Drag [on] Boat Racing

Hello again,

We took part in the Kingston Charity Dragon Boat Challenge yesterday. We were raising money for Jeevika, a charity aim is "To work towards an India without absolute poverty where all people have the opportunity to live with dignity free from hunger, deprivation and marginalisation. See http://www.jeevika.org.uk/

The reality is though, that 16 men dressed up in saris and long black wigs, hence the drag...on and learnt to paddle the boats. You could say it was a liberating experience as some of the guys enjoyed the dressing up much more than what could be considered to "the norm" - no names, but I think you know who you are.

Each team (and there were 34 teams in total) had three heats culminating with a final for the fastest 6 boats. Our first heat was a disaster, we were on a very steep learning curve of paddling skills, timing & co-ordination. Our time was, I think, the 30th out of 34.

After a team meeting and some "dry land" paddling practice, we had our second heat and "bingo" it all came together. We thrashed the other two boats and put in the third fastest time of the day.

Buoyed (excuse the pun) by our success we looked forward to our third and final heat only to find that complacency and cockiness had got amongst us. We did okay, but everyone felt a bit down as we didn't improve our time significantly.

After this we had a long, nail biting wait to see if we would make it to the final. Our possible spot in the final was under huge pressure as all the other teams improved their times. Eventually though, we were placed in the final.

What was surprising, was that as the day went on, how competitiveness took a grip of each member of the team. At the outset there were probably six team members who had turned up with the intention of trying to win, another six who were would try their best and the final six who would consider themselves not to be that competitive. By the time of the final, we were all "in the zone" doing warm up exercises, team building chants, practising etc. We had become a squad of focused, cross dressing, paddling demons with grit, determination and a will to win.

The six fastest boats lined up across the Thames waiting for the starter to release everyone.

Tension was high with some spirited sledging (mainly from our boat) upping the anti. A strong current and an even stronger wind was making the task of getting six boats to line up very difficult with each boat continually having to back up. Sadly however, whilst we were backing our boat up, the starter let everyone go. So by the time we got ourselves paddling forward we had lost almost two boat lengths. We gave it our all and began to catch the other boats but it was too much water to make up in too short a race.

We came a creditable 6th out of 34 overall, which at the beginning of the day, having never paddled before, we would have been delighted with. However, we all felt like it was an opportunity that got away, due to a stroke of bad luck.

Never mind, there is always next year.

Until next time...