Minnesota Dragon Boat Club brought three teams: Blue, Green, and Gold to the Dragon Festival held at Phalen Regional Park on Saturday July 13, 2024. The weather was expected to be sunny, humid, and hot, with a chance of storms in the evening. Shouldn’t be a problem with our scheduled morning practices and races set to be completed by about 4 pm, right? Oh, heck, no! As our early morning paddlers were arriving at about 8 am, storm number 1 came rolling through!
Multiple storms and delays meant no practices for teams, and some on-land training only for the non-club teams, and racing started during a break in the weather action at 11 am. Team Blue raced first, putting up solid times, 1:38.90 in race one, heat one and 1:34.04 in race one, heat two for a total combined time of 3:12.94 in the then-windy conditions, winning each of their heats:
Team Green raced next, with comparable times to Team Blue (Race 1 heat 1 1:36.08, race 1 heat 2 1:38.87, combined time of 3:14.95, but losing both of their heats to the community education teams brought to the festival by Off The Edge, the regionally competitive all-women team from White Bear Lake. Well done, East Shore Power!
There was a break in the racing shortly after to hold the Cancer Survivor Ceremony, an always touching moment to recognize the competitors coming to the event as cancer survivors. Anyone who was part of a team racing and a cancer survivor was invited to join the Dragon Divas, the Twin Cities area breast cancer survivor team, in linked boats on the water.
Then, another storm rolled in before racing could resume, and Team Gold could get their race in. Everyone had to find ways to stay relaxed while waiting to see when racing could resume at the event.
Finally, races were able to resume at almost 3 pm, but each team would only get their one race/two heats in the day in order to allow the races to conclude by a reasonable time. So no second races and heats to allow Team Blue or Green to improve on their early times. Team Gold was going to be in the last scheduled race for the day then, against the Dragon Divas’ Courage team.
As the races again progressed, race officials became aware that one team decided not to participate at all, and in order to give their scheduled opponent some competition, a last minute call went out for paddlers to form a composite team, and in that moment, the MN Divas were formed – a group of paddlers from Minnesota Dragon Boat Club’s Teams Blue and Green, and the Dragon Divas’ Hope team. So a few folks got a little additional racing in!
Finally, it was time for Team Gold to take to the course, and by now the lake was calm and almost a mirror, reflecting the now quiet skies. Perfect conditions for the afternoon racing! Here’s Team Gold in their second heat, in the inside lane.
Team Gold put down the best times of the day, finishing in first place with times of 1:19.90 and 1:23.07 for a combined time of 2:42.97. And, the special surprise of the day, the composite MN Divas finished an unofficial second, with times of 1:29.19 and 1:27.74 for a combined time of 2:56.93. But since they were not an official team, they were not eligible for awards. General Mills’ CheeriRows took the official second place, and the Dragon Divas’ Courage team third.
And, Minnesota Dragon Boat Club won perhaps the most valuable award, that for best team spirit. Living into our mission of being ambassadors for the sport of dragon boat racing, we’re glad to pass on our positive energy!
Comments by Ginny Moran