Bitearsweet

I went for dinner with Bonita cos she was racing too and got to see her awesome new house!! Plus I found out some even BETTER news... Michi was 2nd runner up in the pageant!!!!!! I was absolutely ECSTATIC!!! I knew she'd be able to do it!!!! So proud of you Michi!!!!!

Anyways, back to the main focus of this entry, Sunday we didn't have to paddle until 9:12 am (although we still had to be there for 8 am) cos we did so well the day before ^_^ After the preliminaries, we ranked 23 out of 51 teams with the 2nd fastest time in our category. First race was against the Flaming Dragons. Wow was that a close one! It was probably the closest race of the entire festival!! We were ahead, then the Flaming Dragons closed up the gap in lane 3 (we were in lane 2) and towards the end we just inched forward slowly until we finished the race. It was so close that no one could tell who won... we had to wait for the photo finish. Sure enough, we won by a dragon's nose... literally!! Flaming Dragons came in at 2:54:72 while we came in at 2:54:55, beating them only by 0.17 seconds! How crazy is that??? Everyone was cheering so loud and I was yelling my head off throughout the entire race. Susan thought it was hilarious at how loud I was yelling and how intense it was. And thus I became pretty much the Nazi drummer, although in a good way cos everyone said they needed that push from me and it really helped them focus. We were placed in what they called Edmonton 'A' Consolation Finals, which only qualifies us for standings and no medals. A few people were a little downed that we weren't able to get a medal even though we were faster than the teams in Edmonton 'B' Finals (the lower category) who were challenging for a medal in the 'B' category. But it's all in good fun so everyone just kinda brushed it off cos we still made it 3 divisions higher than last year and all our races were clocked under 3 minutes. We had to race against Flaming Dragons again cos the top 3 times in our semi-finals category competed in Edmonton 'A' Finals while 4,5 and 6 (we were 5) were in Edmonton 'A' Consolation Finals. Regardless, the team pulled together for the last race and clocked in at 2:46:40, coming in for first place!!! The most shocking was, they changed the categories! Instead of it being Edmonton 'A' Championships, 'A' Consolation then 'B' Championships, 'B' Consolation, the categories were instead Edmonton 'A' Championships, Edmonton 'B' Championships, 'C' Consolation, and 'D' Consolation... meaning we won a gold medal in the now 'B' Championships! Everyone was so happy!!! Our team is a little crazy, but so much fun! In the Beer Tent while everyone was waiting for the awards ceremony, they were dancing on the tables and even after the ceremony while everyone either left or went back to the Beer Tents, our team was still on the steps of the Shumka Stage dancing! It was hilarious!!

But now's the recoop time... I've got 3 bruises on my left arm, one on my right, and bruises all the way up my legs from the knees up as a result from gripping the drum so tightly during the race (so I wouldn't fall off the boat!) My chest hurts from all the screaming and my voice is a little hoarse, although I'm surprised I didn't lose my voice like a few of the steerers haha! I think I might drum again for them next year. My sister and 2 others from our boat helped out the semi-pro, all-women's team Wahine Kei Waka this year (who came in 2nd place but had the fastest women's time in the semis Saturday!) and when my sister went to introduce me to one of team members, she asked me how long I've paddled and why I wasn't on their team!! She asked me to join their team!!! All thanks to my sister who they say is now a Wahine member ^_^ I'm SO doing it!! Heal faster damn foot!!!