Tentative racing schedule

Our sleepy little haven has begun to transform....the breakfast buffet has been mobbed by dragonboaters of all ages and sizes this morning. Many of our teammates are stuck in Toronto, but a few have made it! The energy change is palpable...it's starting to feel like a competition here!

Livestream link will be: http://www.livestream.com/idbfdragon

And our tentative racing schedule is as follows:

Wednesday, July 4th
Senior A Women – 2000 Meter - 13:20 (Final)

Friday, July 6th

Senior A Women – 200 m - Round 1 - Race 95 - Time 08:10
Note: Time from Round 1 added to Round 2 at 0850 and Round 3 at 0930

Senior A Women – 200 m - Round 2 - Race 103 - Time 08:50
Note: Times from Round 1 and Round 2 added to Round 3 at 0930

Senior A Women – 200 m - Round 3 - Race 111 - Time 09:30
Note: Time in Round 3 added to times from Round 1 and Round 2 to decide the final places

Sunday, July 8th

Senior A Women – 500 m - Round 1 - Race 265 - Time 08:10
Note: Time from Round 1 added to Round 2 at 0850 and Round 3 at 0930

Senior A Women – 500 m - Round 2 - Race 273 - Time 08:50
Note: Times from Round 1 and Round 2 added to Round 3 at 0930

Senior A Women – 500 m - Round 3 - Race 281 - Time 09:30
Note: Time in Round 3 added to times from Round 1 and Round 2 to decide the final places

Nothing like a typhoon to keep things interesting

Woke up early, went for a walk. Hot and humid already by 9am...but we kept at it, marching briskly for a full hour. Of course, it wasn't just a walk...there was adventure involved!

Halfway thru the walk, my three cups of coffee and double espresso began calling for a bathroom. So we ducked into a metro station and found a public toilet. The stall was skinny and tall, i had to step up two steps to...a lovely porcelain-surrounded hole. Suzanne's "never refuse a challenge" flashed in my head so i firmly planted my feet on either side, squatted and aimed in such a way as to prevent any splashback. I am happy to report that i succeeded...and that my two years of incorporating squats into my training really paid off. Boys, I have new respect (or maybe disgust) for you. (The aiming sans splashback thing.)

We continued on our adventure...Blah blah blah, finished walking, went home, showered, etc.

Day's plan: to go see the Big Buddha and monasteries with some friends who'd arrived. So we headed out to the metro, with a quick stop to the bank for some cash and to the pharmacy for a compression sleeve for my leg. The pharmacy was fun...i had no idea where to look for what i needed, so asked for help. The pharmacist led me to the right aisle, grabbed a box, looked at my leg, and said "hmmm...i better measure your leg." Really? Ok...whatever. She got her tape measure...measured the girth of my ankle, the length of my foot, the circumference of my calf. "No sorry, i don't have anything big enough for you." really? Am I THAT big? But she did have a tube thing she could sell me by the meter..which she did and cut in half and it was perfect for 1/8th of the price :)

Made our way to the metro, bought our tickets (that was an adventure in itself) and off we went. Oh the metro...a people watcher's heaven. Schoolkids in uniform, young adults, old women, tweens giggling between texts and sharing their mall finds. Kids are the same everywhere we discovered...no matter their clothes, culture, country. The route took us above ground past an amazing cemetery...i need to look that up and see if i can find it and go visit it. G thought that was creepy but i love cemeteries. I am as fascinated about rituals surrounding death as by those surrounding life.

We transferred trains successfully, but getting OUT of the metro station was another adventure. No matter what turnstile we tried..we couldn't get out. Felt like idiots. Seriously contemplated jumping the turnstile. Until we discovered we needed to find those where we could insert our tickets into the machine and presto..we were free. Phew. Ok...off to find a bathroom, some food and the cable car to Buddha.

Peed in the biggest outlet mall i've ever seen. But Couldn't agree on an eatery, so went to the cable car. "closed due to typhoon." well SHIT. But there was a bus, so we thought eh, why not. It wouldn't be the same effect, but hey, we'd still get to reach our goal destination right? Wrong. The sky darkened, the wind picked up, and the rains started hammering down. Of course, none of us had thought to bring an umbrella or jacket. Did i mention that we'd need to climb some 200 steps to the monastery? A few of us were ready to risk it, but others wanted to take a raincheck. So, given the view would be nil on top of crap weather, we decided to go try and exchange our tickets for another day.

Hahaha.....fat chance. The ticket agents were rude and nastily refused to consider or even acknowledge our concerns. So we headed back to the mall, found some eats at the food court, and took the metro back "home". The whole day was just ridiculous. Think Seinfeld does Hong Kong. In trying to accomplish something we ended up doing nothing. How ironic is it that we went halfway around the world to go to the mall and eat in the food court? Sheesh. We consoled ourselves with the thought that with 10 more days here, we'd surely have enough time to have another crack at it.

