Dragonboating

Even though last weekend didn't involve any exploring or adventuring, it was still a ton of fun. Friday night was spent at Suda's for a girl's night of Cranium, wine, and catching up with good friends. We've all gotten so busy with everything that it's rare that we have those nights, which made it all the more special. Suda and I also discussed our desires to complete an Ironman, and we've formulated a plan to execute the dream. ODP and mountain biking come first, but I would really like compete at Taupo, and the more we talk about it, the more people are interested in the idea as well. I'll keep you posted.

Early Saturday morning, Hannah and I attended a mountain biking clinic held by the Phoenix chapter of the Luna Chix Racing Team and led by the world champion and former Olympian Alison Dunlap. The two hour skills and drills clinic was absolutely amazing. Dunlap's hundreds of alcolades are a tribute to her incredible biking ability, and she is an excellent teacher as well. We worked on our balance, cornering, and jumping skills. Some of the skills I had been doing on my own, not knowing that they were in fact what you are supposed to do. I had previously thought that I just looked dumb when I would position myself behind my seat or lean to the outside of a tight turn, but it turns out that I was doing it right all along. The most valuable lessons of the day for me were on jumping, and with a little bit of practice, I should be able to apply my new skills to the boulders of National Trail. I left the clinic with lots of new skills, a ton of free Luna product, and an anticipation to put the new skills to the test. Alas, I had prior engagements, and I couldn't follow the group over to South Mountain, but instead hurried over to Tempe Town Lake for the Dragonboat Festival.

(Because I'm lazy and don't want to rewrite it, the following is the article I wrote for ING's Corporate Newsletter about our debut race).

After weeks of preparation, the time for the ING Blaizin’ Lions to debut their new found skills finally arrived this weekend at the 2008 Arizona Dragonboat Festival. Our practices had gone well… extremely well for a crew that, with the exception of a few members, was completely new to the sport of dragonboating. Under the leadership of captain Angel Bishop, almost two dozen employees came out to represent the company in the traditional Chinese sport. During each of the three practices that were held on Tempe Town Lake prior to the race, we felt incredible power and cohesiveness in the boat. Mitzi Haughn of the competitive Gila Dragons team adopted us as her own and taught us everything we needed to know about the sport from how to hold the paddle to commands that we needed to know to get us down the race course. In the stern of the boat, Bill Dacier learned how to steer the unwieldy craft for our races which were to be held over the course of 500 meters. Several of the veteran competitive paddlers that helped to coach us were impressed with both our nearly flawless timing and the speed with which we moved the long, heavy vessel. By the end of our practice sessions, we were confident of our team and eager to prove ourselves at the festival.

Saturday morning dawned to a warm, prodigious day for the Blazin’ Lions. Proudly sporting the orange and blue of ING, we donned our life jackets, picked up paddles, and sat down in the belly of the boat, the gold and green head and tail of the dragon shining brightly in the Arizona sun. With Mitzi captaining our craft from the bow, Bill manning the rudder in the stern, and 20 eager paddlers ready to race, we were convinced that no one could beat us. We were going for the gold, and wouldn’t back down for anything. As we paddled down to the starting line, butterflies began to flit around in our stomachs. The excitement of racing was upon us, and we tried to remain calm as the officials lined us up with the starting buoys. Sitting in the middle lane between two other boats, we placed our paddles in the water in anticipation of the horn. After the blast sounded, we took off in a flood of adrenaline, water rushing past the gunwales as we pounded the paddles into the lake. We were doing great until the boat to our right began veering precariously into our lane. Just as we were about to pick up power to overtake the boat to our left, the boat to our right cut us off in our own lane as Bill tried his best to keep us out of harm’s way. Unfortunately, we had to stop about halfway through the race, correct our course, and limp across the finish line. It was not an auspicious start to what we thought was going to be an easy win, but we shook off the loss and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon with plenty of good food and drink, the company of several ING supporters, entertainment from various performing groups on the festival stage, and plenty of close races in the other dragonboat divisions. After lunch, we gathered ourselves again, and with Mitzi’s positive encouragement, we prepared to redeem ourselves. As we paddled up to the start for the second race of the day, we were met with a competitor fiercer than the other corporate teams: the wind. We paddled as hard as we could, but the wind proved too much for our novice steersman, and once again, we were forced to stop and correct our heading in the middle of the race. Our resilient team was not to be beaten though, and with less than 250 meters to go, we dug our paddles deep and caught up with the other two boats, missing second place by mere tenths of a second. Still, we were not satisfied with our placing, and we left Tempe Town Lake feeling a bit dejected.

