Dragon Boat Races 2013

This year's dragon boat races have come and gone again. How does the season go by so quickly?

I miss it already.  

This year's races were A. Maze. Ing. 

I love this sport so much!

I raced in five races this year, two on Saturday and three on Sunday. 

Our first race was the women's race and it didn't go that well.  They have a new gate system and it was the first time we had used it and we got a bad start. 

 

Oh well.  It happens. 

The other races that day went better.   We didn't place last at all and we were right up there with everyone else.  They were actually quite close races!  We have definitely improved this year.  I don't know whether it was the extra practices or what but we did so much better this year than in years past.

The last race was a mixed team race(women, men and children in one boat) and they did great!  When we went to get our time we were shocked to learn that we had shaved thirty seconds off of our best time!!  Much celebrating was had that night with those of us that went to dinner after the races on Saturday but I will admit that it seemed a little fishy to me and I told Joe I thought there may have been a mistake.  Thirty seconds is a HUGE amount of time and it didn't seem possible.  

Sure enough, when we got to the races the next day we saw that they had made a mistake and posted the new(actual) times.  We still beat our old time but only by four seconds, not thirty.  Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. 

Sunday was another women's race first thing and we did so much better, shaving 22 seconds off the previous day's score, earning one of our best women's times.  

The next race was another mixed race and we rocked it out. We came in third(out of seven) and were only beat by the second place team by two seconds!  It was amazing!

The last race was the short 200 meter race and we did well but didn't place. We were tired by then.  

I had no idea that we were actually going to receive a medal for third place.  I was so excited!!  I even waited until the awards ceremony at the end of the day to receive it. They could have mailed it to us but it's not often that I receive a medal and there was no way I was leaving without it.  Lol. 

Here are some random pictures in no particular order because I'm tired.  And lazy. 

Check out the spelling of California in the banner. Oops.  You would think they would have had someone proofread that before printing it!

Third place medal

Front and back of the medal.  Isn't it pretty?   :).

I know I'm making more of a big deal out of it than it actually is, but it's not likely to happen again and I'm going to enjoy it.  

I was sad to leave knowing that the season was over but ten of us have decided to participate in another race in October which means we will get to practice a few more weeks. Yippee!  

And then in December we are going to sign up to paddle year round which means a couple of times a month we will get to practice the whole year round!   

So. Freaking.  Excited.  I can hardly stand it.  

What a great summer this has been so far!