We wound our way back to the hotel thru the tight little streets, stopping for water and to peruse the exotic offerings of the bakeries and stores along the way. Then we went off to the upper level bar to check the web for updates on the weather and our teammates. And herein lies an adventure totally worthy of these two dragons...and one that may even merit becoming the opening scene of our movie. (oh yes, there will definitely be a movie.) but that's a tale for another day.

Day two in hong kong

My internal clock is a bit messed up...but not too bad. Crashed at 6pm local time, woke up at 11pm wide awake so hoofed it down to the hotel lobby to catch up with my sweetie, 12 hours back on the other side of the world. The lobby, next to the hotel bar on the 38th floor, is the only wifi-accessible place. So when i came down, all two chairs and most of the footstools were taken by a variety of internet-hungry youngsters from different countries. Talk about a global arena! I sidled over, settled on an empty stool, and logged in :) (As soon as i figure out how to add photos from this iPad i will!) All I could hear was the rush of fingers on keyboards of all types...iPads, smartphones, tablets. And giggles and sighs as people communicated with others out in the virtual world. A was hard at work, so mostly I just rambled and spoke of our day. That's the hard part....doing this adventure without him and trying to convey all the sights, smells and feelings thru a few words. Around midnight I went back upstairs and crawled back under the covers. Woke up at around 5:30 restless and starving. But my roomies were still snoring. What to do? Go into the bathroom and observe the neighbors of course! So into the bathtub I settled. I love to people watch. So it was incredible to just sit and REALLY look at the view. Where we first were a bit aghast at the view from our room, now i was intrigued. I love to see the real side of life when i travel .... the manufactured view created for tourists just isn't my thing. So these few moments alone were amazing. What did i see? Through one window, and old man and woman beginning their day. It looked like she was making their lunches for the day. The fridge opened and closed, he rubbed her back, she smiled at him, he went to the window and reeled in the laundry hanging outside... That laundry! Hanging from every window and balcony. Dishtowels, pants, kids' shirts...so many colors...such a commentary on daily life. In another window a woman was washing dishes. In another, a man in his undershorts making his bed. The outsides of these apartments are as varied as their occupants. On some, the stucco is dingy, dirty, peeling. The doors and windows sagging or broken. On others, there is fresh paint, new balcony railings, new windows. The pigeons are the constant...they land on laundry indiscriminately. I wondered how much of that clean laundry had to be rewashed each time due to pigeon poop. That would annoy the crap out of me (no pun intended). Our first crewmates have arrived. We swapped stories and recommendations over breakfast. Now we are going to take a walk to the race site, check out the course, hit the gym for some cardio and light weights, and then head to the ferry and street market :)

Day one in Hong Kong

We were checked in extra early by a lovely lady at the front desk, and were able to shower and get rid of our travel stink right away. Then we hit the streets. Heat was not as unbearable as expected....yeah it's hot but we are not drenched in nasty sweat :) Besides, there are so many shops to duck into and get cool! The breeze off the water helps too. Having so many people vying to sell you stuff however...that's new to me. Some of them can be really persistent. One tailor for example, followed us right back into the hotel trying to make a sale. Jewelers too can be a bit intimidating. But it's all part of this amazing adventure and we are loving it. Found a couple of great bakeries, a supermarket, and plenty of restaurants frequented by locals...always a good find. And marvelled at the use of thick bamboo as scaffolding...watched mesmerized as two shirtless men scrambled up lengths of the stuff tying it together (and anchoring it to road signs and whatever else the street offered) in amazing combinations. Tomorrow, a street fair, the ferry, and some cultural immersion away from the Rodeo-drive-ish-ness we saw today. Can't wait. Needed to get my swollen foot on ice after tho...so back at the hotel went hunting on our floor for an ice machine. None found. Instead we found a very sweet housekeeper eager to help ....unfortunately she did not speak English. "Ice?" she repeated, pointing hopefully to the teetering stack of towels and toiletries on her cart. We nodded in the negative. How to explain ice? How would you do it in charades? Well, you'd make stupid facial expressions and crunching mouth gestures of course. Yeah, no, that didn't work. Nor did trying to fashion a big block of ice out of air. Or, R's tactic of switching to Spanish. That just perplexed the poor woman even more and prompted her to try looking up "panol" (as in "habla esPANOL") on her cellphone. We thanked her profusely and backed away sheepishly. And went down to the front desk where i was able to arrange for some to be brought up to the room. Yay! Ok, sleep deprivation starting to hit. Off to bed!

We are in the dream...!

