racer's blog

Since I am a new blogger, I would like to introduce myself. My simple story of transitioning into the team reveals the best of Dragon Hearts. 

I joined Dragon Hearts Beat for the 2008 Taiwanese Festival. It was my fourth year as a dragon boat paddler, and my fifth year involved in any dragon boat team. Since then I have participated in every festival that was contested by Beat. I absolutely love this club. It has done nothing but good for me. Perhaps such feelings were partly influenced by my previous experiences in dragon boat.  

During my years in my high school team and my only year in an adult team, I have encountered some very admirable people. I have met amazing individuals who wanted to contribute to their team as more than just paddlers. They spent untold hours organizing events and managing members. There were also those who just paddled, but expended their utmost effort in showing great leadership. 

But I also came across some not-so-good people. Without painfully going into greater detail, I will simply leave some unflattering descriptions of the worst individuals whom I have met in dragon boat: disobedient, cocky, selfish, unreasonably biased, apathetic, lazy, and weak-willed. Unfortunately, these people left stronger impressions upon me than those provided by my favourite teammates. Perhaps the not-so-good outnumbered the good. 

I was not sure what to do with dragon boat. Deep down I knew that a few bad people do not represent the whole sport. But I took a long break to convince myself. 

In 2008, one of the Beat members mentioned the team to me. The ill memories of dragon boat raced through my head. I was hesitant. But she assured me that the Taiwanese Festival was not serious. By that year I have avoided dragon boat for a year. I thought I could use a workout and some pleasant sights of False Creek. 

Beat was the complete opposite of my worst memories. The team did not in any way, not in the least bit, reminded me of my forgettable memories. Dragon Hearts was a very social and open dragon boat club. Its philosophy was that competitiveness and social networking are inseparable. Simply put, more members means a stronger club. The team receives the same benefits from networking as does an individual. Knowing more people connects a person to career opportunities, other interesting people, and special deals. A team could receive material resources (like venues to hold team events, supplies and tools that the team could “borrow,” and funding), potentially strong paddlers of the future, thoughtful people who have a wealth of ideas for improving the teams, and connections to the like. 

Dragon Hearts was not short-sighted. It did not expect nor did it want all its members to be unbelievably resourceful. Dragon Hearts would be happy simply by introducing dragon boat to newcomers and its team values to experienced paddlers. Its most basic request was that its current and former members do not act selfishly. It was a club of good faith. It did not ask for something before it provides. The process was reversed. All paddlers regardless of their skill levels were welcome to the team. Dragon Hearts was optimistic that if it presents itself positively to others, it will be rewarded by its members and non-members. 

Paddling for Beat was enough to replace a regular social life. We spent two nights each week on the water. We dined out after most practices. There was a gathering on every other weekend. It could be as simple as a movie and dinner or as elaborate as a club barbecue. For newcomers who had Facebook accounts, their Friends List swelled by at least a dozen. One could not be on the team unless he/she sees more than 20 “Mutual Friends” on a teammate’s profile. My e-mail inbox was also never the same. It does not take long for team e-mails to crowd out other messages. 

Beat was certainly not a team that was strictly about business. One of the most important ways to evaluate one’s involvement in any organization is to measure one’s willingness to welcome other members into his/her personal life. Are the fellow members merely colleagues, or are they also friends? There was something about the team that made everyone open up. We did not speak or act in a way that made us appear as though we accept friends with only certain personalities and qualities. Beat had an everlasting combination of members who were in diverse points and situations of their lives. Some were unemployed students. Some were employed but not studying. Some worked and studied. Others were “none of the above.” There were married paddlers who may or may not have children. My teammates quickly became my friends. I had enough motivation to come to practice every week. I wanted to improve myself and train for a successful race. However, seeing the warm faces and spending time together were equally, if not greater, incentives not to miss practices. 

