A Tale of Two Regattas

Just me, and my paaaa-ddle,

Strolling down the avenue;

Just me, and my paaa-ddle,

Not a soul to tell our troubles to-oo;

And when it's 12 o'clock, we climb the stair,

We never knock, 'cuz nobody's there...

Just me, and my paaaa-dle,

All alone and feeling blue!

I just got my first paddle and had it cut to suit my proportionately short arms. Just in time for the Kent regatta. Oh, it is beautiful. Sleek, smooth, short, and sexy. I almost slept with it that night, but I forgot it in my car. Side note: I don't usually leave my objects of affection in the car.

My first regatta (July 14) was a thrilling experience-- all 12 minutes of paddling! My day started at 4 am and we drove for two hours and thirty five minutes down to Kent, Washington. This is noteable as the mapquest instructions said that it would take us a whopping two hours and thirty EIGHT minutes. We made good time. Our first heat (race, that is) was at 9:10 and we came in second. The second was considerably later and we came in 2nd, again. The third (and consequently, our final) heat finished very close. Although it appeared that we came in 2nd, we actually came in 4th. We paddled hard, and we were all heart.

If you have ever been to a regatta, you would know that there is a lot of waiting and standing around for a 3 minute race but the day was gorgeous and hot and we were all in good spirits. Someone brought some water guns and we had a great time soaking each other.

In a stark contrast to that first regatta, this past saturday was my second regatta at Harrison. This was a day of confusion. The weather was about as confounding as the organization of this event. The day started off drizzley, and by the time we arrived, the sun started peaking through the clouds. By our first race, the sun shone gloriously and we were basking in the warmth and excitement of the day. However, this is when things started to get unzipped. Our first race finished, we were panting, sweating, patting each other on the backs, and thirsting for our water back at the tent. We were met at the dock by an official who announced that the race would have to be redone. The timer malfunctioned, or just didn't function at all. Reluctantly, we gave it our best a second time in less than 20 minutes. We are thankful that during our practices Cheryl inflicts on us two race pieces in 10 minutes. Time: 2 mins and 34 seconds. Place: 3

The second race resulted in our best time. Time: 2 mins and 25 seconds. Place: 2 Now, I should mention that coming in second was 3/10ths of a second away from coming in first! By the third race we were getting frustrated by all of the waiting. This waiting was exceptional. We were already 2 hours behind schedule now. Another race was redone for the same reason as ours and grumblings were heard over some race times that were clearly errant. So we paddle out to the starting line. We hold hard. The wind picks up and moves each boat into the wrong lane. We realign. The wind starts to move us again. After realigning the second time, the horn is blown and we pretty much have to do a running start. Half way through the race, the horn is blown again. We stop. We have to start again. A drum fell off of one of the boats. Time: 2 minutes and 45 seconds. Place: 4.

The sun disappeared and it started to rain. It rained HARD. We waited and waited for our 4th and final race. We were told that we were placed in the top of the "C" division and we would be competing for a consolidation ribbon. We stood in Marshalling in the rain for a total of two hours. In those two hours, we were told that we were bumped up to the "B" division and would be completing for a medal. And then we were told that we were in fact going to stay in the "C" division race. Our last race finally arrived and we paddled hard in the torrential rain. (Good thing I had that Stave Lake experience to which I could compare this, and it really wasn't THAT bad) Time: TBA Place: 2!

http://www.dragonboatwest.net/ will definately have something to say about this-- and it has!