Regatta Recap
So, today was the 2006 Corporate Challenge regatta.
I was pumped and excited for my crew, and not without reason. We're a pretty sweet crew this year. We were listed as challengers (again) since 7 out of 9 of us hadn't rowed before. We raced our first race at the end of the morning (12:30, which isn't really quite morning anymore) and posted the best challenger time of the day: 1:00.22m. Our second race wasn't nearly as good, but it was good enough to secure us top seed in the finals (yet again!). Unlike last year where we got the shaft and a really bad boat in the finals, this year we got a solid one. Things were looking up.
We lined up, and for the first time of the day, had a pretty decent alignment for the start. We were pointed in the right direction and well matched with the fronts of the other boats. We heard the now familiar call: "I have allignment! ATTENTION! ROW!!!". And off we went. Our start was a bit weak but it was still good. We were in second after the first four strokes, but the next 10 put us out front. We were blazing, having one of our best rows of the day. When we crossed the finish line, I looked over at the other boats. We were half a boat length up on lane 4 (we were lane 2), almost a full length ahead of lane 3, and we were way way out in front of lane 1. We did it, we'd won!
The other BOBJ crew (defenders) had also won their race, we watched em come in, again a good half boat length ahead of lane 4 which was second. It was a sweep for our company yet again. We'd taken gold in both the challenger and defender eights! Our crew was so pumped, we all undid our feet and stood up in the boat cheering (not an easy thing to do) while we waited for our turn to come into shore. The other boats were congratulating us, it was rockin.
But get this. As we're coming in a group of people is on the shore screeming congratulations to the boat that was in lane 4. "You won! You won!!!" they cheered. We were confused. Hell, even the people in lane 4 were confused! Their stroke seat responded "no way, those guys there totally beat us". "Nope, you did it, you won! Check the times!"
When we finally got in, I asked our coach what had happened. Why those people thought lane 4 had won... Sabrina had checked with most of the crews and all of the other coaches: everyone except the time keeper was convinced we'd won.
Oh yeah, and that race that the other BOBJ boat won? Guess what? They didn't win. Lane 4 won. Everyone on shore, and everyone in the boats knew who'd won, but I swear that the time keeper was smoking something wierd. *shrug* No way to contest of course. And heck, it is just a corporate challenge right? Its not like the rowers care right?
Oh well, you win some and you lose some eh? Guess I'll have to get gold next year so that I'll have the whole set of medals.