Things have been hectic around my end the past few days. Lots going on. But first, let me tell you all about my first regatta of the season. My day started at 6 AM. The night before I had packed my bags so everything was pretty much done. I just needed to clean myself up and throw on my jersey and paddling clothes. My Dad was cute though. He was making congee for the whole family to eat that day. He must have saw my face that I wasn’t going to be able to eat any of it since I had to leave so early in the morning. He must have got up pretty early in the morning to make it because when he knocked on my door to get up he told me the congee was done and I could have some for breakfast. I was so happy as I haven’t had that in a very long time. I had a decent bowl of congee for breakfast and left around 6:45 AM to get to the site. We were instructed to be at the site by 7:15 AM as our first race of the day was at 8:30 AM.
I was nervous about Saturday since the forecast said rain the entire week. Of course, I didn’t check it on Friday and that’s when the weatherman changed the forecast to: Sunny, Cloudy, Windy, and Rainy. Pretty much everything but snow! At first I thought the weatherman was just covering himself to make sure he didn’t get it wrong. In actuality, all those things did happen on Saturday. It started out as cloudy. Then in the afternoon it was sunny and actually quite hot. I even got a burn on my nose and forehead because of it. Later on in the afternoon, the wind picked up and actually blew some of our tents away. Eventually we got it back and reinforced it again in the ground. The organizers wanted to speed up the times for the races a bit as they didn’t want the wind to pick up and get worse. And of course, near the end of our last race it did rain a bit. All in all, it was a pretty nice day.
In the morning, my mixed team was in the OHDBC 2000 meter Regatta. We did a 400 meter, 200 meter and then a 2000 meter race. The 2000 meter race was actually 1600 meters so in actuality, it shouldn’t have been so bad for us since Coach SM have been making us do a full 2000 meter piece at every single practice. I was a bit nervous but confident that I will be fine. Coach SM must have saw my face and asked me if I was OK and if I was comfortable racing in the 2000 meter race. He didn’t want to put people in the boat if they weren’t ready or comfortable yet. We have a few paddlers that are brand new to the sport. I know there was at least 1 person that didn’t paddle in the morning with us as she wasn’t quite comfortable yet. I told Coach SM that I was fine, I was just squinting (which I was). The races felt good but I definitely felt that we could have done better. The wind was also starting to pick up around that time and so it was a bit difficult to race as the water started to get choppy. All in all, Coach SM was quite happy with the way we performed. It is after all, our first regatta of the season and so we don’t completely take it too seriously. As well, it was a very small and informal regatta. I think there were only 12 teams registered for this event. I know there was 1 team from the US called Women in Canoe. They were quite good and gave us a good run for our money. I think overall, we came in 5th or 6th place. Top place was given to Mayfair Predators as expected. After all, they are the top team in Canada. For the most part, the teams that were at this event also practice here too. I also got to know a few more paddlers on my team. I knew them from last year but this was the first time I ever really got to socialize with them. It was nice to know that I have such nice people on my team. I think for the most part, last year I was a bit antisocial with all the things that have been happening to me. All I wanted to do was paddle. It was the only thing that kept me going.
In the afternoon I raced with my women’s team. I love paddling with my women’s team. We did a 400 meter, 200 meter race and then another 200 meter knockout race, and lastly we did a 2000 meter race. It was interesting because when they were doing the roster for this event, they took me out of the 200 meter races. I was told, “you’re not the weakest link! We need you in the 2000 meter race!” I found it kind of funny but at the same time it was nice to hear. Although personally, I would have done the 200 meter races because they are so much shorter. A 200 meter race is about a minute or so. A 2000 meter race is more like a 8 or 9 minute race. HUGE difference. Since I rarely get to see my team race as I am usually in the boat, I watched from the shoreline to see how we were doing. I have to admit, we did look pretty good. But, the last race of the day, the 2000 meter race with the women was by far the most exciting one of the day. As I said in previous posts, when doing a 2000 meter race the boat will need to turn around a buoy as we need to go around the course to make a full 2000 meter race. Or, in this case a 1600 meter race. The course is not wide enough for all boats to start at the same time so boats are actually staggered and the winning team goes to the team that has the fastest time. This means, that the boat that gets to the finish line first doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve won the race. We were in the top 6 but we were also the slowest in the top 6. In this case, they put us and another boat to start the race. The next 2 sets of boats to go will start off at about 20 seconds behind us. It was an exciting race. We exploded at the start and was gunning down the course knowing full well that we had to go around it twice. We were in the lead with another boat close at our heels. I think at some point they were trying to ride our wash. The person that was steering the boat told the person sitting on the drum that they will need to signal to each other regarding the turn at the buoy. As well, this means that there must be communication with the other boats if said boat is in lead that they will need to give way. This is imperatively important for safety reasons. If they don’t comply, there will be a serious accident. On another note, overtaking another boat is difficult in of itself as the turning of the boat can create a wave that paddlers will need to paddle through… HARD. Otherwise, you will get washed up and it will significantly slow you down (or crash into each other). As we were turning, we were clearly in the lead and signaled to the other boats to give way. There were 2 boats that needed to do this. Myself, I was too busy paddling but could hear in the background lots of screaming to “GIVE WAY NOW!!” Of course, there is always a motorboat on water with officials watching everyone for safety reasons. It was definitely exciting as I could also hear people from the shore line screaming out at us. Can you visualize it? There were 3 boats, my team included, that were trying to make a turn at the same spot! I am happy to say we were able to overtake not 1 but 2 boats in this race. As soon as we were given way to turn, someone on the boat screamed “BRING HER HOME LADIES!” Oh it was a sweet finish as we paddled all the way down to the finish line. The other boats weren’t even close to us when we made it to the end. I think about that time the rain started coming down a bit harder. Normally I would have hated it. But after that race, it felt great.