Today we are thrilled that Dragon Hearts, especially Dragon Hearts Beat, has not lost any of its virtues by any degree. Our principles, values, and attitude have rewarded us with an exciting and successful 2009 season. The club grew large enough to spawn a new team, Dragon Hearts Breaker. Beat jumped several divisions in the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival compared to the previous year. Dragon Hearts Magnum advanced to the highest division of the festival. The three stories combine to illustrate a great phenomenon of competitiveness and social spiritedness working closely together. 

I am more than fortunate to be an intimate witness of this exciting time in the club’s history.

From my previous visits to Harrison, I’ve done camping and hiking but never dragon boating. As a first year paddler, I was so pumped for the Harrison DB Festival and couldn’t wait to race.

A Sleepless Night

Harrison was our first out of town race and the excitement was hard to contain; evident for those who endured a sleepless night. We were asked to get plenty of sleep before the race but apparently someone at 3am in the morning started texting other Beaters with a message “I can’t sleep, are you awake?” Needless to say this person shall remain nameless…but you know who you are.

The Beat’s captain, Diego, did a great job in arranging rides for the Beaters and Breakers. Surprisingly no one was left stranded in Vancouver and everyone arrived in Harrison in one piece…ummmm….I guess having an engineering degree does come in handy. As the first race for the Breakers was at 9:20am and the Beat was at 10:00am most of us left Vancouver at 6:00am….way too early…especially for those who have to give rides to everyone else.

Scenic Distraction

When my car pool buddies arrived at Harrison around 7:30am, the sun was just coming out and the air was fresh and breezy. Looking at Harrison Lake was like looking at a post card. You have a breath taking view of clear, icy water being surrounded by lush green mountains. Can you imagine being in a boat and on the water like that? It was amazing!

FOOD!!!! Need I Say More?

Our tents had already been set up and racers were just gathering in the athlete’s village. Thanks to Lillian’s lead, we all brought with us food to share. I realize now that dragon boating is synonymous with food. The spread was very impressive, from Martin’s sub-sandwiches to Philip’s cold noodle salad to Victoria’s cookies to Ali B’s fruit salad. The cold drinks, mango salsa, watermelon and blue berries were ideal as the day wore on and the temperature rose. Some of us had already started diving into the food, even before the first race, including myself. Andrew was quite taken with the guacamole nachos. I want to personally thank those who brought the Chinese buns…yummy!

200 Meter Race

The first race was the 200 meters. The Breakers, in their bright yellow and blue jerseys, were the first of the DH teams to warm up and race. For most of the members, this was their first time paddling at Harrison and for a few; it was their first time in a formal race. They were all so energized during warm up, that energy must’ve been carried into the boat as they finished with a respectable time of 1min 3 sec.

Magnum paddled at 9:30am and completed the race in first place with a time of 53 sec. Nobody was surprised by the impressive result.

[recruiting picture for Magnum @ Harrison during their race]

The Beat warmed up with a cardio workout, stretching and visualization on the beach. I think our captain wanted to challenge us because most other teams warmed up under the shade on levelled grass; however Diego decided to make us run under the hot beaming sun on the sand. I think the strategy worked because we did well finishing in 3rd place with a time of 54 sec.

Paddling in the fresh water was very different from paddling in salt water like that in False Creek. The boat tends to sink lower compared to salt water so the Beat increased the ups from 12 to 16 for the start. The water was also very choppy and there were larger waves so we had to dig down deeper. The 200 meter finished very quickly and we only did one power 10.

After the race we went back to the tent and practically attacked the food on the table.

The next race wasn’t until noon so we had about an hour and a half to eat…okay…maybe 10 min less for washroom break. Everyone was having such a great time eating, drinking (non-alcoholic of course), laughing, chatting, taking shade underneath the tent and napping.

However, our fearless captain was still hard at work, constantly looking at his clip board and reviewing the seating arrangement for the next races. Kudos to our captain for his hard work!

500 Meter Race

What's so special about the 500 meter race? Besides that it was the first full race of the day, the Breakers and the Beat got to race each other. Sibling rivalry!!!!

