30 hours of travel + 5 hours of sleep + 5 races.....

‎I arrived in Fuzhou around 1am this morning as did my paddles (yay!), and we've hit the ground running. 

The first world cup in dragonboat opened this afternoon, and we have already had five races today including 1000m pursuit style team races around a 250m course, 400m relay races and 200m straight races. 

With each race, we get a bit more confident and comfortable paddling together, and we're hoping that a good night of sleep will help even more. 

The racing is good - very competitive (which is why we are here, really), but the experience is very different racing co-ed than it is single sex. Also, our boat has adopted a different technique for paddling, so it's all about meshing as quickly as we can.

The host hotel is nice enough, but I've been having a hard time finding food I can eat. It's going to be a lot of steamed book chop and protein powder over the next few days, I'm sure. 

It's about 9pm here, and I'm beyond exhausted, so this post is really just to update friends and loved ones that I'm alive and made it.

Going to China... again :)

It's been awhile (ha! I always start my posts off this way!).

This time around, I've been named to the Canadian crew who is going to Fuzhou, China for the inaugural world cup (http://dragonboat.ca/node/789). Initially the competition was to take place during the actual dragon-boat festival in China, however, we'll be attending toward the end of the festival so will miss the majority of the cultural events. 

The Chinese government has decided to host us, and will be televising the event (although, not entirely sure if that extends to international broadcast) - still... pretty cool! This will be the first time I have had costs covered by a host organization, and the ability to win money to boot!

However, as with most things in my life these days - I feel like this trip is one big rush... I leave Ottawa on Sunday morning, arrive in Fuzhou just before midnight on Monday, and begin racing on Tuesday. Considering the calibre of competition, I would have hoped for at least one day to acclimate and prepare for a serious time zone disruption - alas, it wasn't meant to be. 

I'm racing in Montreal on Saturday which didn't exactly leave me a whole lot of time to transition from racing with my club crew to getting into a "world cup" mode, however, I'm going for the racing and the experience - and hoping that our crew (who hasn't really ever paddled together), quickly finds our groove. To top it all off, because I'm working full time and on limited vacation time, I'm working right up until Friday evening - making preparations a bit more stressful than I would have liked.

The race format is very different than my previous attendance at world level events. I will be racing standard mixed crew, as well as small boat single sex (women) crew. I've got a total of 10 minutes of experience in a small boat, so again... the dice will land where they land during those races ;)

I will attempt to update as much as possible - though, I've heard that can be difficult due to the "great firewall" of China...

Canada Premier Women dominated the 500m

‎I know that this post is delayed, but for what it's worth.....

Our 500m‎ races were fantastic. Wonderful. Powerful yet not panicked. Oh - and Premier Women came out on top or the podium - by a rather large margin of about 1 second!! 

Our first heat was exactly how a heat should be. Fast enough to get you top position in the final, but not so fast that you risk burning out. My nerves were on fire because I knew that after the 200m performance we had the day before(for which I still can't stop smiling)‎ - we had to prove that our win was not an accident - that we were meant to be on top. 

Needless to say, the heat was great and seeded us against China and US as our main competitors in the final. We had a very strong start and apparently we lead the race out of the starting gate and then turned on the power for our finish. Our caller kept saying "China is making their move, I need you now" and the boat responded right away with pure force of will striving to get us to the end of the race. With every stroke, our caller would yell "give me another seat" and the boat would respond. It was fantastic. 

In the end I believe we finished 1/2 a boat length ahead, which is huge in the main distance of a Premier boat at the ‎world championships. Our coach was ecstatic, as was the entire team. It's probably one of the best races I have had in my life, and I'm absolutely honored to have been a part of this National team experience in Hungary. 

Right now, I am in Budapest taking in the sites and the atmosphere. This city is quickly becoming one of my favorite in the world - more on that to come.

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In case you are interested in a little read, myself and two of my teammates were featured in a two page article in the Ottawa Citizen : http://www2.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/sports/story.html?id=ad94ad56-6fa3-47e7-b383-9b47641656a8

Canada Premier Women made history

The Canadian Premier Women made history today, beating team China for the first time in the 200m sprint distance!!

This adds another gold medal to the coffers - which places us with two gold and one bronze overall. Today has been a fantastic day!

In addition, teams are starting to get penalties for wash riding (after the 1000m fiascos, something had to be done - too bad it wasn't called during our race!!). 

So, this had been an incredible day of racing again. We managed to get our stroke rate up around 110 strokes per minute in the preliminary heat - it was fast but spinny so we decided to take it down for the final - which really benefited us in the end. It felt great, the boat felt awesome and everyone felt connected. We didn't know who won and had to wait for the replay to know for sure, but once we saw with proof that gold was ours, the boat erupted in celebration. There is really no other way to describe it. 

You see, the 200m has always been a dream to win - and we finally did it!

Tomorrow is the last day of racing where we will focus on the 500m distance. I will update later tomorrow or Monday with our standings. 

Go Canada!!!! 

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

Adventures in 1000m racing

Yesterday we raced the 1000m sprints. 