After the day was over, I went back to my parents place. I don’t think it really registered in my brain how tired I was until near the end of the night. All of my sisters had come down for the weekend. One of the things that have been keeping me busy these days is my mom. This was what my week looked like. Last week Wednesday I came home to mom and dad’s place. My sister in Guelph had also stayed overnight too with her husband. Thursday morning we brought my Mom to the hospital for surgery. She stayed overnight there. Since we couldn’t leave my dad alone, and my sister and her husband couldn’t take another day off of work, I stayed overnight to “watch” my Dad (he’s notorious for being bad with his diet). Friday rolls along and my Dad and I pick up my Mom from the hospital as she will be discharged that day. Two more of my sisters from London come down for the weekend as well on the Friday. I raced all day with my dragon boat teams on Saturday. I also had to go back to my place a couple of times to check up on my cats to make sure they had enough food and litter. Anything more than 2 days away I get nervous. Saturday my two sisters from Guelph came down to visit. One that came on Wednesday was there alone and the other one brought her husband and my nephew too. In short, it was a very busy week. We were all trying to help out around the house and watch my Mom and in some ways, my Dad too. We all left on Sunday. Since I am the only one that lives in Toronto there is more of an expectation for me to be available. Especially since I have not found employment yet. That is another story all together that I will have to address another day. What I’ve been doing is going back on Tuesdays and Thursdays since I usually borrow the car for practice. After practice, I stay overnight and spend some time with them. Naturally I was back on the Tuesday and then left Wednesday morning as I had an appointment the following day. It’s Thursday now and I will be back there again as I will need to take my mother to the hospital for her post surgery check up in the morning. I’ve decided to not go to practice today though as I think I may be coming down with something. I don’t want to get sick again so I’m looking after myself first. It’s been really difficult going back and forth as it takes me about an hour and 45 minutes each time I go to my parents house. I don’t have a car so I’m restricted to public transit. As well, my parents don’t have internet access so I can’t really do anything when I am there. And of course, I need to check up on the cats. Last week on Wednesday I had a call from one of my agencies regarding a position they wanted me to profile for. The earliest I could get back to them was Sunday as I literally had no way of sending her the information. In the end, the info was sent end of day on Monday. I haven’t heard back from them yet but did a follow up call today. I am hoping things will work out as my money supply is pretty much gone. I am feeling the amount of stress increasing each day if not hour by hour. In a lot of ways I am trying to keep it together but there are days I can not take it. The expected responsibilities of taking care of my parents, current employment situation and financial situation has made me feel completely stressed out. I’m trying to do the best I can. There are days when I feel like I am not a good daughter. I know it’s not a correct assumption, but I just can’t separate the feeling from the facts. It doesn’t help either when my father flippantly tells me that “all you care about are your cats” or when people tell me that “your priority is the family first”. The fact that they feel they have to tell me that is an insult. No one needs to tell me that. I’m perfectly aware of what my responsibilities and my priorities are in my life. There’s nothing more I hate then people telling me what to do, think or feel. I think I’m doing the best I can. I don’t see anyone else visiting my parents at least twice if not three times a week. Even when I was working I still made the time to visit them on the weekend. I know I’m a good daughter. But when people make comments like that, it doesn’t make me feel so good.