The Beaters (2 min 19 sec) ‘beat’ the Breakers (2 min 36 sec) by only 17 sec. What was even more exciting was the Beat came in first and the Breakers came in 3rd. How awesome was that! Too bad it wasn’t the championship race...just imagine, gold and bronze medals… Special thanks to Jenny & Martin for calling/steering the Beat boat and Jan & John for calling/steering the Breaker’s boat.

Magnum came in first in their heat at a time of 2 min 8 sec. Well done! [Anyone have Magnum Harrison photos to share?]

Semi Final Race

In order to advance to the final round, the teams must be in the top two in their heat. The Breakers were placed in Division D and finished in 4th place. John mentioned that there was a breakdown in timing on the boat which slowed them down...plus the Breakers couldn’t stay away from the food (which added weight?)…who can blame them? Next time, everyone should just bring cheese & crackers for the potluck.

The Beat was placed in Division B and had more time to rest from the 500 meter race…and the food. Personally, I think it was the best race of the day for the Beat. The boat just shot out of the gate and it felt extremely fast as we finished. We were neck and neck with Fluid Motion, losing only to them by only 0.07 sec and coming in second place.

Again, Magnum came in first in the Semi-final’s with 2 min and 9 sec. Along the way, a birthday girl got seriously dunked.

Final Race

After the disappointing results in the semi finals, the Breakers were motivated to redeem themselves. And did they ever…they did extremely well in Division D Consolation. The race was really tight and they edged into 3rd place. Way to go Breakers for showing guts!

Fire of Lights

Apparently the forecast for Harrison called for rain, thundershower and lightning. Who would’ve guessed that the weather forecast would be accurate? The weather turned for the worst in the afternoon. There were periods of heavy rain and we got to see some natural firework displays…I thought the Symphony of Fire was suppose to be held at English Bay in Vancouver!?!?

Close to 5:00ish and after the Division C Consolation race, everyone were asked to wait until it was safe to go back onto the water. We must’ve waited for more than ½ hour before the event organizers made the difficult decision to cancel the remaining final races.

Everyone was so disappointed…but no one wanted to become deep fried calamari. Oh… well, at least no one will forget the 2009 Harrison Festival. We packed it up and waited a couple of days for the organizers to decide on the final standings.

The Beat’s First 2009 Medal!

Leave it to our captain in his attempt to keep us in the dark about the results for Harrison. I so regret not dunking Diego in Harrison, right now! He wanted to surprise us in our celebratory dinner but he underestimated his team’s ability. Philip found out that we had won a silver medal and spammed everyone! Oh yeahhhh! It was so sweet. I was on cloud 9 for the next few days.

Five days later, we held a mock final race and had the celebratory dinner. The atmosphere was so great at the Congee Noodle House. It was like we had just won a medal…oh wait a minute…we did!

Highlights at Harrison

Potluck breakfast/lunch
Winning our first medal
Free tattoo service from James
Firework display over looking the lake
The highlight for me is the team work I witnessed…on the water and on land. Winning a medal is really something but it’s over shadowed by everything else that made that day special and memorable. With no exception, everyone contributed to the potluck, cleaning up and helped with getting team mates to and from the festival.

 

Race fee for Harrison DB Festival…$40
Cancellation of the final race…-$40
Being a part of the DH family…priceless

Last Words…Kudos

I need to thank so many people for giving me my first medal, including:

1. John for being the “heart” of DH, doing all the behind the scene work and for “steering” us in the right direction.

2. James for moulding us to become a winning team.

3. Diego for leading us in this festival, being our left stroker, organizing the car pool arrangements, yada, yada, yada.

4. Joey for being our right stroker. I can always count on you…to be on time.

4. Lillian for organizing the AWESOME potluck. Let’s do it again!

5. Way for captaining the Beat team this season…although your body was not present, your spirit was.

6. Everyone else from the Dragon Hearts family for showing me what dragon boating should be about…team spirit and having fun, win or lose. Now, when I chant “Who’s Got Heart…”, there is a deeper meaning for me.

