COOL RUNNINGS

Yes, it was a very cool day down at the Gorge on Saturday. Cool, as in chilly. And windy. It's hard to believe that just a week before, we were roasting in 30-degree sunshine. But it's rare that a little adverse weather will stop determined dragon boaters, so there they all were, some 1,000 paddlers, out to have a good time and to show their mettle as we head towards the end of the dragon boating season here on the island.

There were 36 teams in the Mixed division this year, including a dark-horse team made up of former elite paddlers—many from the Gorging Dragons. On the grid, they were known as "FEA", short for "Former Elite Athletes". Informally, they were known as "Blue Steel". Our old coach, Josh, was on this team—his first time in a dragon boat in probably 3 years. It was great to see Josh again, as well as Melissa and their two kids, Django and Pepper.

The Dog Paddlers went up against Paddlers of the Fifth Moon, Komodo Dragons and Spirit Point Dragons in our first heat, and delivered a first-place performance by about 3 seconds over our club-mates, Fifth Moon. Our finishing time put us into the semi-finals in the Blue division, the top division.

Happy Dog Paddlers return to the dock after a great win in their first race of the day.

We faced formidable competition in our semi-final: FEA, Dragonauts and Precision Impossible. It would be an uphill battle to get by any of these teams. The Dog Paddlers gave it their best shot but finished fourth, which moved us into the B final. MORE formidable competition. This time it would be Blu By U, Westshore Warriors and Precision Impossible. And we were down a paddler, as Jim had had to dash out to an appointment but should have been back in time for our last race. That would have worked out fine...except that for some inexplicable reason, the races moved along much more quickly than anticipated, and our final was moved up by 15-20 minutes. Alas, Jim and Peni got back just in time to watch their teammates come racing up the Gorge. The Dog Paddlers left it all out on the water, giving 'er all they had to give, and came in a very respectable fourth. Overall, out of the 36 Mixed teams, the Dog Paddlers finished eighth.

And remember FEA—the team made up of former Gorging Dragons and members of other elite teams? Without ever having done a practice (unless you count their first two races of the day), they squeaked out a win by just under one second over Navy in the Blue A final, and won the day. Amazing.

Watch the Dog Paddlers in action by clicking below; you can also see a few pictures from yesterday on my Flickr site.