On Friday, June 25, the Kootenay Robusters piled into the Nitehawks bus for a trip to the Harrison Hot Springs Dragon Boat Festival. We enjoy attending this mid season racing event to get us tuned up for the final festival In Penticton, coming up in September. On Saturday, we had the rare experience of racing in clear, cool air with some rain showers – which provided a change from the hot and smoky atmosphere at home.
Because of an unfortunate clerical error, the Robusters were entered in the mixed team racing events, which meant we were competing with teams of 8 women and 12 men. Not letting that stop us, the Robusters paddled hard through wind and waves, achieving some excellent race times – better than any we’ve done so far this year. For our best race of the festival, we covered the 500 meter course in 2 minutes 24 seconds. This was a faster time than most of the women’s teams achieved, so we were pleased with our day of racing. It isn’t always about the medals!
Of course the very best thing about going to festivals is sharing fun times together with team mates. Long conversations on the bus, interesting stops along the way, hiking the Harrison trails, teamwork to set up and furnish our tent (and lay out the tasty treats everyone brought), and the final dinner together complete with a birthday celebration and more than a few bottles of wine. We all agreed that there’s more work to do but we can’t wait for Penticton.