Pedals and Paddles Worldwide: Dragons and Witches: Weekend Racing (9/7

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Dragons and Witches: Weekend Racing (9/7 - 9/8/19)

Top: Living Root Dragon Boat Club at Pawtucket
Bottom: Somerville Road Runners at Salem

September 7, 2019: Outside Providence, Rhode Island Dragon Boat Festival

Despite causing issues because I gave Emily the wrong phone number, Emily, Casey, Harshil and I were able to get to Pawtucket before the race.

“My brother's in a wheel chair because of a freak accident as a kid. One day we were playing touch football and he fell off the roof.”

This was only my third dragon boat festival. The second one involved a freak accident where Cheddar boat fell into the Merrimack River. But the first one was actually this very race, 11 years ago.

While that time I had probably gone to like six practices, now I've been at it for nearly four months. But the big issue is that these are different types of boats; Pawtucket, (to quote myself) they are:

... Taiwanese boats. These boats are considerable larger and harder to steer. They were called “barges” by Scott. The paddles are massive, like swinging a softball bat after practicing with a t-ball model... the massive size of the boats made it as much, if not more effort.

"What's a prep school?" "It's to prepare you for not getting your neck broke by me."

Some teams took the prep time to take out one of the boats and practice with the cricket bat paddles. For the most part we all tried to stay warm on this windy cool morning.

Taiwanese Dragon Boat

"Oh, you're gonna throw the fuckin' daht?"

Our first heat went off at 10:12. Quinn made sure we didn't burn out with the heavy boats and short paddles. The 1:24 was good enough for 11th of the 33 teams. But we were able to find the wind and currents and - once the race started - stay in a straight line, like a daht.

"Okay, Satchmo why don't you play us a few notes?"

Each team had to qualify on the 23 seat "big boat" and the 15 seat "small boat." I wasn't assigned to the small boat. So I got the chance to watch as they ran our second heat. Once again looking good - with Jess in her first drumming ... playing a few notes. Out of the water, we had moved on into 13th overall and into the E Final.

Living Root Small Boat Qualifier

"Brown University? We got one of those in Providence."

Regardless, what Matt termed the "real race of the day" was next. While a few of us got Living Root colored bolts on our faces, Andrew and Julien prepped for the dumpling eating contest. On the line was free airfare to Taiwan.

Julien and Andrew vs. Dumplings

In two minutes, Julien ate an impressive 30 dumplings. He was outdone by Andrew's 41. But sadly both were out done by some big guy named Eric whose 55(!) dumplings won him tickets from JFK to Chiang Kai-Shek Airport.

"You hit a parked cop car?"

The last race was the E finals. Frist place went home with the much coveted 13th place overall. We saved our best for last. Our start was good, we had very little settle in the middle and then crushed the finish. I watched the boat to our right disappear from my peripheral vision as we pulled in at a 1:18.

Living Root's Final Race.
We're in the middle taking the big lead!
photo by: Matt Scotti

September 8, 2019: The Witch City, Salem Road Race

Urvi and I caught the 8:30 train out of North Station, along with a large number of others. Getting our numbers was a bit of a shitshow with thousands of people packed into a little park area. But, slowly it cleared up.

Because of the aforementioned shitshow, the race started late - at 10:15. But on the warm day (the winds and coolness of Saturday gone), it was actually pleasant.

Urvi and I in Salem

Miles 1-2: The Crucible by Arthur Miller

The first mile, I went like a bat outta hell. For reasons unknown to me, I decided to run ahead of Dominic from the start. We flew down the narrow Derby Street, through the National Historic Park. That first mile was like when you read The Crucible in High School after reading Shakespeare or Tennyson - fast and liberating with all the hysteria of Salem 1692.

We hit the second mile and it was like reading The Crucible in your college literature class. First you say, "oh, I love this play" and then the professor explains McCarthyism to you. blerg. The fast liberating read becomes a bit more challenging. Tying the hills together without burning out was like relating the play to things you only really knew as black and white newsreels.

Mile 1 was a decent 7:04; Mile 2 was a less decent 7:38.

Miles 3-4: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

By the start of the third mile, I knew my first race since Chicago wouldn't be any great American piece of literature like Huckleberry Finn or anything. Instead it would be something really dull - you know like The Scarlet Letter. Indeed, I tried to push through the first part of mile 3 like something good was going to happen (like the the first chapters of the novel); but nothing interesting every did (like the novel). The 7:24 and 7:38 of this section told me I wasn't going to be taking the world by storm or anything.

Mile 5: The Scarlet Letter (1995)

The fifth mile so my desire to put together anything that was any good wane - like the 1995 film adaption of The Scarlet Letter.

I picture the production meeting now: Can we make this book any more boring? Sure let's put wooden, one dimensional actress Demi Moore in the lead. Every one loved her in Ghost!

That's pretty much what went through my head as everyone started passing me when my pace slowed to 8:12.

Mile 6: The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

With a little more than a mile to go, I tried. I really tried to get the pace down again. I tried to recreate the fast image of myself, like Hawthorne tried to write an English gothic novel. Neither of us did too well. But, at least it was better than the previous miles...

Urvi in front of The House of the Seven Gables - there was a wedding going on inside.
(Hopefully not haunted by the previous ones.)

As we made it back up to Congress Street, we passed the mile 6 marker and I put in everything I had left. My finish was actually pretty strong; I ran the last quarter at a 6:15 pace. So there is something there, but it's mostly a mirage right now.