In our heat, our strategy was to come in first so that we could go directly to the finals, but not to exhaust ourselves doing it. We made that plan work and ended up seeding in the preferred lane for the final race - which might have been a detriment to our outcome. 

We started off the final race ahead by a half boat length and maintained that lead for what spectators say was 3/4 of the course - however, for anyone who is familiar with racing in a man made basin, sometimes what will happen is the crews who are beside and behind you can get on your wave (almost like surfing), which means they will expend less energy keeping up with you, giving them a surge at the end of the race. This is precisely what happened. 

Canadian Premier Women received the bronze medal, behind Thailand and China. The spread between first and third place was 0.15 seconds. Not even a paddle stroke. Our coach firmly believes that we carried the two other crews (who were on either side of us) down the course. Whatever the reason, I can say that our race plan was executed perfectly, and it wasn't for lack of trying or for lack of effort that we weren't on the top of the podium. 

Coming off the water was emotional. To have worked so hard, knowing you couldn't have done anything differently to affect the outcome (ie: paddle harder, sit up straighter, respond to calls for more power, etc.), that was what hurt the most. But - we have to keep in mind that at the world level, this is what we ask for. The best competition in the world - this is what we got yesterday. 

From my perspective, our team was humbled. This is a good thing. When you are used to winning all the time, sometimes you need to come second (or third) to remind you of the hunger, drive and sheer ballsy-ness it takes to win first place. 

Canadian Premier Women will be back for the 200m on Saturday - there is no doubt about that. 

The race was streamed live (as all the races have been so far), the commentators saying that ours was one of the closest races of the day, and at one point, the commentator was heard to say "look at those Canadian women, they are looking exceptionally strong this year. Muscles like that don't just happen by accident". Later, when we were on the podium receiving our medals, the organizers told us that they hit 80,000 spectators on the live coverage - and that over 60% were from Canada. 

Hearing that, and knowing that our friends and family in Canada are behind us is pretty fantastic. I know the Canadian media has shunned our efforts to engage, and so I know how much it takes for those of you at home to sign on and follow our races - we sincerely appreciate it!! We really do. Knowing th at I have loved ones back home that are watching, cheering and crying along with me is the best feeling in the world. 

Be sure to tune in on Saturday - I'm aiming for tears of joy and hoping to beat China for the first time in the 200m. 

Canadian teams cleaned up on the first day of racing (2000m course)

The opening ceremonies were a great time this year - I missed them in Tampa and always regretted it, so I decided to attend this year. There was a parade of athletes through the streets of Szeged - locals and supporters alike lined the streets and were cheering us on (kind of a really cool feeling!). There were even some local children who were waving mini Canadian flags... :)

At the opening ceremonies, there was a guest appearance from the Red Bull stunt pilot who entertained us with a 10-15 minute air show - I left shortly after and missed the concert and the opening speeches. On our way out Krysta and I were pulled aside by some athletes from the Polish team and were asked to pose for a pic.

Some Galley Girls representing in Szeged

Galley Girl contingent (minus Emilie) in Szeged at the opening ceremonies

Team Canada - walking proud

Posing with our competitors

The first day of racing has come and gone and Canadian teams have been very well represented on the podium so far.

12 gold medals, 5  silver medals and 1 bronze medal - that is almost 1 medal per race - a fantastic first start to what will hopefully be a consistent week of racing from all Canadian teams.

Canadian Premier Women (the team that I paddle with) won our race by a whopping 9 second margin - so start our collection off with this year. We were not racing at the Szeged Olympic paddling facility, rather the Tisza river - where we could benefit from the current in one direction which helped us to attain top speeds of over 20 km/h. It doesn't seem fast - but in a dragonboat, that's pretty fast (especially for a long distance race).

The Chinese are historically a very strong team, and we were concerned that we might not be able to compete against them, but we fared very well in the end.

Today we are racing the 1000m sprints. If we win our heat, we will go straight to the grand final. If we don't we will have to go to a reperchage (sp?) where the fastest teams will go to the grand final. Wish us luck!!

Race Schedule for Canadian Premier Women

 The following is the race schedule for Canadian Premier Women (my team), however, there are lots of talented Canadian teams competing this year. Be sure to check the Hungarian event website for live video feed of the races:

http://www.hungary2013.dragonboat.hu/

There have been some.recent changed to the schedule that have been published on thr.main site - I'm hopeful that the times are still the same. 

Wednesday July 24 (2000m)

Race # 18 @ 16h30

Last boat to start.

Thursday July 25 (1000m)

Race # 59 @ 15h10 (heat)

Race#67 @ 16h30 (semi final)

Race # 75 @ 17h50 (grand final)

Saturday July 27 (200m)

Race # 197 @ 14h40 (heat)

Race # 215 @ 16h15 (semi final)

Race # 240 @ 18h20 (grand final)

Sunday July 28 (500m)

RAce # 260 @ 11h40 (heat)

Race # 280 @ 14h30 (semi final)

Race # 298 @ 17h00 (grand final)