Holy crap we made it to Hong Kong. My foot is swollen like an old lady's, we almost didn't make it out of burlington, and the ride from JFK included screaming kids, a migraine and throwing up.... But we made it! The Hong Kong airport is super-impressive...clean, gorgeous, huuuuge. Also loved the Jet Blue terminal at JFK....to be in Saarinen's (restored) building was goosebump-good. Terminal 8 however...gross. Dirty, nasty, skincrawling ickiness. The trip from airport to hotel was amazing. So many colors...cranes, shipping containers, ships....so much water, so much activity..such a busy trade port. Never imagined that much life. We ate some amazing food, showered up and are now heading out to explore our neighborhood :)

Knocked out but not down

A fabulous day of racing was ours on Saturday - at the Lachine Knockout in Montreal. Not only because of how we did, but also for the lessons learned. Some good, some gut-wrenching. We made it to the A Final, with 3 premier women's teams (translation - a whole division above ours) one of which is arguably the best premier women's team in Canada - so getting to this top final was huge for us. A knockout is exactly what it sounds like - 4 boats race down the course, the last one over the finish line gets eliminated and the other three race again. Repeat until there are only two boats left and one is declared the winner. Though we finished a hair on the wrong side of the finish line in that first race of the knockout final, we had met all our goals and challenges (and then some!) for this event.

There was a downside to the day though. G & I also paddled with a mixed team in a different division. It's the team (albeit a little re-configured) and the coach with whom we started our whole amazing Montreal adventure. We did great in our first two races, and made it to the A Final in that category also. Unfortunately, our two finals were a race apart - leaving very little time for recovery for G and I. Coach A compromised by changing the lineup, putting G on the drum, me on the tail, and himself in the boat with a paddle. It was a good plan, but ultimately a rushed compromise that created just enough of a change in dynamic to bring us in fourth over the line in the knockout round. A crazy wave, caused by a big motorboat on the other side of our (outside) lane, that hit us in the final third of the race and gave us a solid shove in the wrong direction wasn't too helpful either. But there are no excuses in dragon boating.  In our women's final, we just needed more. In this one - same thing. In retrospect... we were overly cautious and should have just stuck to the original plan. We know that physically, we're fit enough to have been able to handle it. And we totally should have. Instead, even though we had gone down the course with our team, we left feeling like we'd let our entire boat down and busted the day's great groove. Maybe we did, maybe we didn't - but I personally felt like a rotten, squishy, festering tomato. Granted, two paddlers don't make or break a boat - but the mental aspect of racing is just as big as the physical. Maybe even more. That's what we're being warned about over and over again as the World Championships approach. Being physically strong is very important - but we have to be mentally fit too. And in Hong Kong that's going to be critical.

So we learned a lot from this weekend. Good and bad. I guess that's how you evolve and improve right?  There have to be tough lessons along the way. On the mixed side, we made a shitty choice in compromising one team for another and in the process let ourselves, our team and our coach down. You can bet that won't happen again. On the women's side - we'd had the wrong attitude earlier in the day. We had the second-best time going into that final race - which was the entirely wrong thing to have in our heads. Did it really affect our game? Did we paddle any less? Who knows. Ultimately, we didn't fight hard enough. Sometimes it comes down to just one stroke. One extra push. One extra bit of power that, this time, we didn't harness. As coach pointed out at the end we weren't second best. We were fourth best. The standings are based on the last race - not the semi-finals.  So we have a new plan, a new vision for the next race: Hong Kong.

Bring it on.

next time, we're not leaving without these grins

3 weeks til take-off!

This time 3 weeks from now G and I will be at the airport waiting to board our flight to Hong Kong. We'll probably be hyped on our signature double espressos and nattering excitedly about the championships and living our dream. In between the moans of dread at the looming 15 hour flight ahead.. blargh! Not looking forward to that at ALL. But what's on the other side... aaaah!

We spent the weekend in Connecticut, working a community festival that unfortunately ended in near crashes and a sinking only four races into it. Converging rivers, crazy currents and nutso waves forced an early cancellation - sometimes we forget just how dependent we are on the mother nature. We paddle through rain and snow, fire and .. ok ok maybe not snow and fire. But speaking of insane weather - we had tornado warnings here last week. And STILL G and I agonized over whether or not to attempt the drive to Montreal for practice.

"Oh eff it, let's just go."
"OK." ... five minutes later...
"Dude we should just stay home. One practice won't kill us. But the weather might."
"Yeah, ok, we should be smart. Let's stay home and just do a killer workout here."
"Yeah!" ... five minutes later...
"It doesn't look SO bad. Wanna just go?"
"Umm... yeah... but I dunno..."
And so on and so on. Really? We questioned a TORNADO? HAHAHA. That's dedication! (Or insanity? You decide!) Ultimately we decided to stay home. And then practice was cancelled. And 2.5 inches of rain caused flash flooding and insanity in Montreal - so it proved to be the right decision.

Here's hoping for sun and warmth tomorrow!