After I got home from OFSAA Soccer in London at the beginning of June I raced with the National Womens Dragon Boat team at the Pickering Festival.  It was only two races but it was the first time that we’ve had the majority of our team on the water together.  I felt potential in the boat.  There’s power and finesse there, we just have to spend more time together.  I think our best time of the day was 2:06:something.

June 13 I got to race back home in Parry Sound.  You never know who’s going to show up for this race so I was pleasantly surprised when I got there to see lots of boats.  Sadly there were only a few other women in the OC1.  There were 3 OC6 teams this year and numerous OC2s.  Being the hometown girl, I was explaining to a bunch of people where to go as we were heading to the start line.  Silly me, not paying attention, hulis out of no where. Yay me!  I laughed it off and made my way up to the start line to jockey for my position.  I wanted to line up beside people that I knew would go out fast, would be able to control their boat and not get pissed off at me for riding their wash.  It was clear after the first 2 minutes of the race who I was going to be chasing and who was chasing me.  I played with the wash of  a couple guys for the first bit through the ama side cross wind.  After the turn around Hole in the Wall to head back again with a cross wind, I managed to drop Kevin Kwok and kept chasing Stan M. and Gord Cole.  I could hear Chloe and her partner close by in the OC2 so did my darndest to stay ahead of them.  With about 600m to go, the line I took met up with Gord and Stan and I couldn’t believe how close I was too them.  We all hammered for the finish line.  I ended up less than 20 seconds behind them!  How sweet will the day be when I beat Gord (my original coach and partner)!