Sunday, July 05, 2009

Shawi

Yesterday we raced at the Shawinigan Dragon Boat Festival. It wasn't a great day to be outside. It was cold, it rained, it was windy and we were in wet clothing for a good part of the day. Even though we changed clothing between races, we still had to put on wet shirts for each race and that is not pleasant.

However, we had a fairly decent result. We finished third overall! So another medal! A bronze one this time - but still. A medal is a medal. And I'd rather have a medal from Division A Sport than any other.

We had 4 races all counted. Three 500m and one 100m. The first race we won but as that was the qualifier for the semi-finals, it was just about getting a good time. We didn't have a good race though. It wasn't in control. The second 500m was amazing. We won that too but this time it felt amazing. We were in complete control, we paddled with really long strokes (serious head wind) and really reached and sat up with each stroke. Immediately after that we raced The Best of Fest, a 100m sprint with nine other boats. That was a free-for-all. It took ages for the starter to line us up and give the "Attention please!" call. The next 20 seconds were a blur. With the head wind coming off the water and boats nearly within reaching distance on each side (2 boats per lane!), it was a wild ride. But we did well. We finished second. Our third and final race was not good. We had a bad race. The pace felt too fast (for me), we weren't in control and our finish was not in sync at all. And so we finished third. Not exactly the result we wanted but we finished in A-final and we got a medal so I'm still happy with that.

Hurting today. My back is in spasms, my legs and arms still a little shaky. Think I may have a rest day. No painting allowed.

2 comments:

Gigi T. said...

I noticed that you still managed to be up by 7:14 am!! Dad and I were walking in Hampstead shortly after 7:30 am.

Take it easy -- there is always tomorrow for painting!!

Mom

Unknown said...

In fact, I was up at 5:10am. It just took me 2 hours to make some kind of sense.