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ROWBUST 2009 FESTIVAL RESULTS
Toronto Outer Harbour, May 31/09
1.6 Kilometer race 4th. place
Overall position 6th place
Hi Everyone,
What a day!! I think that we are all wind burned!!! Thank goodness the
sun was shining......but man, was it windy!
Shirley, Gail-Lynn, Laura, Lisa, Jill.......welcome to the world of
Dragon Boat Racing!! You are no longer racing virgins!
We had a really good day, we stayed with the "plan", we maintained our
focus.....we did what we have been taught by
great teachers.......and those other teams took notice of Rowbust!
There were 7 teams there (3 of which have been to the Worlds) and
overall we placed 6th......but the most exciting news was during the 1.6
K.........we passed the boat ahead of us and placed 1st in our
heat.......AND placed 4th overall in the 1.6 K.....right behind the 3
teams that have been to the Worlds!!!! It was a blast! Great sterning by
Sarah!!!
Then......we won $100 for our overall placing!
And.......I think that we got some teams interested in coming to race at
the London festival!!
A great day, that warm shower felt great......and bed will feel even
better!!
Good night everyone, see you Tuesday!
Linda
Hamilton Lively Dragon Waterfest July 4/09
Breast Cancer Survivor Final - Gold
‘D’ Division Community - 4th.
2 Kilometer Open - Gold
OH MY GOSH!!!!
It is not very often that I am speechless......but........OH MY
GOSH!!!!!
What an amazing day!!!!!! WE DID AWESOME!!!!!!
We did 6, count'em, 6 races!!
Our first 500m race, was against really good community teams.......we
clocked a time of 2:21.something.....
Our second 500m race, again against community teams.....we did
2:20.....awesome!
Our 3rd 500m race, which was the Breast Cancer Race, against the 2
Toronto teams and Hamilton......OH MY GOSH.......we did the start,
transition, a power......and then just paddles to the finish line.....no
more powers, no finish.....we didn't need them! We were really, really
ahead of everyone else.......we came off the water...and Patti S tackled
me, she was so happy! In this race, we did a 2:19 and we didn't even
really try!!!!
Our 4th 500m race, was against community teams again, we were the bottom
of the "D", so we had the worst lane....BUT.....we still did a
:221....and we didn't come in last, that's for sure!
Our 5th race was the 250m......we did a 1:12!!
Our 6th race was the 2K!!!! Man, was that FUN! Cheryl and Sarah....those
turns were amazing! So, we were 1 of 12 boats out there......we passed 2
teams and no one pass us......now, we thought that we did pretty
good.....BUT.....we had no idea how good.......we came in 1st!! With a
time of 10:56!! OH MY GOSH!!!!!
What a day, we did the race plan that Cheryl and Sarah gave us.....and
it was awesome!
Toronto and Hamilton were trying to find out our secrets......what we
eat for breakfast, what we eat for lunch, how we work out........but we
kept telling them that we have an amazing team and we have the BEST
Coaches! The BCS teams kept coming up to us and telling us that we
looked amazing, that we were racing the best they have ever seen us!
Thank you to the spouses and family/friends that came out to support us,
thank you to our team mates who couldn't come
today.......we were thinking of you.......Tracy......you were in that
boat with us, every paddle stroke was for you! Thank you to the team
members who paddled with all your heart and
soul today.....and Thank you to our Coaches!
oh.....and I have to say......Mike was there all day........we made his
day, his week, his month and his year!!! We all know how excited Mike
can get when he is happy about something......well, he videotaped
everything that we did today, we could hear him hooting and hollering
everywhere.......he loved watching us today! It was so darn cute!!
Enjoy your supper, enjoy your shower and have a wonderful sleep
tonight.......we all deserve it!
I say again.....OH MY GOSH!!!!
Linda
Toronto GWN Sport Regatta, July 18/09
You know.......every festival we go to.......we just do AMAZING!!! And,
this one was no exception.......it was different though because it was
not taken for granted that we would win anything, we just wanted to do
our best and challenge ourselves.......and MAN, did we do that, and did
all those competitive teams sit up and take notice of Rowbust! (I really
think, they already knew about us......but we proved it to them today!)
