The race went really well Saturday, but it was a very long day. I ended up leaving around 5:30 to go pick up Kristi and then Lise and then we were off to pick up Kristen in Tacoma. We got down to Portland in very good time, arriving around 8:30 or so. The first order of business was rigging the canoes only one hadn't arrived yet, we'd passed them on the highway. We off loaded the Mirage (our fastest canoe) and rigged it for the race. I turned in our forms and payment and received our race t-shirts, a much better design and color than last year. Then off to the very long line for the toilet, get changed and make ready to race. Our race crew was Minnie in stroke, then Rives, Nancy, me, Lise, and Kristen steering. A few sucks on the albuterol before we started and I was ready for the warm up. I asked Claude from our men's novice crew to shoot some snaps with my camera, he did a great job and shot some videos with narration, too! Thanks Claude! The first video is us leaving the beach to begin our warm up and the second video is our race finish.
We lined up with all the other boats, a dozen or so, if I recall, and waited for the horn to start the race. And we're off! Paddling hard all the boats stayed pretty close together in the beginning. There were lots of fishermen out hoping to catch some salmon. They were fairly decent obstacles that the experienced steersmen had no difficulty avoiding. However, there was one very green crew with an even greener steersman that had a very hard time keeping a straight line. There was some serious full contact paddling going on. They hit us on the right side of our boat, we had to switch some paddlers over to the left side to be able to keep paddling. Their crew was nearly rabid with intensity and couldn't hear their steersman telling them to stop paddling and allow us to get clear of them. We finally extricated ourselves and continued on passing around behind them only to have them come up against us again. Only this time our ama popped up onto the rail of their boat! I hiked way out as did Kristen to keep us from huli'ing, Nancy, right in front of me didn't even notice our ama was up that high. We managed to get them off us again and continue on. We ended up sprinting nearly all the remaining way to the first turn. At the turn they were technically in front of us but their steersman was sufficiently unsure of herself that she couldn't press her advantage, we made it through the turn first and made a hard push leaving that troublesome crew in our wake.
Now it was the long hard press up river past the start line to the next bouy turn. This was my first ever race last year and that section of the race was brutal last year. This year it was a long hard stretch but we all were able to keep our stroke long, good rotation, and reach, with a good hard pull. No other canoes were nearby us for the remainder of the race. The wind was to our backs for the against current run and once we made the turn to head down river again the refreshing breeze in our faces combined with the current made it feel as if we were flying down to the finish line. You can see in the video, we all still look really strong as if we could continue some distance further. Our finish time was 1:14:32 and we took second in the master women category. And I think we were 6th across the finish line. The official results are not yet posted or I would have more details. Our post race team photo is at the top. Here is the photo of the SSPO open men's crew, they took first overall in the men's race with a time of 58:17! They rock! In the photo they are Kevin, James, Geoff, Alan, Tom, and Eric. Our golden master men's crew crossed the finish line 5th, I think, and their finish time was 1:02:35. Their crew was Dave, Doug, Koko, Ed, Mike, and Clem. I have referred to them as our 50+ guys in the past. They rock, too! And then we had a third men's crew, the novice men. Their crew was Ryan, Frank, Ken, Claude, Troy, and Ernie. They finished in 1:08:16. As with all of SSPO, they rock! I think in all SSPO had a pretty darn good day. Everybody raced hard and raced well. SSPO represented with 24 club paddlers, what an awesome turnout for the first OC6 race of the season. Props to everyone! Let's keep it up. Here's one last photo of everyone in the club that paddled here at the Rusty Iron.
The race went really well and I got sunburned. Left home at 5:20 am, got home at 7 pm, really, really tired now. I'm off to bed now with plans to give the details with photos tomorrow.
Ok, it's not really a broken heart but that sounds much better than 'how do you mend a slightly kicked around and mistreated heart', now doesn't it? One of my many CL adventures was actually giving me the illusion of potentially working. Granted things were moving at glacial speeds, but still. He had all the trimmings of an acceptable partner: a wickedly irreverent sense of humor, fun, kind, easy on the eyes, taller than me, and seemingly interested in me. Ya, well, that's kinda where it all falls apart now isn't it? I got an email from him Saturday (email and IM were our primary modes of communication) stating that he's started seeing a new someone and the relationship is taking a new development and he wants to see where it goes without having to explain hanging out with me, hope you understand. OUCH!
So, what do you do when that happens? First I was very sad (approx 2 hrs), then I was rather pissed off (approx 30 min), then I reposted my ad on CL and went out for game night (approx 4.5 hrs) with Diane, Dave, Kristi, and Dave's older daughter, Nikita! By the time I got home there were four responses to my ad in my inbox. One was obviously a scammer. One was 'I'd love to meet you'. Yup, I'm sure you would! I wrote back asking his name, age, and some interests. Thought I'd give him a fighting chance before I kicked him to the curb. He answered "Name is Moe, age 53, interests and desires are fun and travel and passionate love." Ya, ok, next please!
