New York Int’l Dragon Boat Festival

It was a unique day from start to finish: A day without the "adults" (coaches), a fearless new drum Sandy, and the first-ever 2k for our amazing steer Julie-Ann! Those powerhouse teams from Boston and New York gave Philly a run for their money, but you held with those 20-somethings and rose to the occasion in every race!

We started out with a HEAVY 500 and endless shouts of "lengthen" and "timing" from the front and back of the boat! Our time kept us in the mix with the top 3 teams, and we shook off the nerves to find the glide in our second 500...only to get the EXACT same time. Oh well, if the boat felt better than it must have been better, right?

Traditionally, the 200 meter isn't always our favorite, but we pulled it out to find our best race of the day so far: Finishing just 2 seconds behind the 3rd place team with an impressive 54.43 seconds!

And THEN the 2k! We'll be talking about this one for a long time! It was a battle from start to finish, with three different boats crashing into us (how in the world did WE get the penalty for the WolfPack's ram in the first turn?) and paddles clacking. Sandy kept our heads in the boat, and Julie-Ann navigated the course like a pro. The boat didn't sag at all as we chased down Relentless through the entire course, racing clean while the other teams crashed into boats and racked up penalties. That last 500 meters was beautiful, with an impressive surge! No one would have thought we had already paddled for 8 minutes--you were STRONG!

The SDs didn't take home a medal, but we showed ourselves that we can hang with the big guns with a solid 4th place. Baltimore better watch out! Hopefully, the day inspired everyone to keep pushing and work even harder so we can continue to chase down those young teams this season and next! 

Finally, a big thanks to the team for trusting your co-captains and giving us so much support! We had huge shoes to fill without the coaches there, and you all made it an easy job with your respect, enthusiasm, and feedback. It's days like these that remind us how lucky we are to be on a team of such bad-ass women! 

Amanda and Emmeline (Amandeline??)