A Day at the Races!
Hey there sportsfans!
It was a beautiful day in Tacoma, Washington and we arrived early in order to get ready for the first 8 o'clock races! The sun was shining, the water was calm and a strange smell floated over from the factories across the river. About half our team had never been in a race before and we were buzzing with excitement. We pitched our tent on the grass and watched the beginning of the first races.
We were in the long skinny boats, which we were used to, execept (you'd love this mom) at the front sat a large drum. The coaches quickly learned to beat their drums as loud as they could, perhaps a method to overcome the pounding of the racing boat next to them. When it was our turn to go out, an official came to get our team and carrying a number. We were marshalled to the dock and the number was our corresponding lane. We would have to wait on the dock until the previous boats were rowed back to our end of the river. In that time we would size up our opponents standing next to us or just joke around as our coach Ducky constantly tried to get us to focus quietly on the upcoming race.
I wasn't anxious until I was bent over with my paddle in the water waiting for the bull horn. Then pure adrenaline drove us to the waiting finish line, beating the boat beside us by half a second. So we had won our first race in the first heat! There were 3 heats total. Out of the all the teams racing (around 30), the 4 best times are selected and those 4 teams would race in the final. So we had two more chances to get a better time in order to qualify.
In the second heat we beat our time by 4 seconds. However, we came in third in our race, with the second place team beating us by a second.
By the third race, we were focused and I had never worked so hard in my life in a 3 minute time span. We were racing the best teams that the sport had to offer. We kept up with them more than half way but at the finish line we came in third once again. Of course, we were all a bit bummed, not understanding how we could have lost, but we had kept beating our time and keeping up with some very established teams, some who had been together for years, while our team was about 90 days old.
Ducky was extremely pleased with our performance which made us feel a bit better. We didn't win but we were in the top percentage. "If you're not having fun then you shouldn't be there anyway" was a very good point to bring up on Ducky's behalf.
It was a quick day and I had a chance to get to know my teammates a bit better. It also was a good chance to check out what other teams were like, what they wore, how they acted..ect.
There were elderly teams, blind teams, women only teams... they were all there, and all extremely well natured. I collected a few pictures (none of me unfortunately) of the boats and our surrounding areas. Ducky had taken video of us racing which is a bit frightening as he points me out and how my stroke could use improving. I hope some of his pictures turn out a bit better.
Posted in: chaosgurl, sport, united states on May 12, 2007 at at 6:06:00 PM