Satina wrote an email to Wasabi Paddling Club. I thought it should be included in the blog as it captured so many great memories....
So, come to find out I was supposed to helm the men's races after all. A certain someone from a certain coast opposite from ours who shall remain nameless played around with the masters crews rosters and had tried to remove me as the men's helm. After his helm(s) put the masters men through the extended race course yesterday Les Hopper felt I would be a better choice today and I steered the men's semi and final 500m races. Bronze! Straight and true all the way down the pike.
The Masters crew had two 500m races today also. Our final was a zen race. We took benches on every stroke. .083 seconds between first and third places. We beat out Canada and stayed right there with Germany and Hungary. Hungary is killing it here. Mind you this is their course we are racing on, the same course that is used for the European kayak and canoe championships constantly, and we are racing against most of their retired olympians, so hanging right there with them in a race is pretty freakin' cool.
The women's crew is locked in and giving the Hungary women and run to remember. They had champagne waiting for us after the final and then gave us gifts on the podium during the medal ceremony. Each one of their members gave one of our members a key chain that had the name of that Hungarian paddlers home town inscribed on it. The medal ceremony was of-course wrapped up with the line up to say congrats and shake hands/high five each other that somehow turned into giving each other hugs and then an arch that both teams took turns dancing through to Shania Twains 'Feel like a woman" playing in the background. Pretty cool I must say. My cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing with these women.
So the medal count so far:
Master Women Silver 500m
Master Men Bronze 500m
Master Mix Bronze 500m
Please keep in mind that the master crews are made up of primarily west coast paddlers with a few folks from Texas and Florida thrown in. A really great group of people really doing good with making the U.S. look good on and off the water. The Iranians made a point of
attending our medal ceremonies and quite possibly were louder than the rest of the U.S. contingency. Of-course we then attended theirs and cheered for them. Both their men's and women's crews have had a great showing so far.
That's all for now. It's late and I have to catch a 7am bus to helm the 200m finals for the mixed, women, and men tomorrow. I will only get to steer the 2000m for the mixed and men tomorrow. I will not be on the womens boat at all since they are running the women's and mens 2000m simultaneously. Freaking genius right? The 2000m race will be very interesting since the only rule is "Don't hit another boat." That's it...no guidelines to passing, overtaking, space between boats, etc. Should be an interesting race.
Miss you all -
SaTina
Life Is Too Short,
Break The Rules, Forgive Quickly,
Kiss Slowly, Love Truly,
Laugh Uncontrollably,
And Never Regret Anything
That Made You Smile.
Life May Not Be The Party
We Hoped For, But While We' re Here, We Should Dance...
Sunday was a day of practice and bonding with teammates. We started the day by meeting in the lobby and scaring some of the other teams with our strength and poise (or was that pose) ? Hmmm? Anyway, you read Michelle & Vassar's accounts of the festival racers cheering us as we walked through the crowd. It was truly an uplifting and yet humbling experience. I even signed a couple auto-graphs. That felt ... odd!
