Dragon Boat Festival in Nashville?!!?

On Saturday, Nashville held its 2nd annual Dragon Boat Festival.

You might remember when Jaime and Andrew came to Yichang for the festival this year... we ended up taking a long walk in the rain and no boats. Big disappointment. Well, I was determined to make this festival better.

A couple of weeks ago I learned that you could sign up to race so I did. However, practice was during the big wedding weekend. No racing. I was still excited to go though. It was nice to spend the morning with Amy, Brian, and Amanda. Plus, it was a fundraiser for the Cumberland River Compact. (Also, a great way for companies/corporations to work on teamwork!)

We got to the festival, watched a dragon dance and drum performance, and then people started lining up to race. A team walking by asked if we wanted to race because they were down a few team members. Dream come true...

Brian and I joined the HVUD (Harpeth Valley Utility District) team. We got our blue wristbands, awesome t-shirts and ran to our boat. 20 people in a rather dinky (but still terrific!) dragon boat. In our first heat, we finished in 1 min 30 sec. We climbed out feeling good about the time and thought it was pretty easy. Then we had a huge amount of down time. In the semi-finals, we got our time down to 1 min 26 sec. I felt like we all tried a little harder. (My arms were telling me so...) Another huge down time. Finally, it was time for the finals.

After climbing in the boat for our final race, we were coached by the professional steerer. We learned that it is much more about the whole body motion rather than just the arm stroke. He showed us how to do it right. When the race started, we were all going strong. By the time we got to the finish line though all of us were feeling it and some had even stopped for a minute to catch their breath. Nice little workout. 1 min 23 sec.

Proud to say that the HVUD team got first place in their division! Strong.

What a great day!

Thanks to our "Jia You!" cheerleaders, Amy and Amanda!

In the video, we are in the boat marked number 1.