Toronto Race 2009 Write-up
Thanks to everyone for an awesome time in Toronto! I'm amazed at the amount of sleepless activity we crammed into that one weekend and still came home from it all with medals.
Our first race was almost comical given the monsoon like conditions. Pelting wind & rain turned the entire festival into a soaked-out sod-bog. People (ourselves included) were doing whatever it took to stay motivated, and I still remember how we emerged energetically out into the soggyness to do our 1st race...only to find out some fuse had blown somewhere, relay communications had croaked, and the whole mess was already running a half-hour behind.
Sunday the weather turned spectacular. Michael Alimurung really came thru when he conjured up a deal with fest organizers to add 2 paddlers. Coupled with the festival steerer and Vanetta flying in after midnite, this gave us 4 potential alternates. We used all of this in our 1st race Sunday to snatch bronze medals in the International Championships with an excellent time of 2:12.33! Noteable is that in addition to our festival steerer & drummer, we had 3 folks who'd never raced with us before, and one who only started dragonboating a week prior. So everyone really put in their all.
Our final finish of 2:13.13 was also pretty fast. Ironically enough, our time was ahead of 3 boats in the D division (the class above ours). So we would actually have placed better if we'd competed one division up, go figure. Most noteworthy is that all our Sunday times are 5 to 6 seconds faster than last year; a massive improvement overall for everyone.
Most importantly i got the sense that everybody really had a blast on this trip. If you put in your best and enjoyed it to the fullest, then i think that's the most any of us could have hoped for. Thanks again to all who came; it was a pleasure to paddle with every one of you.
Special thanks to:
- Collins for getting his passport within 8 hours
- Igor, Marta, Friso, April, Mike M, and Laura H for driving
- Garhay for filling in leadership after my voice went dead
- Mike M for joining at the very last second
- Laura M for organizing lineup
- Vanessa for surviving 20 hours in a car full of dorky dudes
- Julia (and Livingroot's) multi-team support to rep for Boston
- Katie for starting off dboat with the world's 2nd biggest race
- Liz, Paul, Stan, and the fest drummers who joined in Toronto
- Vab, Lick, and Kevin for flying all the way
- Vanetta for not only flying but making it 1:30am Sunday.
Extra thanks to Michael A for outstanding recruitment and especially for doubling my alternate strategy; we would simply not have pulled the times we did without his help. Highest thanks to co-captain Laura Hagen; this race would never have happened without her.
To everyone, it was a great honor to team with you in the 2009 Toronto International Dragonboat Festival. Please join us for food & drinks after Thursday's practice at McCormick & Shmicks; right now weather is looking nice that evening (finally). Lets strongly consider Toronto again in 2010!
Kristof
Captain - DBCB Drachenfurie, Team Toronto 2009
