Dragon boat races: Sunday
Aug. 1st, 2006 10:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dianec42Cut cause it got kind of long, again.
Sunday dawned cool and overcast. It also dawned, for me, much earlier than Saturday had. Much yawning took place. Luckily the incredible earliness meant (1) I got to speed exuberantly on the 405, and (2) I actually got to park on site! Parking close by was especially good, as I spent both days running around in wet Tevas and developed some spectacular blisters. Note to self: bring spare shoes next time!
We stretched and warmed up. I was astonished to find out that despite mainly calling the day before, I was incredibly sore! When I got on the boat, I found out that I have a very specific set of "hanging on for dear life" muscles. Which, by the way, are STILL sore on Tuesday.
Our first race was pretty early, and it was the Mixed 3C final. We all knew that if we didn't do well, we could just go home and go back to bed afterwards. Luckily, we decided we'd rather paddle in the afternoon and stick around for the medal ceremonies than go back to bed!
I was the caller again, and I was still a touch nervous about the whole deal. There was some confusion (and desperation) in our search for a steersman; we briefly drafted a guy called Kevin, then couldn't find him for 30 seconds and in a panic drafted Richard again. I joked that Richard was going to think I was stalking him! Kevin did give me one useful bit of advice: Whatever energy the caller has, it will be transmitted to the whole boat. So if you're nervous, everyone will be nervous; if you're calm and focused, so are they.
I decided that "calm" was NOT what I wanted to project. (-: I had a word with the strokers, and requested a more energetic start than some of the previous ones had been. Everyone was absolutely pumped: when I called for a "power 20" on the warm-up, Richard damn near fell off the back of the boat!
We made a FANTASTIC start. Sadly one of the other teams made an even more fantastic start, and they stayed ahead of us for the full 500 meters. And man oh man, was the boat in lane 5 ever catching up with us at the end! I yelled and screamed, and the team gave it their all. It turns out that yelling, "We're in SECOND PLACE!" is a LOT more motivating than just yelling "Don't die on me!," which I shall certainly keep in mind for next time. (-: We took second place and the silver medal in our division!
In the afternoon, we were in the quarter-finals for ALL divisions. This was a 250-meter race, and also a chance for "the rest of us" to have a turn paddling. Even though it was a very short race, we still managed to lose timing near the end, and.... let's just say, we did NOT do well, and leave it at that. (This was us competing with teams from all of the other divisions, and 3C is kind of the bottom of the barrel. So I don't think we were expecting to do very well anyway.) We all hung around for the ceremonies at the end, and much cheering and hoarseness ensued, as did much throwing of team members in the water. (I refused to participate in that, on the grounds that I refuse to be thrown in. Happily I was able to use my command voice and make that stick.)
So... last year in the mixed division, we took third place; this year, second. You all know what that means!!
Sunday dawned cool and overcast. It also dawned, for me, much earlier than Saturday had. Much yawning took place. Luckily the incredible earliness meant (1) I got to speed exuberantly on the 405, and (2) I actually got to park on site! Parking close by was especially good, as I spent both days running around in wet Tevas and developed some spectacular blisters. Note to self: bring spare shoes next time!
We stretched and warmed up. I was astonished to find out that despite mainly calling the day before, I was incredibly sore! When I got on the boat, I found out that I have a very specific set of "hanging on for dear life" muscles. Which, by the way, are STILL sore on Tuesday.
Our first race was pretty early, and it was the Mixed 3C final. We all knew that if we didn't do well, we could just go home and go back to bed afterwards. Luckily, we decided we'd rather paddle in the afternoon and stick around for the medal ceremonies than go back to bed!
I was the caller again, and I was still a touch nervous about the whole deal. There was some confusion (and desperation) in our search for a steersman; we briefly drafted a guy called Kevin, then couldn't find him for 30 seconds and in a panic drafted Richard again. I joked that Richard was going to think I was stalking him! Kevin did give me one useful bit of advice: Whatever energy the caller has, it will be transmitted to the whole boat. So if you're nervous, everyone will be nervous; if you're calm and focused, so are they.
I decided that "calm" was NOT what I wanted to project. (-: I had a word with the strokers, and requested a more energetic start than some of the previous ones had been. Everyone was absolutely pumped: when I called for a "power 20" on the warm-up, Richard damn near fell off the back of the boat!
We made a FANTASTIC start. Sadly one of the other teams made an even more fantastic start, and they stayed ahead of us for the full 500 meters. And man oh man, was the boat in lane 5 ever catching up with us at the end! I yelled and screamed, and the team gave it their all. It turns out that yelling, "We're in SECOND PLACE!" is a LOT more motivating than just yelling "Don't die on me!," which I shall certainly keep in mind for next time. (-: We took second place and the silver medal in our division!
In the afternoon, we were in the quarter-finals for ALL divisions. This was a 250-meter race, and also a chance for "the rest of us" to have a turn paddling. Even though it was a very short race, we still managed to lose timing near the end, and.... let's just say, we did NOT do well, and leave it at that. (This was us competing with teams from all of the other divisions, and 3C is kind of the bottom of the barrel. So I don't think we were expecting to do very well anyway.) We all hung around for the ceremonies at the end, and much cheering and hoarseness ensued, as did much throwing of team members in the water. (I refused to participate in that, on the grounds that I refuse to be thrown in. Happily I was able to use my command voice and make that stick.)
So... last year in the mixed division, we took third place; this year, second. You all know what that means!!
