Time trial

The coach likes calling it “time control”, I think to remove the sting a little bit. Because it is trial by fire. The fire you feel as your muscles burn, as you paddlie a few hundred metres down False Creek. Going head to head with two of your teammates.

This is my first time trial this year. I haven’t been training for races so I haven’t really had to. And I haven’t paddled in a dragon boat until three weeks ago. But now that I’m racing in Alcan in a few weeks, I had to do this time trial. I was nervous - not about coming in last in my heats but about the pain I knew was coming. Heat 1 is 800m and heat 2 is 400m, with around 5 mins rest in between, using a dragon boat blade (I’ve paddled mainly with an outrigger blade this year) and paddling only on one side the whole way (in outrigger, I get to switch sides every 15 or so strokes). Paddling on one side is a killer if you haven’t trained for it. And I haven’t been training for it!!! I was dreading the pain.

Aileen and Janet were the other two paddlers in my heat. I finished second behind Aileen in both heats. In the 800m, we were pretty close for about half of the race and then I faded away. I finished about a boat length behind her. In the 400m, Aileen and I were even until the last 100m where I again faded. I finished right behind Aileen and Janet finished right behind me.

It was painful. Both heats just felt sooo long. My thoughts were all about keeping my form and technique right especially as I got more and more tired. Just don’t think about the burning. Focus on technique. Bury the paddle before pulling. Have to keep working on that. Unfortunately, one thing I didn’t pay attention to was my steering. I zigzagged my way down the creek, which didn’t help me at all. I was all over the place! Oh well. I’m just glad that’s over.