Long Beach dragon boat races : day 1

We did surprisingly well in our first mixed-division race (3rd) and shockingly well in our first corporate race(*) (2nd place, less than a second behind DPW and more than 10 seconds ahead of whoever finished third). Our mixed result (har har) put us into the higher division, so we didn't do quite so well in the next race -- okay, we came in last, but we were gaining on the 5th-place boat at the end, sigh.

Today we have one more race in each division. For mixed it's still technically possible for us to get a medal, but only if we come in first. For corporate... well, there are 3 medals, we're in the top 6 teams, and we did really well yesterday. I think we've got a pretty good chance there.

Oh, and apparently I'm calling in the corporate race this morning. Should be entertaining. It's been about a year since I've done that; hopefully I can remember what to say & what order to say it all in. :P

(*) considering who were were in with -- "Who's that next to us? Oh expletive, it's DPW, we're SO doomed...."

Well, poop.

Today we had the dragon boat finals. The actual racing went well, just not quite well enough. We had lots of energy and lots of endurance. We are definitely getting better. However, both our results were just outside of the medal zone... in the corporate final we needed to finish third, but finished fourth; and in the mixed consolation race, we needed to finish first, but finished second.

Unfortunately there was a bit of a mix-up, and Alex (our coach) told us that the fourth place in corporate was enough to get us a medal. So we got to stay a few extra hours, and stand around in crowds and chaos for 45 minutes, and I got to fight my way through the crowd for when they called our name... only they never called it! I had to talk to 3 or 4 people to find out what was going on. I was most put out. I'm also upset for the team - our hopes were raised, for nothing.

Luckily I'm about to have a few weeks' break from both dragon boating and the team. I think I'm going to need it.