2006 MIDBRF
This past weekend was the 2006 Montreal International Dragon Boat Racing Festival and the first time team Swordfish (and the impromptu all-men's team of Lane 0) would be participating.
Half of the Swordfishes left after 09:00 on Friday and got into Montreal after 15:00. I think each carpool managed to stop at the Big Apple restaurant/theme park off the 401! Once we figured out our sleeping arrangements at the UQAM residences, we wanted to eat and drink. Schwartz' famous smoked meat was the destination followed by a stop at the SAQ. And so the pre-drinking started after 21:00. Damn you Jack Daniel's. Damn you. That's all I remember that night.
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Uh, long story short - the Swordfish guys would end up paddling in eight races total (only seven for me), while the Swordfishettes would paddle their hearts out for four over Saturday and Sunday. Swordfish finished 2nd in our Mixed G Final (Intermediate) and although we didn't win a trophy or medals, we had our best race of the festival! Lane 0 ended up winning a close Men's D Final - which was preceded by an extra ~1000m of paddling since one of the seats in the boat broke! Our medals weren't available but we'll be receiving the hardware eventually.
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend of dragon boat racing. The city is fantastic and the night life was -ahem- memorable. So far, Montreal's festival offers the best arrangement for watching races and I'm sure we'll be looking forward to next year's. Taking the Friday off work was great. Taking Monday off work would have been even better!
The following picture was created by JW and offers a 360 degree view of Montreal's Olympic Basin and MIDBRF participant stands.
Half of the Swordfishes left after 09:00 on Friday and got into Montreal after 15:00. I think each carpool managed to stop at the Big Apple restaurant/theme park off the 401! Once we figured out our sleeping arrangements at the UQAM residences, we wanted to eat and drink. Schwartz' famous smoked meat was the destination followed by a stop at the SAQ. And so the pre-drinking started after 21:00. Damn you Jack Daniel's. Damn you. That's all I remember that night.
---
Uh, long story short - the Swordfish guys would end up paddling in eight races total (only seven for me), while the Swordfishettes would paddle their hearts out for four over Saturday and Sunday. Swordfish finished 2nd in our Mixed G Final (Intermediate) and although we didn't win a trophy or medals, we had our best race of the festival! Lane 0 ended up winning a close Men's D Final - which was preceded by an extra ~1000m of paddling since one of the seats in the boat broke! Our medals weren't available but we'll be receiving the hardware eventually.
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend of dragon boat racing. The city is fantastic and the night life was -ahem- memorable. So far, Montreal's festival offers the best arrangement for watching races and I'm sure we'll be looking forward to next year's. Taking the Friday off work was great. Taking Monday off work would have been even better!
The following picture was created by JW and offers a 360 degree view of Montreal's Olympic Basin and MIDBRF participant stands.
posted by ET at 21:30
1 Comments:
180 i believe .. not 360 .. ;)
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