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