Second place in Canada!

Well - the Canadian National Dragonboat Championships have come and gone and I'm happy to say that my club crew, the Ottawa Galley Girls, finished with a coveted second place spot.

Second best women's premiere crew in Canada.

With every dragonboat festival, there is always some element of drama. This weekend was no exception.

At the Canadian championships, you race the 200m, 500m and 2000m (on a 500m course with turns) distances; however, your final overall placement is based on a point system. The team who wins the final heat for each distance wins the most points and at the end of the competition, the points are tallied and the team with the most points gets the title of national champion.

We finished a strong second in both our 500m races - which put us in a good position for our 2000m race. Our 2000m race, however, left a few team members with a sour taste in our mouths. Our crew was penalized ten seconds for contacting another boat coming out of the turn - that penalty cost us another second place finish - which resulted in a fourth place finish for the 2K.

Going into the second day of the championships, we were standing in third place based on our points - we needed to pull up our game to make a comeback.

Comeback we did ....

One of our main "rival" teams, Montreal Elite (I say rival but really they are an inspirational group of female paddlers who routinely rank second in the WORLD) was gunning for us in the final 200m. But the Galley Girls have been getting stronger and have been focusing on podium finishes at big races - so we gave it our all. I think having them as our competition gave us the fuel to have one of our best ever races.

MTL elite beat us in the final 200m race by 0.3 seconds - on the outset, you're probably wondering why we are content (happy, really) with this - but this is the closest we have been to that crew. It's a step in the right direction which affirms that the hard work is paying off.


All in all - after the points were tallied, my crew finished with a respectable second place.

Very exciting :)

Now to concentrate on getting ready for my Hawaii race, my upcoming move and continued Team Canada tryouts.

Till next time!

Getting prepped for some CRAZy weeks ahead!!

Well - I guess I can start by expressing how much I have missed keeping this blog alive. While I had only initially intended this blog to be a source of communication to loved ones and friends back home for the trials and tribulations of the world championships, 2011 - I have missed having this vessel of communication.

So - that all being said - next big things in my competitive life include the following.

T-1 day > tryouts for the Team Canada 2013 crew. This is a year long process, so likely more to hear on this ;)

T-2 days > Canadian National Dragonboat Championships at the Olympic basin in Montreal with my home team, The Galley Girls!!

T-5 days > jumping on a jet plane to race in Hawaii in the 2012 Na'Pali challenge. It's a 42 mile outrigger canoe race around Kauai island.

And to top it all off, I'm trying to get prepped to move my house (which is happening 4 days after my return from Hawaii). I'm a ball of nervous energy right now - which could translate into either a positive or negative outcome.

Here's hoping for the positive!!

Till next time!

WHAT a TRIP!!

It's 10am on Monday morning and the Ottawa girls from the Premier women's crew are still in Tampa, getting ready to leave for home. We're a little slow this morning (thanks in large part to a bar called "Wet Willies"), but we're all still feeling the rush of the past week.

As a recap, here were the results for Team Canada Women's Premier
2Km - gold
1Km - gold
200m standard boat - silver
200m baby boat - gold
500m - gold

So while the premier women cleaned shop and won the women's cup (woo hoo!!!), the rest of Team Canada did just as well!!! I believe the unofficial medal count ended something like this (for all of Canada)

41 gold, 12 silver, 8 bronze... woot woot!!!

I can't believe this whole year, the training, the anticipation, the sacrifices is over.... BUT .... while this short term goal is over, i CAN't WAIT to start training for my next event (I've heard whisperings of an OC race in Hawaii and a dragonboat festival in Milan next summer).

I will post some pictures and a wonderful video of our team singing Oh Canada on the podium when my connection isn't so spotty...

Have a great day and to all Team Canada athletes... you make (and have made) your country proud! I'm so lucky to have shared this week with all of you!!

Day 3 of racing

This is a late update of what happened on Friday, but here goes.

Team Canada took home another 10-12 medals (maybe more, can't remember). Premier women won our 200m heat which seeded us straight to the grand final. In the grand final, China showed what they can do with a fast stroke rate (112 strokes per minute) and crossed the finish line 2 seconds before the other boats.... holy FRIG batman!!! China's victory in the 200m standard boat premier women's race left our crew with a silver medal. Total medal count so far, 2 golds, 1 silver.


But then...

We decided *for fun* to race in the small boat premier women competition (10 people paddling instead of 20). We ended up walking away with gold in that as well... so, updated total is 3 golds and 1 silver. A little bling collection if I don't say so myself!! The small boats are fun though!! Heavy little buggers, a little tippy, but really fun!! You can get some really great connection with every stroke.


So, the last day of racing is tomorrow (we had today off - and did a little shopping and snoozing).