The teams at this festival were truly amazing, just beautiful to watch,
all in sync, all world class athletes......and Rowbust was right up
there with them! They did not leave us in their wake, they were not boat
lengths ahead of us........we were right up there with them!!!!
The venue is a wonderful place to paddle in and a beautiful place to
watch dragon boating at it's best!
We had 2, 200 meter races, 2, 500 meter races and the 2 K.
One of our 200 meter races......we came in 2nd!!!! We had a great start
and a great race!
One of our 500 meter races.......we probably had the best start of the
day, we led the race all the way down the race course.......and then one
of those darn boats came up and just inched us out of 1st place in the
last 30 meters!!!!!! But, man, we were racing the best teams in the
world!
Then our 2 K......boy, do we love those 2 K's! Loraine W. and Christine
T.......you are no longer 2 K virgins!! Aren't they just a BLAST!
We were the first in our heat to start, our goal was not to let anyone
pass us..........and we did just that.......NO ONE PASSED US! We raced
our Rowbust race plan! Cheryl and Sarah, everyone is going to be talking
about our turns, you are getting them to near perfection!
And guess who showed up to cheer us on......our Rowbust
Groupie......Mike!!! With his video camera, we just love having him
there.
I'm sure that Cheryl and Sarah were a little nervous showing us off to
all of their former team mates and coaches, but I think we did them
PROUD! By looking at the smiles on their faces after we finished the 2
K........Rowbust girls.....WAY TO GO!
We all should be proud of what we accomplished today.......as Cheryl
says......."Good on ya!"
Have a nice restful day tomorrow, we all deserve it!
Linda
London Dragon Boat Festival/Rowbust 10th Anniversary, Aug 14-16/09
Breast Cancer Survivor 500m. race Gold
Breast Cancer Survivor 250m. race Gold
Breast Cancer Survivor 2000m. race Gold
Every time we come home from a festival and I sit down to write out a
synopsis of the event for those who couldn't be there and to thank
everyone, I am in awe of our wonderful team..........these last few
days, I am just OVERCOME with joy, happiness, pride, amazement,
gratitude about this team! I feel like a PROUD MAMA!!!
The real work started on Thursday, lots of weed eaters going, clean up
duties, signs being made and so much more. This was all being
orchestrated by June and much of the work was being done by team members
but mostly by our wonderful husbands, friends, brothers....it was
amazing. June was hoping that we would be done by 1 pm and we were out
of there at 1:30 and going to find lunch!
Friday.......an early start at the Rowing Centre with many more
volunteers and team mates, all the husbands, brothers, friends back to
help again.......this was an all day event, from sun up to sun
down......but boy, the Rowing Centre never looked better! All of June's
planning, organizing, site plans.....it all paid off.....it was so darn
organized!!!! Great work!
In the mean time, the Meet & Greet was happening over at the Homer
Watson Pavilion, under the direction of Dianne J. The Silent Auction
table, the displays, the food.......it was just PERFECT!
Then Marnie McBean came, the air was just electric.....she was so
gratuitous, so friendly, so warm...signing autographs, posing for
pictures, mingling with everyone.
But the real star of the show was Tracy!!! She came and immediately got
whisked away to meet Marnie and then an interview with Rogers TV. Once
the media was gone, it was a beautiful site, Marnie with Tracy and her
family. Tracy with Marnie's Gold Medals around her neck......posing for
pictures, smiling and just being our Tracy!
Then, out in the boat with Tracy, all her family, Marnie and some very
lucky Rowbust members. The London Free Press was there taking pictures,
there were so many smiles, so much fun!
As a gift for Marnie, Rowbust had a wooden dragon boat paddle which
Bonnie had beautifully painted, we all signed it and gave it to Marnie
to say Thank you, she autographed it and graciously donated it back to
Rowbust.......but, we got wind that Tracy might like it........so, when
the A-Channel was there filming us....they also filmed Marnie presenting
the Paddle to Tracy.......man, the kleenex was needed again!
The Nova Scotia team was there, the Newfoundland team was there, some of
the Chatham Breast Buddies were there and a few others, some came later
but it was a magnificent, warm, welcoming start to our weekend!
