I love local races because I love the local crowd of SUPers. Deep Cove Canoe and Kayaks (Mike D and Karly) put on the 3rd annual Board the Fjord SUP race this past weekend. It was a great turn out this year with nearly 100 paddlers ready to paddle around islands and through mystical mountain mist.
I personally have been feeling the weight of stress/lack of sleep/poor nutirition:full time work...essentially I have been experiencing the difficulties of being a full time teacher teaching new subjects, trying to be a top elite athlete and trying to still spend some quality time with others (namely my main man!). I think pushing hard, and not getting time to recover is starting to creep over me. I need to play my cards right and be smart these next two weeks or BOP won't be the race I want it to be:)
I had to make some choices this weekend. I really wanted to support two local paddling events this weekend but I knew my body and mind could not perform well in both. So I made a choice to not race in one of the events but got the opportunity to give back and enjoy helping others seek success in their first races. I helped out with the little chop race that was held in conjunction with the Big Chop and Super Chop races on Saturday. I was so glad I could be part of the event and really enjoyed being on the other end of the organization:) Thanks Bryan Tasaka for providing me with this opportunity.
Sunday was Board the Fjord and after two nights of at least 8 hours of sleep (which has been not the case in the last two weeks) I felt much better but still was not 100% percent. I decided to slightly strategize on this race. I wanted to race strong but not as hard as I possibly could. I feel like I achieved this but it was hard at times. I wanted to push as hard as I could like I usually do and found it hard seeing people(anybody) pass me. I ensured I held the first female placing but other than that I just enjoyed a good paddle along side some different folk. Andrew raced in his 2nd SUP race and did so well. He managed a 4th place finish in the 12'6 board length and totally crossed with a smile on his face:) Love it!
I suppose my favorite part of it all though was chillin with the deep cove gang and Nikki R, mark and Andrew afterwards. I don't normally get the time to just hang out at the race site with folks. I really do love the Deep cove crew.... I feel lucky!
Well, I have raced every weekend since Jun 29th. It has been a whirlwind of mostly amazing experiences.... and I am sure I will miss it but it will be nice to have a rest. One big race left for at least a little while:)
thanks to everyone for all the support. I love you all!
live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina
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