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The lead up to race season
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A few consecutive windy weekends meant water training was called off and Rage were unable to complete the long distance training we'd planned to. Land fitness manager Travers stepped in however, and did an excellent job of putting the team through our paces on land anyway.
Special thanks to GB veteran Pete Dodimead (our Rage helm for the year) for making it to training in preparation for Liverpool. Pete put up an epic fight in the 'Battle of the Helms' during the annual Henley winter series, stuck to his line (and guns) while Rage dug deep and responded to his calls. Together, we put on a spectacular show...looking forward to more of that this year :D
A bit of a worry at training this month however...
Pete: "Where's the bridge?"
Reds (gesturing): "Errr...that long thing across the water there...!!" :D
Vic: "No worries everyone...we forgot to tell you, our helm is blind..."
Haha, Pete!! You know we love you, mate! ;)
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Rage is a friendly family, welcoming people (and dogs) from all walks of life. Harry was excited to attend his first session with us, where he aced the 1km warm up run, wrestled our steering arm and happily hopped on board. He now eagerly awaits the establishment of a BDA 'Pet League'.
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London to Liverpool: getting there
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Many thanks to Amit and Captain Marfiak for organising accommodation, transport and dinner in the lead up to our first race of the season.
Some of the team met up at the LRC on the morning of Saturday 2nd May, where a convoy of cars proceeded to make their way up north. It got somewhat scary in the second part of the journey: stepping out at one of the service stops, I came to the realisation that we had finally crossed the border into Onesie Land...I then remembered Regina's warnings and was careful to avoid armies of orange women with rollers in their hair...
Once in Liverpool, we drove past 'Bogan's Carpets' (in Australia, this would pretty much translate as 'Chav Carpets'), before passing another establishment with a most unfortunate name...'Athol Vaults'...what is this place...???
We finally made it to dinner where we carbo loaded over an Italian meal. See below – the team says hi...especially Buzz... :D
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People were supposed to buy food for race day on our way back to the hotel. Somehow, at least one car of Ragers got so lost they did a scenic tour of the city. One group managed to buy no groceries at all, but kindly volunteered their toothbrush selection services instead. Chun: "Thanks...I have to use this for the next 3 months now, you know...."
Early night for everyone, in preparation for an early start.
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There was much anticipation in the lead up to Liverpool. It was Jess, Jo Tang's and Flavio's competition christening ground. We set up our tents and new flags in the rain. Row creatively built a barricade of ropes to stop people walking through our area (it worked so well, she trapped herself in it) :D... while Jess and Jo rocked the Michael Jackson look in their fetching new gloves.
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With some of our regulars missing, only 18 paddlers racing all day, 3 newbies and enough ladies to qualify Rage for shadow mixed league entry, the team dug deep and gave it our best.
Our race results:
500m
- First race – 2:18.03, taking us through to the Plate semis
- Second race – 2:17.13, taking us through to Plate major finals
- Finals – 2:16.63, putting us in 3rd place
2km
- 11:10.33 – 5th in our group, 14th overall
We knew we weren't going to have our full regular crew here. We also know full well that we need to work on longer distance pieces and build up our stamina. While the team has pulled off some powerful starts and drills at training, we need to be consistent and disciplined. Every stroke needs to be sharp in its delivery. We have to mean it, want it, and commit to our goals.
It is great however, that we improved on our 500m times throughout the day – and it'll be interesting to see what we can do at the next few events with our regular cavalry back on board. Let's try and get it closer to the 2 minute mark and make every event better than our last.
Apart from regular racing, Kitty, Katha, Row, Sharyl and Jen joined forces with Typhoon, Thames and a few other girls to form Team LRC in the 500m ladies' challenge. We came a very close second to Amathus and scored some silverware.
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We held an informal presentation for our 2015 Paddlers of the Month so far (thanks to Kitty and Ken for lugging the new dragon trophy back from Malaysia). We also wanted to express our gratitude for Ken and Buzz's recent work on club equipment. Reds too when we see you at training, for your excellent handy work on the yellow boat :)
Special thanks again to Pete for his encouraging calls and for pulling off such great turns for us. We need to train harder, paddle faster and get stronger for him (and each other) this season. Thanks to the Chows for making it to Liverpool (fresh off the plane!), to Tom for driving from Hull to join the team, to our support crew Sue, Sonal, Maria and Diana for being awesome, and to Amit and Sonal for being there, despite having an early India-bound flight to catch the next morning.
Thanks to one and all for your mighty efforts and for being a part of the Rage family.
Finally, after a long day of racing, we stopped at the first services on the M6 for dinner. Jo Tang still managed to exercise self-control and bought herself a healthy wrap, which she saved for later – while the rest of us devoured KFC...like Neanderthals...
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Happy birthday this month to Vic, Kev, Dave Taylor and Rager by correspondence Regina (currently paddling with the Brisbane River Dragons in Australia).
As per Rage tradition, I'm sure we can look forward to some celebratory dunking at Nottingham BDA.
And for those of you who haven't met her yet, Regina turned heads at last season's BDA events in Rage uniform, paddling until 7 months into her pregnancy (and totally kicked ass)... :D
Happy birthday to all of you – when Regina comes back for a visit hopefully in the next month or two, we should all go eat lots of cake!!! And maybe give you a retrospective birthday dunking. Actually, two dunks – we didn't last year either cause you were preggers...when are you back again?? :D
Rage social to celebrate soon. Awaiting word from our social coordinators – watch this space.... :)
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