The last two were definitely interesting, articulate, and funny. John and Paul (I'm hoping George and Ringo will write soon, too!) seem quite nice. One lives in Olympia which would be very hard. To one of them I wrote "My glass half full attitude compels me to toss my hat out again and keep trying (re e-dating). At worst it's worth a laugh with my friends and a post on my blog!" He seemed to think that was an acceptable penalty. I spoke with one on the phone this evening ... for an hour and a half! There was laughter from both of us, sharing from both of us, and the conversation never felt stiff or awkward. I'm looking forward to meeting him sometime soon.
While I'm still a bit disappointed about the other guy I seem to have plenty to occupy my thoughts these days. Besides, we have our first OC6 race of the season this Saturday down in Portland.
We had a really great practice tonight. I have that good, tired, been exercised feeling. In my undying yet unsuccessful efforts to try and get to bed early I'm only posting a very short message tonight.
I was looking for outrigger videos yesterday and this morning and I found this one of Da Grind sponsored by Seattle Outrigger Canoe Club (SOCC). If you pay very close attention at time stamp 1:22 you will see me! I'm wearing a dark blue long sleeved shirt and have a neon green fanny/hydration pack on. Also at time 5:12 you can see our crew. I am in seat 4, remember seat 1 is the front and you count back.
I'm hoping to be less tired tomorrow night and plan to actually write something!
I'd hoped to write up a bit more this evening but have been distracted. Someone was asking me about outrigger and to illustrate what I was talking about I found some cool videos on YouTube. So here you go:
Some Molokai Crossing.
A women's change out crew.
Some outrigger surfing. I want to do this one day!
Have you seen the Big Lebowski before? It's all a case of mistaken identity between 'The Dude' aka Jeffrey Lebowski and a millionaire of the same name. Best viewed while drinking white russians. Jeff Bridges plays "The Dude".
I knew they dropped a lot of f*bombs in this movie but I didn't realize quite how many. I found this little film on YouTube and they said "The F count of The Big Lebowski I think is 281, this isn't all of them!" It's been cut together hilariously and about halfway through Sam Elliott pauses to ask if he 'has to use so many cuss words?' Funny!
We had a good practice yesterday, worked on starts and turns for the race. It was pretty cold, far too cold for late April! I really hope next weekend at the Rusty Iron the weather is more typical of late April. I think we are as ready as we are going to be for next weekend. Following practice Minnie and I went out for a short OC1 paddle since we hadn't gone particularly far during practice.
On our outbound leg I realized I haven't huli'd my new boat yet. I thought it might be a good idea to do that sometime, not on the outbound leg, though. I waited until I was quite near the beach and then I tried to fly the ama (paddle with the ama or outrigger out of the water), got a paddle stroke here and then another. I began to think this was pretty cool ... just as the boat started to go over! Sploosh! It then took me a while longer to climb back aboard than I expected. I was able to get back on and paddle in relatively quickly.
Back on the beach I noticed a pronounced degree of squishing and squelching with each step! I tried to drain out some while I put my boat away. Back in the apartment I managed to leave wet footprints from the entry way into the kitchen and over to the bathroom. But now I can say I've huli'd and gotten right back up again.
I love to paddle outrigger canoes. I feel like a postal worker, neither rain nor snow, nor sleet will keep this paddler from her practice!
I have two corgi dogs, they are the best dogs ever. Gus and Llelo love long walks, fetching, going to the dog park and swimming.
The race went really well Saturday, but it was a very long day. I ended up leaving around 5:30 to go pick up Kristi and then Lise and then we were off to pick up Kristen in Tacoma. We got down to Portland in very good time, arriving around 8:30 or so. The first order of business was rigging the canoes only one hadn't arrived yet, we'd passed them on the highway. We off loaded the Mirage (our fastest canoe) and rigged it for the race. I turned in our forms and payment and received our race t-shirts, a much better design and color than last year. Then off to the very long line for the toilet, get changed and make ready to race. Our race crew was Minnie in stroke, then Rives, Nancy, me, Lise, and Kristen steering. A few sucks on the albuterol before we started and I was ready for the warm up. I asked Claude from our men's novice crew to shoot some snaps with my camera, he did a great job and shot some videos with narration, too! Thanks Claude! The first video is us leaving the beach to begin our warm up and the second video is our race finish.
but we all were able to keep our stroke long, good rotation, and reach, with a good hard pull. No other canoes were nearby us for the remainder of the race. The wind was to our backs for the against current run and once we made the turn to head down river again the refreshing breeze in our faces combined with the current made it feel as if we were flying down to the finish line. You can see in the video, we all still look really strong as if we could continue some distance further.
finish line. The official results are not yet posted or I would have more details. Our post race team photo is at the top. Here is the photo of the SSPO open men's crew, they took first overall in the men's race with a time of 58:17! They rock! In the photo they are Kevin, James, Geoff, Alan, Tom, and Eric. Our golden master men's crew crossed the finish line 5th, I think, and their finish time was 1:02:35. Their crew was Dave, Doug, Koko, Ed, Mike, and Clem. I have referred to them as our 50+ guys in the past. They rock, too! And then we had a third men's crew, the novice men. Their crew was Ryan, Frank, 
Ken, Claude, Troy, and Ernie. They finished in 1:08:16. As with all of SSPO, they rock!