We had a pretty cool practice on Thursday night. James came by and gave us about 45 minutes coaching and debriefing. We worked on the push-pull drill and worked on our snappy recovery, race pieces. It was nice. What else is new.. mm oh. Rotation.

I notice we all have this flaw. When we're tired, we don't rotate, or we start arm paddling and do funny things. Some people over rotate, some don't rotate at all. Personally, I over rotate sometimes, when I notice I do, I start to not rotate and start rotating when I get my groove back on. It's funny. Hopefully I can correct that before Alcan comes along.

You know what would help with rotation? If you start paddling with a proper sitting position and set up that stroke with a reach and a rotation, your rotation will come to play.

One step at a time, WNN! Try sitting square, straight, looking forward and SLIGHTLY lean forward. Okay!!! KEEP IT THERE~ Don't come back up. Now....

1. turn your chest towards your seat partner
2. your lower arm extended like it's going to slap the front guy's thigh
3. now move chest back to original position till your left right shoulders form a straight line

That's right I gotta do it too....
My flaw comes from over rotating~ when I "unwind" myself, my shoulders are not aligned and I'm getting ready for the next stroke and never get a chance to correct my flaw on the next stroke. You know.. just.. constantly going in without correcting the stroke. It becomes a habit. Gotta work on rotation again next practice.

Raaaashaaa!! Boooyaaa!

PS: Start drinking plenty of water, aight? It's time to get hydrated, baby!!! Eat healthy!! and sleep early.. Ai.. Look who's talking

Why was it so hard to recover or exit well?
Well means clean recovery, and crisp exit.
It took me forever to figure out how to exit properly without splashing the victim in front of me. SORRY!! No.. you say thank you, then the splasher should say you're welcome in advance? Anyway, let's not get off topic here.

Some people simply have great reflexes and they can take out the paddle and reach up front in a smooth movement, crisp and maybe powerful :p. Some are less flexible, you know..we're not all born flexible. So it takes practice. Believe in yourself you can do it and keep working on it!

Going back to the exit, what are the key points to having clean exit?
You need flexible top arm and lower arm movement, shoulders movement, and hips movement. They don't come over night if you're not born with it! So it's ok if you dun get the first time or the second time. There are the different parts of your body that requires a lot of attention while doing the exit for example, hand, arms, shoulders, and hips.

First off, tell yourself to hold the paddle FIRMLY, NOT AHH!!TIGHT!!!! but FIRMMMMMMMMMMLY. "Hold it like you mean it" (Kamini, 2009) Your lower arm needs to be trained/constantly reminded to keep it straight till it reaches the end of your stroke, THEN bend it to take it out of the water, THEN imagine someone's pulling your lower arm to touch someone's thigh!!! HAHA
Let's break it down, shall we? paddles up..!!!!
Reach up front --> dip it down (catch) --> arm straight, paddle --> paddle reaches knee? bend your lower arm to take the blade out of the water--> Reach towards your$ paddler (the person in front of you)'s thigh!

Your top arm needs attention too. You don't wanna be TOO TIGHT with your grip, you wanna be firm!! like a dragon boater hand shake. (freak'in firm, but not tight) Just hold it like you mean it. Keep your top arm kinked at the indicated angle (ask James?) follow through with your stroke. Your top arm should be at the same angle no matter you're catching or, taking a stroke, or uhhh...recovering.
relax your shoulder when you set up and be prepare to show your armpit while you rotate.

Your shoulder should always be relaxed. You don't wanna paddle without a neck. I can imagine a dragon boater having to paddle with the shoulders all tensed and stuff cos I did that too when I'm too excited. We need to see some rotation from the paddle... and lots of that rotation movement, comes from the hips and a lot of initiation from the shoulders. If your shoulder is relaxed, you can snap it out easily.

Your hips is where the power comes from.
They give you that extra inch when you reach. Swing em good :) You can do it.

