So...

So many firsts.  First competition of 2011. First competition as members of an elite team. First time in a boat (and not in the training pool) as a team. First competition as a woman on a men's boat. First capsize. First place. Yeah, this is gonna be a looong post. Grab a cup of tea.

Yes, an amazing day at our first competition as Montreal ELITE Senior Women. I could do without the "senior" part, makes us sound like geriatrics, but when the announcer, who happens to also be our head coach, introduced as as such... (was it my imagination or did he stretch out the "e..lll..eeeeete" part just a teeny bit?) it gave us goosebumps. G and I looked at each other and it was obvious we were thinking the same thing .."HOLY SHIT WE'RE ELITE!" It was surreal and real and awesome and crazy all at the same time. (As was learning that two of our teammates earned spots in Canadian National Teams and are going to be competing at the world championships in Tampa this summer!)

Going into the competition we were told to expect tough opposition from the Cascades (a strong Ottawa team) and the Montreal Elite Women (a 20-somethings team from our own club).

We both joined other teams (in other divisions than our own of course) to increase our fun - G a mixed team, I a men's. I have to say, sitting on the men's boat for the first race I almost puked right there. Sooooo nervous and excited at the same time.. and seriously hoping I wouldn't eff up.  I guess I didn't cuz I got moved to the engine room for the next round.. so cool, I think my grin was almost as big as last night's gigantic harvest moon.

So what were the races and how the hell does it work indoors anyway?

THE ALL IMPORTANT RACE: We are in the rear, grey boat, just prior to start.

Look in the back (rear) boat, that dark head with the ponytail.. that's the fierce miz G powering down on her paddle, yeah!
(For more pics, check out www.bateaudragon.com or if you're on facebook, look up 22Dragons)

Two full-size dragon boats in an olympic-size swimming pool, joined together with a complex system of pulleys and industrial-strength bungees at the front and rear. The purpose of this is two-fold.. so that they stay straight and don't crash into the ends of the pool. Three different race types: 1) 30-second sprints where whoever is ahead at the end of 30-seconds wins. You had to win 2 out of 3 to be declared the winner of that round; 2) a face to face: 8 paddlers from each team sitting facing one another, middle two rows left empty. On the horn, you paddle for your life and try to get across the line - an on-water tug-of-war; 3) a race to cross the line. You could paddle for 30 seconds or 30 minutes, depending on how evenly matched you were with your opponent. (OK maybe not for 30 minutes, but you get the idea.)

So, one of our first matchups for the 30-second sprints was with the elite women. When the horn blew at the end of 30-seconds, we were declared the winners. I think both teams were in shock. And onlookers too. Holy tamale what the heck had just happened we all were asking ourselves. And then it was time to race again. Unfortunately they beat us the next time, and the third.. winning 2 out of 3 and therefore that round. OK, disappointing, but we have a great captain and pacers who were able to identify the problem and tell us EXACTLY what we needed to do to get it DONE the next time.

We got this into our heads and watched a few of the other races. G went in for the "race-to-the-line" round with her mixed team... and it proved to be a race that tested the athletes' physical stamina to the max. In case you don't know, paddling a boat when you are a) tied down and b) trying to pull another boat back whilst trying to get slightly ahead is REALLY hard. (And you take on so much water that you're bailing out the boat between every race.) 30 seconds leaves you wanting to puke. Well... this race went for 45 seconds, then a minute, then 2 minutes, then 3 minutes.. to 3 1/2 minutes. G's team was looking like it was getting nosed out, but at the last little bit they got some crazy energy from somewhere, pushed past the pain, and just pounded all hell out of the water and surged ahead to win. The noise in the room was deafening - the crowd went totally NUTS!

They also took on so much water, that the boat looked like it might sink. Instead... as they were coming back to the side, it started tipping.. and plop plop plop... 18 paddlers fell into the pool. G right on top of her seat mate (who, incidentally, also made one of the Canadian National teams, yeah H!). Way to go G, you almost killed a national champion.

Just perfect.

A little later, a few teams had to struggle for 5, 6 minutes. Watching, we felt their pain. And hoped to hell we wouldn't have to suffer the same ordeal. Give us QUICK wins, please!

When we got back on the water as our true team for the cross-the-line race,  we got our breathing calm. We focused. We listed to what our captain and pacer said. The "I do NOT want to do a 6-minute race" was full of purpose. The horn blew, the whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of the water as our paddles dug deep and hard was exhilarating. We got into a groove and.. the horn blew. What? Already? Oh yeah... it took us 21 strokes to win. It felt connected, powerful, smooth and just plain amazing.

"That's what we need to do. Bottle THAT up and remember how it feels. THAT IS HOW WE RACE" said our captain. Yes indeed. Bottle it we did.

Last race, the final with the elite women. We now needed to uncork that bottle and beat them. We'd done it once, we just needed to do it twice more. Could we do it? We went into that race knowing we could. We had to. We had been training for THIS moment.

"Are we ready to rrrrruuuummmblllle???" yelled the announcer. The boat next to us was yelling and thumping the side of their boat in answer. Our boat sat quiet, calm, focused. Oh yeah, we were sooo ready.

The airhorn blew, and whoosh whoosh whoosh went the power. Driving our paddles down into the crazy churning mess, water dumping into our laps and faces, having to feel the rhythm more than anything, because we couldn't open our eyes long enough to look and see if we were keeping time... We hear the crowd. The horn goes.. we stop. And are declared the winners! Wow! We did it.

And have to do it again.

And did it we did. We screamed, cried, hugged, slapped high-fives with such force we rocked the boat. The crowd went INSANE. Screaming, pounding, clapping, whistling. Our coaches looked shocked and thrilled and prouder than new parents. And when we got off the boat you'd have thought we just won the olympics. Hee.

Amazing amazing amazing. Bottle it up and remember it for next time.

In the meantime, breathe deep, relish it, and continue training. Week 23 begins on Monday.

Oh yeah, and we're totally wearing our medals to work tomorrow.