Golden heatwave

Temperatures were so high this weekend, that I half expected to come back to a car (left in a hotel parking lot so we could carpool) with melted, oozing tires. Thankfully that didn't happen... but for sure WE oozed a lot! A new friend of ours, a fellow dragon boater from Philly, told us that for every ten pounds of weight lost a boat gains an extra three seconds of speed... well... i think we definitely delivered on that one!

The Montreal International Dragonboat Festival is a rather unique event - e.g. the women's class is just that... one big hot mess of women's crews. There are no subdivisions (like senior, BCS, community, intermediate, premier, etc).. you're all just lumped together and going for bust to see what happens. This year, there were 48 female crews... ours among them. As in June, we were being pitted against one of the national teams on which three of our crew sit. It was gonna be a challenge.. and we welcomed it!

Our boat did fantastic. We "got the $#%& off the start line" as directed, and had really strong races - strong enough to get us into the Division A finals in both the 500m and the 200m - along with two premier teams and Team Canada. In the 200m - dang it was close... less than half a second between the top 4 teams:  54:03 (Team CA, with our girls on it!), 54:17, 54:21 and 54:29 (our boat).... so sweet!  The 500m final was very similar. 2:18:26, 2:19:04; 2:19:18 (Team CA) and 2:19:26 (us) - we were one second off from the gold, and just a dragon's whisker from bronze. Even though we wouldn't medal, we would be going home very happy. Great training ground, really SOLID.

Still, G and I are accustomed to bling. And since we decided earlier in the season that we wouldn't leave another festival without some sort of jewelry, we had our work cut out for us. We were lucky enough to be able to paddle with a second, mixed crew from our club... made up of a lot of folks from one of the teams we were with last year.. so it was like coming home in a sense. And we did so well, we got bumped up to the premier division finals (your times earn you a spot in either the Rookie, Intermediate or Premier finals) - and 2:18:19 was enough to net us GOLD in the 500m... in the worst, heaviest, crappiest lane to boot. As our coach said, that was like a TRIPLE win! So very very satisfying.

On the way home, at the border, we were asked if we were bringing anything back. G and I leaned over and waved our bling at the guy. "Hell yeah!! Medals!" we yelled. The guy chuckled and asked "did you beat a Canadian team?" "Hell yeah!" We answered. He laughed. We laughed. He didn't need to know we were WITH a Canadian team. And technically, we told the truth so no harm no foul. Hee.

So yeah, hot hot weekend! Medal is on the rack... next race, August 13. This one will be strictly for fun: we're paddling with another of our former teams and coaches... the one we started with in Montreal and really owe all our successes to, so it'll be pretty special actually. Love love LOVE that crew.

The summer is starting to wind down... BOO.