Team Canada Premier women 500m  heat is at 11:10 (race number 187). If we win that heat, we go straight to the grand final. If we don't, we will have a semi-final at 13:00 (race number 215). Grand final is at 15:50 (race number 215).... BUT, if we don't make the grand final, tune in earlier (around 3:15) to catch the minor final.

Let's hope for another medal to add to the collection!!! Though - regardless of how we do, we'll be celebrating at the paddlers after-party. So, if I don't update on Sunday night/Monday morning, it's because I was either in the middle of celebrating, or nursing a heavy hangover.

Day 2 of racing

And.... yesterday was another wonderful day for Canadian crews at the 2011 IDBF World Championships!

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of our medal count whiteboard to provide the run-down, but I believe we were somewhere in the range of an additional 6 gold medals, plus some silvers and bronzes. The crews are really strong (all around), so it's nice to see the hard work from all of the Canadian athletes paying off.

I'm also very very very happy to announce that the premier women doubled their gold medal count to 2!!!

Yesterday featured a 1000m heat and a 1000m final. We had some issues with the start on the first heat (they are held starts and the floating dock got in the way on the right side) - but we still managed to cross the finish line without needing a "finish" and came first by about a boat length. The 1000m final was a bit tighter, but the Canadian crew prevailed and crossed first :)

Surprisingly (I think to anyone/everyone who went to Macau), the Chinese premier women's crew doesn't seem as strong as they were last summer. BUT .... today is another day, and different races, and I hope I don't eat my last words....

Today we're gearing up for some FAST 200m. I'm hoping to cross the finish line in about 47 seconds... we'll see how that goes. The stroke rate is going to be fast (approx 95 strokes per minute), so as a crew, we need to make them snappy and STRONG. Can't wait to have our drummer swearing at us again (not sure about the readers out there - but I LOVE when the caller swears at us.... get's me going!!)

Wish us luck! First race is at 1:10 - they were running early yesterday so if you wanted to watch the live stream, tune in early perhaps? Semi is at 2:20 (if we don't come first in our heat), final is at 3:50 or 4:00.

First Day of Racing

Well..... Canadian teams cleaned up today!!! 9 gold medals and 1 bronze medal (and a DQ'd boat for the senior grandmaster team).

Canadian premier women came first in the 2km race by 8 seconds. Second place was the US, third place was China. Interestingly, those of you reading this who were in Macau and remembered the red and yellow teams... apparently they've merged to form one united Chinese team. They were stroking in the high 90s, low 100s, but really ran out of steam (and took some really wide turns).

The race was streamed live at the website that I posted yesterday - but the filming wasn't the best for the earlier races - not sure how it turned out for ours. We raced at 3:15 - but didn't get our official results until around 5pm. For those of you not familiar with how a 2km dragonboat race is performed, it's raced on a 500m course, and includes 3 turns (at speed). Now... try thinking about how long a dragonboat is, and how quickly you're turning the corners, and how many teams can sometimes get stuck in the corners, and it's just about one of the most exciting races to watch!

The team area is really great... inside, out of the sun, air conditioned... the main minus point though is that we can't see any of the racing - the course is set up upstream from the team/staging area, and the finish line is a further 300m (with no spectator areas) - makes it a little difficult to support your other teams while they're out paddling.

In any case.... the premier women are very happy with the results so far - but.... we can't get complacent, and we MUST get better at singing (in tune, and at the right speed) our National anthem. Boy was it a rush to be standing on the podium, singing the anthem and having the race officials raise the Canada flag.... makes me all giddy inside :)


1000m races tomorrow for the Premier women will be streamed live at the following link: http://idbfworldchamps.com/idbf-tv.php. We're racing at 2:15, but tune in at 2 (just in case)

Day 3 on the water aka the day before racing begins

So... this morning was the last morning that we woke up and will not be racing against the best of the best women dragonboat paddlers in the world.

We had 2 practices - dress rehearsal style - today. Our morning practice, we did 1000m practices; this afternoon we worked on 2km turns and starts. The boat is running well - still have a weight issue going on a bit, but we've managed to get through it in our practices.

This afternoon, Em, Chrissy and I walked across the street to the Marriott hotel and used their swimming pool.... so refreshing. Our hotel has a pool, but it's outdoors and heated.... in Florida.... go figure. It's like swimming in a hot tub, but without the jets. So, we just walked into Marriott like we belonged there, and got into the pool.

This evening were the opening ceremonies and the parade of nations. We didn't go, but instead got to enjoy some awesome Mediterranean food.

Racing begins tomorrow. 2km course for all teams.... wish us luck!!!!

P.S. live feed of the races available at the following link: http://idbfworldchamps.com/idbf-tv.php