Day 2: 1000m Mixed & Open
Thursday, August 20, 2015
1000m
Mixed #1 – 4:21.401
Mixed #2 – 4:14.426
Mixed #3 – 2nd – 4:10.172
Open #1 – 4:04.870
Open #2 – 4:09.069
Open #3 – 2nd – 4:11.833
There were six 1000m races today!
Mixed division was the first to go. Since there were only a total of four teams in our division (mixed), there are no minor or grand finals. Instead, they take the combined best two times to determine the winner. I did a long-ish run before gathering with the group. The game plan was to not repeat the same mistake twice and go out there aggressively from the start. I was nervous based on yesterday’s performance. Both the Australia and Sweden teams were 10 seconds faster than us on the 2000m. We needed to close the gap, but I wasn’t sure how ready I would be to hang onto the rate and power over 1000 meters. A strong headwind pummeled us at the start gate. Props to K-train for keeping the head in the gate the whole time while other boats were still straightening up. GO! I drove my body down through my stroke and kept my head up. My face instantly caught so much splash water that I felt like I was starring in a shampoo commercial. The wind blew so much water onto all of us, but we trudged on. I remember this race being so long. We were worried, but we needed to prove ourselves. We stayed together, stayed solid, and kept the rate high. Second half, now! I had no idea how close or far we were because of the water. Finish now! Go, go, go! We ended up 2nd. A convincing second. Mad respect for Canada’s U24. They had a boat-length on us… and we had a few rows ahead of Sweden and Australia.
It was tough paddling back to the dock. My outside leg hammy was feeling it hard. Back on the shore, Coach Randy debriefed with us. He was happy with our results and I could instantly feel a sense of pressure lifted, in flowed a sense of confidence that wasn’t there before. However, here we lost Brandon. His face was pale and looked dazed all the way back to the tent. Someone tended to him and we needed to run off for the next heat already. This incident reminded me of how important it is to go hard, but still be ready to call it off sometimes when something isn’t feeling right in the body. There were still many days of racing. For our second round, we still battled a headwind, but it didn’t feel as wild. The first 1000m was brutal for me in terms of not knowing what to expect, running out there with guns a blazing. The second one, we went out strongly and solidly. We got Canada at the start, and we were down to the halfway point. I was surprised that we were still ahead of them by a seat or two. That was when it clicked that that were playing us! We kept our rate high and kept calling power calls to try to lose them, but they stayed on our tail. At the 250m mark, they started moving up… and up… and up on us. We tried to push through to earn that first, but it didn’t happen. We ended second, but more than a boat length ahead of the Australians and the Swedes. Grateful to have solid competition from Canada.
We debriefed and before long, it was time to marshall again. Round three of 1000m mixed. It started raining hard. Everyone was soaked. There was also a constant breeze, so that made it really chilly for us all. It was very miserable. Bryson was noticeably cold, at the point where his lips turned purple. Hopefully, he was still full power because we needed to hold onto our time to keep the second place. This last round was a close round. Canada didn’t play around and just flew out right away. We couldn’t push any closer to them. Not only did we not get closer to Canada, but we also faded to the point where the other two boats were close on our tail. Maybe it was fatigue or the cold, but there wasn’t as much power generated. We passed the finish line and Australia was right next to us. We did it! We earned our second place! This felt so good because we fought for that second place in the Mixed 1000m event.
The next divisions are the open and women’s divisions. We had about an hour before starting, but the rain kept coming down all the way through our open 1k. Shiver, shiver. We went out there and pounded out this round. Canada and the US. We’re the only two teams in this division, so we medal either way. We wanted to fight for first, but it couldn’t happen. Canada U24 took us from the start and didn’t look back. It was defeating for me, but I was also happy for them that they’re pulling such good times. We didn’t really get a debrief as we ran over to get our silver medals at that podium for the mixed division. I guess then, the Gender coaches adjusted our goal to stay ahead of the Canadian juniors? It wasn’t really made explicit to us what we were trying to do, except to just go hard.
Second round for open wasn’t bad. The third round was the best. Canada U24 pulled ahead pretty quickly. We were able to shoot out of the U18s and stayed in front of them. The gender coaches were really, really exuberant about that win, screaming YEAH and that we earned it. To me, it got me thinking about how to start earlier and plan better to create an event stronger dragon boating base in the US to compete better. There it goes. Day two of Dragon Boat World Championships 2015, was done!