Saturday.......first race day.......a chaotic, crazy, packed, fun-filled
day! Lots of races, lots of teams, lots of vendors, lots of
spectators.....WOW! There were so many cars there, that they were parked
from the Rowing Centre all the way out to Clarke Road.....is that crazy
or what!!! They have never had so many spectators.....it was really
busy.....but it was wonderful!! All that media stuff and all of Judy's
Press Releases paid off.......we were doing multiple interviews daily,
the press was there everyday........if London and surrounding area
doesn't know who Rowbust is now........they've been living in a cave!!!
The Breast Cancer Village was beautiful, teams from Newfoundland, Nova
Scotia, Montreal, Buffalo, Wisconsin, 2 Toronto teams, Hamilton,
Chatham, 2 Windsor teams, Barrie and the 2 Rowbust teams. Everyone had a
wonderful time, loved the new location, loved the races (even though, we
won them all!!), loved the goodie bags, just loved everything! There
were so many Community Teams also, so many that had never been there
before and it was fun watching new people love our sport! There were so
many great things being said by the Community Teams. Chloe (Dragon Boat
Canada) also had many phone calls from teams who loved the new location
and want to know if it is always going to be there!!! They thought we
did a great job....and we did!
The Anniversary Team, Diane K......you did a great job organizing them!
Thank you to Cheryl and Sarah for helping out. It was Pattie B's first
time sterning a race.........and she did great! Orlando sat in the
Drummers Seat, which also helped Pattie out as well. It was amazing team
work!
At the end of the day......we had won the 500 m BCS Championship, with a
time of 2:24. Lance Howard (our Gold Sponsor) presented our BCS award.
We also placed in the "B" Community Championship race, we came in 5th
but that's okay, we were up against some pretty good teams and we did
our best!
The dinner on Saturday night at the Harmony Buffet was a success, many
good things were said about this also.
Sunday......a much more relaxing day for us, only 12 Breast Cancer
Teams, parking was much less crazy.
The Opening Ceremonies were wonderful, Cheryl read a letter that Lori
Sippel had sent about us and the BCS teams, Erin McLean (our Olympic 3rd
base girl) spoke about her time in Beijing, what its like being on a
team, losing her Mom to Cancer (which had her and everyone else in
tears).....she was wonderful!
Then came our Rosa from The Athletic Club......boy, did the crowd love
her. I can hardly wait to see Harvey's pictures with this one, there were
ladies warming up in the entire open area!
This day, we did (3) 200m races and the 2 K. We did well this day
also......it was such a good feeling because even though Rowbust was
winning everything, all the other teams were just so happy to be there
and to be part of our event and were truly happy for us. We did have to
work for a couple of the races though......Toronto and Hamilton were
really, really trying!
The Anniversary team again had a great day, with new Rowbust team
members blood in the mix. Some Associate members who are now really
hooked to paddle next year, some potential new members
who had their first try at dragon boat
racing.....they are hooked! You looked really, really good!
This day, we won the 200 m Celebration Cup and also the 2 K!
The 2 K was a blast for the spectators......since we had some excitement
at one of the corners.........but, it was all in good fun, good
competition and to show everyone on the shore, how strong, how
determined we are!
The closing ceremonies were wonderful also, it was a fast closing, since
Newfoundland had a plane to catch, Wisconsin had a bus to catch and
everyone else just wanted to have a nice cold shower and a nice cold
drink! Erin McLean presented the 200 m awards and Pat Hamlyn, our
Scotiabank sponsor presented the 2 K award. They were just so thrilled
to be presenters. Chloe also talked about the Nationals in Whistler next
year (first weekend of July) and what their vision is. Everyone seemed
enthusiastic about it. By the way, Newfoundland's festival will not be
next summer, it has been postponed until 2011.
So, even though, Rowbust won all the Championship races, it was such a
great weekend, not only for us, but all the BCS teams were gushing over
how well we can put on a festival and what wonderful hosts we are, and
how much they absolutely loved it!
Also, another thing that the BCS teams were asking about.......is How
did we do the Anniversary Team and the Rowbust team???? How did we make
it work? Who made the decisions on which team? How come everyone was
getting along? They just couldn't figure out how we all made it work!!
Well, I know how we all made it work.......TEAM WORK!!! By having 2
wonderful Coaches who look at everything, who
know how we feel, who do their job well and by the Rowbust team members
trusting them to make the right decisions! Awesome, awesome,
awesome.......it worked beautifully!!!
