Flushing, NY Race 2008 Write-up
By Rachel Belino
Teaming up as Boston Fusion with our friends, Harvard Dudley, DBCB headed to Flushing, New York, the weekend of August 2nd to race in the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival. DBCB hadn't planned on racing at this festival since it fell on the heels of the Montreal race just one weekend before, but several of our die-hard paddling junkies who just couldn't get enough racing made the trek to New York City for a fun one-day race!
We entered in the Open Mixed Division which the festival organizers deemed as the more competitive division, and to try to avoid the super heavy teak boats the festival used in the past for races in the Advanced Mixed Division. Due to a snafu with the festival, Boston Fusion ended up racing in the 250m Open Mixed Division races only and then in the 500m Advanced Mixed Division races instead of the 500m Open Mixed Division.
In our first race, 250m time trial in the Open Mixed Division, we faced extemely fast competition against Metro Athletic Dragons (MAD) and Montreal Mix, and our crew pulled a time of 1:12.94. In our 250m final at the end of the day, we managed to slightly improve on our earlier time pulling a 1:12.31 coming in 2nd behind Jade Maki Catta who pulled 1:10.59. In our 500m time trial in the Advanced Mixed Division, Boston Fusion ran a much better race pulling a time of 2:40.71 coming in 2nd in terms of placement. In our 500m final, we came in 2nd with a time of 2:37.63 behind Xtreme NY Blue (2:31.75).
Besides the racing, some fun and interesting highlights of the Flushing race included:
- Being hosed down by team-mates after each race to *flush* away the sticky green water
- Our very own yellow school bus to transport us from the hotel to the race site
- A revolving set of drummers...it seemed we had one from each team in the Divisions we raced: New York Wall Street Dragons, MAD, New Jersey!
- Fierce thunderstorms and lightning that pounded the race site for about 1.5 hours during lunch, while a defiant Steve N shielded our paddlers with his extra large umbrella from the wind and rain that was driving into the team tents
- Good food vendors at the festival serving grilled Jalapeno corn-on-the-cob, barbecued meats, Asian pastries and ice-cream, yum!
- For a few of us who lingered in NYC after the race, authentic Thai food at a nearby restaurant with our very own Nikki ordering the dishes :)
Overall, a fun collaborative weekend!
Our Boston Fusion crew:
Nancy W
Nikki P
Ashley Wo
Steve N
Jackson L
Mike M
Risha
Marek
Diana K
Rachel
Ben L
Laura M
Laura H
Mark R
Matti K
Dina A
Mona K
Zsuzsa
Brett (steerer)
