Castles in the Air, Dragons on the Earth: June Racing (June 2022)

 

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.”

~Henry David Thoreau.

Turin the Black Sword

• Event: Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival
• Location: Charles River, Cambridge, MA
• Date: June 11-12, 2022
• Distance: 2 x 200m, 3 x 500m

Out of the peripheral vision I saw us closing on the boat to the left.  Dave was yelling from the back (many of the words that were not acceptable for a family friendly blog like this); we were pushing and panting.  As we hit the last buoys, there was the successive air horn blows… Whoong! Whoong! Sadly, the second horn was obviously for us; we just missed winning our Semis.

From the Pits of Angband

In early March 2020, we had probably 25 paddlers lining the edge of the kiddie pool; Dave was standing in the pool.  He asked: “Do you think it’s safe with Corona going around to stand in the pool?”  I theorized the chlorine would probably kill the virus and we would be fine with indoor pool practices going forward.  I was right about the first part; I was wrong about going forward.

The next 26 months, I will not go into detail – we all have our own story of that.

In the Simrarillion, Tolkien tells the tale of the father of dragons.  Glaurung was raised to be the fighter of elves.  He spent a century in the pits of Angband growing to be the great fighter.  In the past 26 months, the Living Root Dragon Boat team had gone from around a 70 or so active paddlers to like 30.  May 1, 2022 was the first time we paddled in a boat in almost two years.  This became our time in the Pits of Angband to grow again.

 

The Fellowship of the Ring

• Races 1&2: 200m qualifiers
• Location: MIT Boathouse
• Times: 61.8” and 60.9”

 Saturday was the 200m qualifiers.  These are short sprints where you put it all out there for a minute (or preferably less).  With a midday start time, it was a nice way to ease into the regatta. Without the early morning wake up, I was able to conveniently make my way down to the river with plenty of time to stretch and pet Quinn’s dog.

We lined up for the first time trial at the same time as Mustache.  We got off the line slowly.  But then pushed a bit more speed.  Unfortunately, for the 200m there is little room for making up time.

The second 200 was fantastic.  We fired off the line like a cannon and were able to maintain if not increase the speed into the finish.  We qualified into the Pool 1 for the main sets on Sunday.

 The Two Towers

• Races 3-5: 500m
• Location: Weeks Footbridge
• Time: 2:22.4, 2:18.7, 2:24.9

I sat calmly at the start.  We had paddled out with a few warm ups and I was in my element.  The Charles has been my athletic home for as long as I remember.  I’ve roller bladed it, cycled it, ran it and kayaked it.  Today, I was in another big event upon the calm waters.  Just adding to my collective memory of the river.

The first race was to place us into our divisions for the Semis and finals.  We had made the top half, now to make the top tier.

The horn went off and we pushed.  It’s one of those feeling you can’t quite understand until you are out in competition.  The ability to push beyond a) your training paces and, b) what you thought you could do.  My arms and back felt like they could do nor more… and yet we pushed on another hundred meters before Dave pushed us again into the final stretch.  As we barely finished in second, I (and probably others) knew they could do it again – and maybe win this time.

The Semis were probably our finest hour.  Not only was it the fastest race, but our boat that could with only 17 paddlers hung on in the A Division to finish just 0.7 seconds behind.

I felt exhaustion coming on.  And maybe many others did as well.  By our finals, the festival felt like it was over – food trucks were packing up and tents were being dismantled.  We went out, we pushed but I don’t know how much we had left.  We pulled off our third straight second for Sunday.  The first race was on condition, the second on training, the third was on heart. 

Our next few months is time to rebuild our foundations for our 2023 return.

 

The Return of the King

• Event: Boston Athletic Association 10K
• Location: Boston, MA
• Date: June 26, 2022
• Distance:  10km
• Time: 58:37

Originally, I thought I was undertrained for this event.  But looking back, I had run 32 miles in the two months leading up to it.  That’s not undertrained, that’s completely untrained.  It’s the most castle in the sky nonsense I’ve ever built.

I tried to keep myself contained.  I hoped to run 9:00/miles for the first three and then drop the hammer for the last few.  I achieved the first part of my goal.  It was the second half that was a failure.  But the second half wasn’t really the failure; the failure was the 4 miles a week I ran to train for a 6 mile race.

Alas, it is time to build back the foundations.  Every step is one step closer to being fit and competitive again. Unfortunately, some days those steps are backward.  Today was the backwards day to remind me to step forward.