Ithaca Race 2009 Write-up
Hi DBCB,Ithaca was...well...what can I say, it was a rain-out!
The weather on Saturday morning started off decent with partly cloudy skies and temps in the 70s. The forecast predicted scattered thunderstorms so we pitched our tents and draped our big blue tarp over them to prepare for the rain -- it was quite an eyesore but it proved to be the smart thing to do once the rain hit in the afternoon!
In the morning, we got off to a strong start! DBCB won our first 2 back-to-back races which were 250m time trials, with an average time of 1:14. We faced good competition from NY Wall Street Dragons and a team called Puff Puff Dragons. After lunch, we switched gears to the 500m distance in our next race. We faced a tough battle against PDBA II (Philadelphia Dragon Boat Association) and the Gorges Dragons (Ithaca's home team) where we came in 3rd. The race officials haven't yet posted the times for our last race so I couldn't include it in this write-up.
The festival's race program scheduled three 500m races for each division after the time trials but we only ended up racing one 500m. Right after our 500m race around 1:30 PM, the race officials suspended all racing until 3 PM. They had received reports of heavy thunderstorms coming through the area within the hour and asked us to shelter in our tents or nearby restaurants until the storms passed. With the weather delay, the race officials had to make some drastic cuts to the race program as the Community Division hadn't even raced after their time trial earlier in the day. There were 4 divisions (women's, community, mixed and open) so there was still a ton of racing left on the schedule but not enough time to complete everything due to the storm delay. One of the cuts they made was to the Mixed Division, which meant we would only get to race one more 500m, which would count as our final, rather than a semi-final then a final, as originally scheduled.
While the rain had started at 2 PM, it wasn't until about 3:30 PM that the heavy rain, strong winds, thunder and lightning rolled in. Most of our crew headed to cars for safety while a few of us stayed in the tent. Amidst the thunder and lightning, the race officials announced there was a 4:10 PM cut-off for continuing the races. At that point, I asked the team to pack it up and call it a day. Most of us then headed to a nearby restaurant for an early dinner.
We expected to see stiff competition at Ithaca from the Northeast teams that attended and they no doubt brought it. PDBA, MAD, DCH came with 2 mixed crews each, NY Wall Street brought 3 crews. Teams from NJ and Washington D.C. were present as well. I don't have the exact results on me but I think I recall the PDBA women's team pulled in an average time of around 1:07 in their time trials. The fastest time trial average was 1:04 from the PDBA mixed crew. This race is definitely one of the competitive venues in the Northeast. It certainly offers itself up as an arena in which we can benchmark ourselves against great teams. Let's bring it next year DBCB!!!
HUGE THANKS goes out to Dan T. for race coordinating this event for us! Special thanks to Ken, Phil and Brett who helped pack up our tents and gear. Big thanks to Nikki for transporting equipment and supplies; and to Nancy for helping out with uniforms. As always, kudos to Stef for her race analysis and counsel to our crew. Props to Vanessa for coming with the team to hang out and support us; and to Doug's family and friends, and Ron's family, for being our cheer squads! A big shout-out to Alex T, Laura H's friend, for coming out that day to drum for us!
Last but not least by any measure for sure, thanks to our entire Ithaca crew! Give them a pat on the back when you see them next!
Brett (steerer)
Khoa
Dana
Stef C
Phil
Nikki
Rachel
Laura H
Laura M
Jen C
Doug U
Friso
Steve N
Dan T
Ron T
Dan G
Jared M
Nancy N
Vanetta
Ken M
Dave H
Alex T (drummer)
See you at practice!
Rachel
Tuesday, 01 September 2009 14:32