Incorporate all that in sequence of movements.
VOILA... aight. it doesn't ..VOILA~~~ or viola.. la la..
It takes practice. :) patience :) and some sexiness. You got the sexiness covered, I'm sure.

It's been two intensed training months for me personally. How was it for you guys?

I'm starting to notice how important it is to keep track of your own training progress. How would I know if I am improving? How would I know if I'm doing THIS right, or pulling at the right angle? Now that I have practiced keeping track of my training progress, I understand my ability a lot more AND I know what to work on now. Yeah it gets overwhelming sometimes. There's just too much stuff to know and fine tune!

Here's what I noticed, and I like to thank the coaches for pointing things out.

We shouldn't lean out but not sit right against the gunnel.
At first the coach said I tend to shift weight back to the boat when I take a stroke. So I kept my eyes open for that.
When I'm tired, I tend to do that. But there were something else that caused me to lose balance thus caused the weight shifting back and forth.

Coach noticed I was slid'in off my seat a couple times. Yes, I was leaning out but I wasn't sitting against the gunnel. So my weight was shifting inside the boat as I slide away from the gunnel.
What's the purpose of leaning out?
- ..To get your weight outta the boat and everyone will paddle less of your weight.

Here's what happened.
Right after I took a stroke and did the hinge thing in a repeated manner,
I watched myself slid'in away from the gunnel stroke after stroke. Again, I'm adding more weight INSIDE the boat as I do. Moreover, as I find myself slidding further and further away from the gunnel, I'd have to re-adjust my sitting posture constantly even during the race, which is very dangerous to do so.
As a result of putting weight IN the boat, I wasted your paddling effort.
The cause of all that problem was.... I couldn't stay on my seat!!! #$(#*)(*!!

So the next time I did a little experiment, I brought one of those butt pad thingy and I sat on it and tried to lean out as I paddled. I didn't see myself shifting like I did. Uhhh... but when the pad slips off the seat, I start paddling funny. Mmmm.. I need a bigger pad.

Next task: rotate!

Sitting in general:
Sit up, edge of seat, square face forward, brace well (need to sit stable), sit comfortable to start but will be uncomfortable once you start paddling, body slightly forward so it's over your hips.
stick your butt out while sitting

lower arm: straight, let it lead.
upper arm: supports your stroke, supposed to be anchor, hand above elbow, elbow above shoulder. avoid upper arm too high, open your arm pit

Sitting on 6-16 boat:
recommended -
outside foot: heel touch boat, toes on anchor or something BUT ankle should be straight to brace yourself better.
inside foot: on boat, place comfortably flat on boat,doesn't really matter as long as you are comfortable and helps your sitting position as mentioned above.

Paddle:
parallel to boat,

catch (entering): emphasize on stretching out, push outside hand forward, open your outside armpit, take hip back as you reach,now reach then catch,now drag paddle back with your body as you return to original position (recovery)

recovery: shoulder relax, upper arm does NOT move. open your arm pit
Tips: upper arm lift paddle up slightly, lower arm follow, then take the lead

good habit to do your recovery when body is squared.
good habit to recover when the blade is vertical in the water
good habit to keep your elbow out
fcrcc have a "flick out" recovery method.. Some teams use it.. it's up to our discretion

top hand drive: upper hand push down JUST to keep the paddle in the water. Don't need to push it way down. warning: paddlers might put too much emphasis on pushing down and not rotation. therefore top hand drive is not that recommended for some paddlers. they might neglect the fundamental of rotation.

avoid bob: set up is important (sitting), don't collapse weight on feet when you paddle. catch with blade, minimum on bowel weight. swing your hips back.

recommended - don't swing legs. outside leg don't move too much. inside leg move a lot. should lean body out, don't lean our with your waist

review of video: (ed's boat, left) (links at the end of the email)
If anyone paddles like Lillian.
note that she pulls too quickly before the blade is catch.
Top arm needs to be more steady
Problem: tendency to apply top hand drive before catching. that's too early.
Solution: think bury the blade, then paddle.
Set up is good.