When we checked the standings for the corporate division on Sunday morning, ING was at the bottom of the list, dead last. It did not make for a very encouraging outlook going into the semifinals, but still we went into battle with lion hearts, figuring that after our first two races, we had nothing to lose and everything to gain. After a stressful time on the dock procuring life jackets and paddles at the last possible second before we pushed off, we rushed to the starting line, fearful that our last attempt at glory would begin without us. Already tired from our race to the start, we held our paddles high in Lane 4 and hoped for the best. With a determination to prove ourselves, we each focused on the paddler in front of us, completely committed to the other 21 people in the boat. We were nearly halfway through the race when we looked off to the right and noticed that the fiery head of our dragon was just feet in front of the other three boats in our semifinal. At this point, it was get first or go home, and none of us wanted to go home. With oxygen starved muscles and shaking limbs, we found the strength and reserve to dig just a little bit deeper as the finish line blurred in front of our faces. Once we caught our breath and looked up from our paddles, we realized that we had crossed the line first: we were going to the finals!!! It was almost too good to be true, and as we paddled back to shore, we had the biggest grins on our faces. Coming from worst to first was incredible, and the taste of redemption was sweet. Our day was not over, though, and we had one last race to go to determine what color medal we were going to be taking home. Just over an hour after our semifinals, we found ourselves lined up at the 2008 Arizona Dragonboat Festival Corporate Team Finals. With SRP and defending champions Mayo Clinic in the lanes to the right of us, we eased into Lane 3, prepared for whatever the race might bring and ready to leave everything on the water. We knew that we were facing some tough competition, so we started the race with 110% effort. The adrenaline coursing through our veins held off the pain, and nothing else mattered but getting to that finish line first. We led the other two boats from the start, pulling away within the first few strokes. We knew that Mayo was a team to be reckoned with, and we continued to pull harder, anticipating a surge of power to come from them at any time. Twenty paddles moved as one as we propelled our craft past the halfway point, the tail of our dragon pulling past the heads of our competition. Being out front gave us the mental energy to dig even deeper, and as soon as we crossed the finish line, there was no question as to who had won. Even though we were dead tired from the all out sprint, the excitement of winning overcame our exhaustion as we splashed the water and whooped with joy at our hard won victory.

When we arrived back on land, we celebrated and high fived and got congratulated from several of the competitive teams. It felt amazing, and we watched the remainder of the races with a new sense of respect for the sport. Being gracious victors - and a little impatient to get our hardware - the ING Blazin’ Lions assisted the volunteers when the races ended to clean up the area, organize the life jackets and paddles, and even helped to take out the course buoys while we waited for the awards ceremony to commence. During the closing ceremony, we proudly accepted our gold medals for the Corporate Division and displayed them around our necks, the blue and gold of the medal complementing the orange and blue of the ING logo quite nicely.
Overall, it was an incredible weekend for ING, full of teamwork, determination, and a lot of fun. We left the lake that day with some excellent gold accessories, smiles on our faces, a little bit of sunburn, and an anticipation to come back next year to defend our title.

(End article)

Also, in addition to the dragonboating festivities, Chad and I attended the Banff Mountain Film Festival at the Tempe Center for the Arts on Saturday night. I had never been in the new gorgeous center on the south side of the lake, but I have to say that I was quite impressed with it both on the outside and the inside. The festival itself was great as well with eight films on various adventures including extreme skiing, kayaking, ice climbing, and studying wolves in Canada. Although I was exhausted by the day's events, the films made my heart pound, and all Chad and I could talk about at the end was how lucky those people were to be living their dreams and making a living out of it. Incredible. It really makes me look forward to the adventures I have planned in the future, and I can't wait to get started on them. Until then, it's back to work until the weekend.