Our many, many Volunteers, Barb and Lisa........good for you for keeping
them all on track! We had about 80 volunteers working tirelessly this
weekend, all organized by these 2! Our husbands, family, brothers,
friends.........we have such special people surrounding us. We didn't
even have to ask....and it was done........words cannot even touch this
one.......but, Thank you sooooooo much! We love you all!
The weather gods were smiling over us this weekend....it was hot but
when this summer have we had 4 days of sunshine and warm
weather........ONLY on our festival weekend!!!!
Then the Campfire over at the Yacht Club.......an absolutely perfect way
to end our day, bring us all back together, have some down time, some
reminiscing, some food, some drink, some entertainment from Sonja's
"other cousin" (Sonja, I don't know how you kept a straight face to me
when you were telling me for weeks that you had to pick up your "cousin"
at the airport and couldn't come to the campfire!!) and some other
"cousin" aka Perci! It was just perfect.....the perfect weekend, the
perfect team, the perfect weather......was else can I say........it was
just PERFECT!
It took 18 months to plan, we spent endless hours planning with blood,
sweat and tears but IT WAS ALL WORTH IT!!!!!!!
Loraine ..........I am just speechless when it comes to how much I
appreciated you and all your hard work. I really don't know how you did
it all and kept your sanity (or at least somewhat!). If it wasn't for
you and all your organizational skills........it wouldn't have been the
perfect weekend that it was!
WAY TO GO ROWBUST!!!!
Again, I am proud to say that I am a Rowbust Team Member!!!
I love you all!!!
Linda
ps....I am sorry that I have written a
novel......but there was so much to say.......and I'm sure I have forgotten
something.........sorry if I did! But I love ya, love ya, love ya!!!
Stratford Rotary Dragon Boat Festival, Sept 19/09
Breast Cancer Survivor Races - Gold
‘D’ Division Championship Community - Gold
Hi Everyone,
WOW!!!
I can't believe that we have just completed our last race of the season!
This was such a busy season for us, so many new things that we were
doing, training so hard, concentrating so hard to try to keep ourselves
healthy.......and now we have raced our last race in 2009! Very, very
sad......
Man, what a day...........we had photo finishes with most of our races,
we raced in each of the 4 lanes today and in each race we did what had
to be done. Sometimes, it was a little hard, I think that we put so much
energy into our London race that we are just tired.......but.....we
still had some fire left in us!
It was friggin' cold out there this morning, with frost on the
ground.....but NO rain, thank goodness! Our first race placed us into
the "D" division........amazing.....
Our second race, the "D" semi-finals, we won that race by 1/100's of a
second against mixed teams! This amazing race placed us into the "D"
Championship race and we were in lane 4!
Our third race was the Breast Cancer Cup, against Toronto, Windsor and
Ottawa.........we came in 1st but those other teams were breathing down
our backs! One of the Toronto team members told be that they were all
going to quit their jobs and train full time just to try to beat us!
They also told me that they are very interested and will probably go to
Whistler next year!
Our fourth race was the "D" championship race........Cheryl and Sarah
had a plan for us, we were in Lane 1 for this one ........the plan was
executed beautifully..........what great Coaches we have to come up with
such a brilliant race strategy, they saw in us that we could do it, they
Believed in us, and we just Believed in Them! We did 4 powers and a
finish and those strong mixed teams never even saw us sneaking up on
them and taking it right out from under their noses!! Lane 2 and Lane 3
were so busy watching each other that they didn't see us WIN that race
and become the "D" division Champions! A proud moment when you consider
that no other Breast Cancer team has ever made it that far up in the
divisions and won the D division championship! Winning that race was the
highlight of the entire day......the looks on our faces, our families
faces and Cheryl and Sarah's faces when we found out that we actually
won that race was a very, very proud moment! A perfect ending to a
perfect season!
Thank you to this wonderful team for doing what had to be done for the
team, thank you to our families for cheering at the sidelines.......we
certainly could hear you.......and Thank you to Cheryl and Sarah for
believing in us and making us believe in ourselves!
Hope to see you on Tuesday night at Kelsey's.....please wear your team
jacket and wear your Medals from this season! We need to show off what
great athletes we are!
Now, sleep in tomorrow if you can and get some much needed rest!
A tired but extremely proud Rowbust team member!
Linda
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