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Our continued recap from various team members of our experience at the regatta.
400m, Second Round
Coach Sheena finally gets to paddle with us as Captain Kenny is going to steer his first ever race. Fingers crossed the Austin race incident of 2009 when Bruce fell in doesn’t happen here.
Kenny, Captain
First time steering in a race! We won this one pretty easily so I only remember a few things. First off, I didn’t want anyone to complain they couldn’t hear me so I really took in some deep breaths and yelled out the calls. Second, the left side was incredibly strong on this run. Third, how great it felt to not fall off the boat the first time steering. And finally… how much more intensity we bring on a race compared to practice!
Kyle
I also paddled the 3rd heat which was back to a 500m race. That one kinda went by in a blur cause I was still kinda amazed on how much faster we were in the 1000m. We posted almost identical times. 1:50 some again (maybe about 0.5 seconds slower than the first run) against HH’s 1:52 again. Either way, at this point, I knew our team was for real and I could sense some worry in the HH team.
Sheena
Yay paddling! Figured out two things I can do to make Kenny louder: 1. get him drunk 2. make him steer a dragon boat race. Proud of him for steering his first race run flawlessly. Paddling felt good, but it’s impossible to compare w/ first heat since paddling and steering are such different points of view. Glad I didn’t slow down the boat too much!
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400m Final
Well, this is it: the one that really matters; the other two were great and would give us advantage in a tie-breaker, but this is the one that really counts (another point in the standings). We’re going up against both Houston’s teams; we’ll be sandwiched in the middle. It’s going to be loud and chaotic and down to the last millisecond at the finish line.
Kyle
The finals for 400m was a tight one. I think our team hurried it a bit with HH right beside us. Thankfully, HH also panicked a bit and lost sync at the end which proved to be enough of a difference for a 0.3 second win for us. The trophy was within reaching distance! We really just had to win the 250m or the 1000m on day 2 to secure the win or if we just got 2nd in both, we’d still own the tie breaker. However, I was still being very cautious of night being over confident since we were basically just at half time.
Sheena
Knew this would become a shouting contest b/t me and Jeff. Knew this was going to be close. Had no idea who had the lead crossing the finish line, but those are always the best types of races!
We end the day sitting in 1st place, having won all the heats that day. Relief, exhaustion and happiness flood us as we have a giant team dinner in Chinatown. Those introduced to stinky tofu are not a fan.
We takeover the restaurant and watch videos from the day. Our sync is looking perfect. No matter how many times we watch it, we still find ourselves cheering. As great as day 1 felt, we know all too well anything could happen in day 2!
