entire competition, we were tired going in, but managed to secure a third place finish. --
DAY TWO Sunday, Sept 9
FOURTH RACE (I-Division Semi Final 1)
Race #66, lane 6
Finished in SECOND place (of 6 teams)
Time of 2:29:67
-- A photo finish, we edged out the third place team by .2 seconds. Our biggest rivals, the I-V League plagued us for the third race in the row. They won this division semi-final but with the top three teams advancing, we were guaranteed a place in the championship final. --
FIFTH RACE (I-Division Championship Final)
Race #90, lane 2
Finished in FIRST PLACE (of 6 teams)
Time of 2:26:35
-- In our final race of the season, the hard-learned elements of two long months came in alignment. Off the gun, we surged as one, hitting together at a blistering rate of 60 strokes a minute. Twenty paddles flashed in the air, plunged deep, and ripped through the water as our boat sprinted towards the finish line. Neck-in-neck with top-seeded RBC Golden Lions, we muscled ahead in the final 50 meters, with one of our strongest finish series of the season. Our team crossed the line a full three seats ahead of the second place finishers, getting just under 2.5 minutes. A mighty victory for the Fighting Carps! --
Our countdown to gold (5,4,3,2,1 placements respectively in the five races) was exhausting and thrilling. Overall, (according to my math) we finished 97 in a pool of 134 teams that included national and elite level teams. Considering that the top A-division team had a time of 1:56 in their first race, the letter "I" is pretty high up on the alphabet.
2 comments:
Hallo G. Nice recap of your race! I'd love to blog more if I could take the computer everywhere with me. I think your blog friends have moved on to Facebook. Really. I know it's so easy to get sucked in but it does seem to work a little better than blogging for staying connected with friends.
Oh, if you do decide to try FB, consider giving yourself pseudonym...not too hard but not so easy that everybody under the sun will find you (unless u want to). Facebook can be a little invasive so put as many privacy settings as you can on.
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