Wet, Wet, Wet!

Well, the weekend's Dragon Boat festival is over, and what a weekend it was! We raced twice on Saturday, coming in second in the morning's heat (since we weren't in the dreaded Lane 1) and last - but with a respectable time in the afternoon - Lane 1, again. When the Association posted the day's times on the webnsite, they added the comment that, contrary to rumor, they were not going to adjust any times to reflect the chronically bad paddling in that lane. Boo!

Sunday our first race was at 9:00 a.m. - not a great time to expect the team to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, especially since a lot of the paddlers were partying the night before. We knew going into it that we had Lane 1 again - but surprise! The lanes had been shifted, making Lane 2 now 1, Lane 3 becoming 2, and so on. We were cheered by this, and proceeded to not only make our best time so far in that heat, 2:25, but also place second.

For the Sunday afternoon race, the Milo A Final, our team was assigned in Lane 3 (formerly 4). We gave it all we had, reaching and paddling to the utmost of our limits, and we won! For the second time in the 10-year Edmonton Dragon Boat Festival history, the name of the RAH Tide Riders will be engraved on that cup! As well, all team members will be given a "gold" medal.

Was it worth it? Well, despite the T-shirt debacle, and the crowds, and the back pain (sitting on a board seat only about 12 inches wide), despite being soaked repeatedly by the paddlers sitting both in front of and behind me, yes, it was worth it. Would I do it again? If I could start earlier in the whole process, get in on more practices, and if it were to be held on a weekend when my boyfriend isn't working and so could join the team, yeah, probably.

All in all, getting wet isn't so bad. I guess.