Last Saturday (yeah, yeah, I know I am late writing this!) my dragon boat team The Twisted Hips competed in a Knockout Race Festival.
What is a Knockout Festival you ask? It is a festival that after your first three normal races that are used to determine your division you compete in up to four back-to-back races.
There are 7 boats at the start of the heat, you race, the last boat is knocked out and everyone else promptly returns to the start line to re-race without having a rest period. You race twice more, each time more teams are knocked out, until you have three teams remaining.
The last three teams race one final time and there is a winner and two losers. That’s right my friends, there is no first, second and third place. Nuh-uh, there is First Place and people who didn’t get first place. A little harsh but hey, it’s Knockout racing!
My oh-so-awesome team got in to B Division, so we ranked fairly high up there, and in our Knockout rounds we went all the way to the final three, then we won the final race, meaning, We Won! First Place in B Division! wOOt! wOOt! 😀
It was an amazing day! We had early morning races so we were at the race site by 7:30am, which means I started my day off getting tea and a breakfast sandwich from Tim Horton’s lol We had our first two races fairly close together, then what felt like a ridiculously long wait time for our third race. After that there was another bit of a wait until we went for our Knockout rounds. The day didn’t end until around 4pm or so. A looooooong day!
Not only a long day but also a sunny and hot day which meant I was hiding in the shade whenever possible, covering myself in sunscreen and long sleeves and in between races wearing the most ridiculous looking big floppy hat you have ever seen! Everyone kept saying I looked like I belonged at the Kentucky Derby lol 😛 But hey, all that effort and guess what I achieved? A super long day, spent outside, and no sunburn! It is practically a miracle! I count that as my second win of the day lol 😉
Here are some pictures of our final race in the Knockout rounds, we are the middle boat…
We Won!
I know from the angle the pics were taken at it doesn’t look like we won. You have to keep in mind that finish lines on water are not a straight line like they are on land, they get all messed up looking to the people on shore because of the current and wakes. But hey, that is what judges are for! lol
When the race finished we didn’t know who had won, we knew we were either first or second but it is so loud that we couldn’t hear the announcer. The boat to our right (the one closest in the picture) started cheering at one point so we thought maybe they knew something we didn’t and they had won but nope, it was us! We heard the repeat announcement when we were getting out of the boat and then we started cheering like crazy people, exhausted crazy people lol 🙂
Here is a team pic…I’m the only one wearing long sleeves lol
We actually aren’t all in the picture, some people had to rush off after we got off the water to make it to work on time, but that is a chunk of us. 🙂
If what I am attempting worked there is a video below of the final race, it is a bit long (the video not the race) because the person who recorded it kept recording after the race was finished, maybe they were waiting until we got off the boat, I’m not sure what their plan was, shrug. I’m just grateful they took the video so we could see the race!
The Amazing Shrinking Woman 
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