First of all, a big thank you to those who show up to cheer me/the Xilinx team on at Paddle for Life 2007!
For those that did not make it, here is a quick recap of the day:
In the first heat, Xilinx team Xtreme (I didn't choose the name:) went up against Lin Engineering, Apple and the San Jose police department. We were placed 2nd in our first heat, losing to the San Jose Police department by about 5 seconds, beating out Lin Engineering by 0.1 seconds. According to bystanders, we had a bad start and was half a boat length EVERY team at the half way point, then really make out for lose ground in the second half of the race. We were worried if we paddle too fast, the police will cite us for speeding:)
In the second heat, we went up against Kyphon, one of the Genentech team(they had 4 teams total) and another team I do not remember. We were again placed second, losing to Kyphon by about 5 seconds. However, our finishing time of 2:12 was the third fastest in all the recharge heats, so I guess it was the luck of the draw:(
For what it is worth, in the finals, the San Jose Police and Kyphon was placed 1st and 3rd, so if we had been place in any other recharge heats, we would have at least made the semi-finals.
For those that did not make it, here is a quick recap of the day:
In the first heat, Xilinx team Xtreme (I didn't choose the name:) went up against Lin Engineering, Apple and the San Jose police department. We were placed 2nd in our first heat, losing to the San Jose Police department by about 5 seconds, beating out Lin Engineering by 0.1 seconds. According to bystanders, we had a bad start and was half a boat length EVERY team at the half way point, then really make out for lose ground in the second half of the race. We were worried if we paddle too fast, the police will cite us for speeding:)
In the second heat, we went up against Kyphon, one of the Genentech team(they had 4 teams total) and another team I do not remember. We were again placed second, losing to Kyphon by about 5 seconds. However, our finishing time of 2:12 was the third fastest in all the recharge heats, so I guess it was the luck of the draw:(
For what it is worth, in the finals, the San Jose Police and Kyphon was placed 1st and 3rd, so if we had been place in any other recharge heats, we would have at least made the semi-finals.
All in all though, it was a good day. The weather was perfect: sunny but with a light breeze, there was a lot of time between heats so we had time to relax and enjoy ourselves watching other heats and commenting how much their timing is off:)
Here are links to video of race day(thanks Tom!). If you are looking for me...I am on the left, third row from the front, wearing a blue baseball cap.
Until next year...
