Race report from Arizona!

Cinnamon · 03-24-2007, 10:36 PM

As some of you know, I've been in Arizona for a week attending a dragonboat camp. We had the camp from Sunday-Thursday, and this weekend we're racing at the Arizona Dragonboat Festival.

I'll post about Day 2 tomorrow evening, hopefully!

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The weather today was PERFECT for racing - it was about 25 for most of the day. Plenty warm for tank tops and shorts but not so hot that you are constantly looking for shade (like it was Sunday & Monday.)

Going into this festival, I had high hopes. It's a small event (only about 40 teams compared to Vancouver's 180+) and a lot of the local teams have only paddled a few times together.

Also new for me is racing in Seat one. I am not used to stroking a boat but am really excited about all the work I've been doing there this week. I also typically paddle on the left - this week I've done most of the work on the right. Jackie (my primary coach for the camp) is drumming for us, the rest of the time she's running the festival!

We had a decent first race, finishing in 2:17 (for those of you who don't know, our races are 500 meters.) Not where we wanted to be, but it was okay. The boats were not at the same level - the first boat (San Diego) finished in 2:08 and the 3rd boat finished in 2:48. This is a HUGE difference. The boat was HUGELY tippy - they're brand new boats will very thin steering oars and our steersperson was clearly not prepared to handle it. We hadn't had any problem throughout the camp with this tippiness! I was nervous that we were actually going to end up in the water.

In our second race, things got, um, interesting. Lane 2 came into our lane so we had to veer to the left. Then there was a huge overcompensation and we veered strongly to the right. Then to the left. Then I heard "Hold the boat!" which means that you stop paddling & bury your blads to stop the boat. Our steersperson had fallen into the water. She tried to get back in but couldn't, so Jackie went to the back and took over. The fire & rescue boat came over and pulled the steersperson out of the water, leaving a huge wake for us which came flooding into the boat. Once Jackie was at the helm, we got going again and finished the race. Our time for this race was 3:12. Bleh. CLEARLY not the result we'd been hoping for.

Advancements are based on our accumulated times - so this has put us into the "C Division" semi-finals. We were definitely capable of being ranked higher, but there's nothing we can do about it so you just put it behind you and race even better the next time. "That's the breaks," as my Dad would say.

Our final race of the day was a 250 meter sprint (which has nothing to do with advancement.) We had a new steersperson and somehow our boat was much less tippy. Thank goodness!! We had a great start and finished in 1:06. I'll take it.

Tomorrow we have 2 races: our semi-finals at 9:42 a.m. and then our final sometime in the afternoon. The best outcome we can hope for is a Gold Medal in our division - so keep your fingers & your toes crossed.

And that's the latest from Arizona. I'll let you know how we do tomorrow.

Candycane · 03-25-2007, 12:29 AM

Good luck tomorrow!!

I hope that you have a great day!

Solarsis · 03-25-2007, 12:40 AM

Sounds like an eventful day! Sorry you had so much trouble in that second race. I hope you guys do as well as you can tomorrow

Mollymitten · 03-25-2007, 10:24 AM

Sounds like a lot of fun! Good luck today!

suzoo · 03-25-2007, 01:29 PM

That sounds like a blast! Very exciting.. well, except for the poor gal that fell overboard that is.
Good luck in your races today!

Cinnamon · 03-25-2007, 08:42 PM

Well - another day is racing done and I am going home tomorrow. I could
happily stay for another month and am not looking forward to the rain and cold weather that awaits me in Vancouver!

Our first race this morning was at 9:42 but they marshalled us really early
and some of our team wasn't there yet. I'm already nervous enough as we have something to prove after all the shinanigans on the water yesterday. They made it just on time and we were out on the water. Having studied the race grid last night, I knew that it should be easy to take a 1st in the semi-final - but you just never know! Our best time yesterday was 2:17 and we were aiming to shave 5 seconds off that time by the end of the day. We had Calvin, the steersperson from our 3rd race steering again - we really liked him and were grateful to have him back.

Our start wasn't quite up to par but we pulled it up at about 175m and took an easy first place. We finished in 2:16 while 2nd place finished in 2:31, 3rd on 2:37 and 4th in 2:56.

Our second race of the day - the Finals - were scheduled for 1:12 but we were called to marshall at 11:30! We knew that the gold medal was well within our reach but were careful not to get cocky about it. We had a long wait on the start line but the water marshalls & the starter kept us under the bridge where it was much cooler.

Our final race was strong and when we crossed the finish line Jackie had a huge smile on her face. Our time was 2:13.18 - so not quite the 5 seconds we'd hoped to beat yesterday's time by, but it will do! 2nd place was 2:33, 3rd was 2:40 and 4th was 3:01.

We got the gold and celebrated with some Beer & Schmirnoff Ice, hidding not-so-subtly in blue party cups!

It was hot today - about 27 degrees and there is very little shade, but I'm not complaining!!!

And that's the end of my vacation. I'll try to upload all of my pictures in
the next few days and will also have a blog ready to go where you can read about all my crazy adventures. I'll post a link when it's done.

Sad to be leaving AZ,
Lisa!

ghostdesire · 03-28-2007, 12:14 AM

I can't believe you were you AZ... So close next to me! Glad you had fun can't wait for pictures!

Cinnamon · 03-28-2007, 12:25 AM

Ok, so my blog is up & running. http://www.paddlethedesert.blogspot.com

Check it out

ghostdesire · 03-28-2007, 12:30 AM

Great pictures Lisa! Glad you had a good time!