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News Race Reports 2008 Ryde Aquatic Festival
News Race Reports 2008 Ryde Aquatic Festival
| 2008 Ryde Aquatic Festival |
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| Written by Administrator | |||
| Sunday, 14 September 2008 10:00 | |||
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Paddling madly at the Ryde Regatta Kissing Point Park, Putney. NSW
Report by Jayne Steer from Cancer council describing a regatta from a corporate paddlers point of view. My career at Cancer Council NSW began in February, literally the day after a successful organisational Dragon Boat campaign. My interest was only lightly tweaked, certainly not enough to think ‘I’ll do that’. Frankly, paddling wasn’t even close to being on my radar. But with the intervening months, and a challenge to self about trying new things, I finally – with trepidation and resignation – put my name down for two regattas and weekly training for our Cancer Council dragon boat teams. First stop: Ryde Regatta on 14 September. After surviving training in the freezing cold every Monday night for four weeks (and getting wetter than I ever believed was possible), it came time to face up to the Ryde Regatta. The weather report was suspiciously bad, but the team was excited and ready to stretch ourselves. All decked in Cancer Council yellow and with a fantastic sweep Mark motivating us, the first heat was a massive buzz. After crossing the line, we looked up to see ourselves half a boat ahead of our opposition. What a thrill, we’d won! A motley crew we were, but victorious nonetheless. You can imagine our disappointment when, upon exiting the boat, we were told the judges’ decision: Cancer Council was placed second! Despite much discussion, debate and our photographic evidence to the contrary, the decision was final. Thankfully, we work for an organisation where our mission is to defeat cancer. We know all about hard work, diligence and suffering some challenges along the way. We weren’t going to let this get in the way of enjoying the day. After watching the kids’ billycart races, some carb loading and relaxation, it was back to business. With our excellent sweep raging at us again and a fire in our bellies, we came through second to a strong team of gymnasts in the second heat. This was a clear win, so into the B Final it was… With the storm clouds brewing (that strange mustard and purple combination you know means it’s going to be ugly), we went straight out to the race and paddled as fiercely as we could. No way were we going to come anywhere other than first, and so it was! By the time we were getting out of the boat, the heavens opened, so we had very little time to regroup and celebrate. No matter, we all debriefed in the days following and felt really pretty good about our performance at the Ryde Regatta. So on an official basis, our team of many newcomers and some experienced paddlers came fourth overall at the regatta. But you know that really twee expression about ‘doing your best’? We did, and it was great. And we had a total and absolute ball in the process. Postscript: So in reference to my heading, we were paddling madly at the regatta because we wanted to win, and at one stage we were really mad because we didn’t!
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| Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 January 2009 03:19 |