Order of paddling:
Set up --> reach --> catch --> (elbow straight) pull while move body back FAST --> top arm lift --> Set up...

warning:
beware of locking joints. might hurt yourself
hyper extend outside arm, might cause you not paddle straight

Good habits: relax shoulder to get a longer reach
good habit to not spend too much power GOING IN, but spend more power pulling it back
good habit to keep rotation with catch
good habit to sit up and use your butt cheek as pivot
good habit to keep a up right posture (slightly body over hips) in the beginning
good habit to keep your back straight, body straight when you rotate (don't hunch)
good habit to bury your pinky when you paddle but NOT YOUR WHOLE HAND
good habit to paddle parallel to boat

Common question:
When do we PUSH WITH UPPER ARM?
Answer:
Top arm push down when the blade is all the way in. but the idea is not to make the boat go uppppp...
the idea is to keep the blade in the water as you pull back.
and upper arm is giving it pressure as it applies power to your pull.

Ed's Front Lefts
Ed's Front Rights
Ed's Middle Lefts
Ed's Middle Rights
Ed's Back Lefts
Ed's Back Rights
Theresa's Front Lefts
Theresa's Front Rights
Theresa's Back Lefts
Theresa's Back Rights
All FCRCC Paddlers together with clinic participants

Easy practice today. Some of us (former ccpc and Jac from Team Magnum) are going to double-dip tomorrow, so John cut us some slack :P Thank you!!! What a great father of Dragon Hearts monkies!

We only paddled for an hour and went back to briefing .. just a little bit. We don't know what time we're meeting on Saturday and Sunday yet, but we'll know by Friday for sure.

Aud, Jam, Rem, Tif, Lil, Adri, and Lea went for ice-cream at xxxxx xxxxxx. :p yummmmmy~

Random Blurb:

Here's something unrelated to the practice and yummy ice-cream. I came across this article about James Erlandsen, who's a drummer from Gung Haggis Fat Choy. Some of our Dragon Hearts paddlers went to Vernon with this team. So as soon as I saw GHFC on the article, (I think it was the team name that got my attention) I stayed behind to read the article and skipped the briefing. (Oops... Sorry!)

The article says James from GHFC has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. He's undergoing medical treatment right now. (found out he has Leukemia in Feb) Since he has no siblings, the chance of him finding the right bone marrow donor is very low already. At least someone in Canada should be able to save his life. He's Eurasian. If you are too, you might be able to help. Canadian Blood Services (CBS) said you have to:

Register to be a bone marrow donor with CBS
They will mail you an information package
If you finally decide to donate, you can book an appointment to do testing and donate bone marrow.

The only thing is if you donate bone marrow (just like blood), your bone marrow might not go to James right away. You don't get to choose who you want your bone marrow to go to. It's very hard to find a match... but there is a chance! Even if you are not Eurasian, your bone marrow might still be able to save James Erlandsen.

I don't know him personally, but I think it's an interesting coincidence that I saw this article. I usually don't pay attention to the bulletin board @ dragon zone. Just so happened..... something made me wanna stay behind, skip the breifing and read the bulletin board and write about it tonight. Just....fate. I'm known as an overly-active loud-mouth sometimes. So yeah I'm going to spread the words. Please help him out! And I'll do some research about it. Not everyone's suitable to donate, especially we're talking bone marrow. Anyway... Look into it if you can. Help spread the words if you can. Maybe someone reading this right now has matching bone marrow for James. You never know!

 

After about 4 complete race pieces total, (some short ones) we couldn't do anymore powerful start. We saved up for the finish and give hell to False Creek. EAT OUR DUST, YOU DIRTY WATER!

First race piece was a bit sloppy, but it got better and better. 
We worked on endurance and some of the paddlers got picked on. Yeah, watch the negative paddling. I'm not gonna say who.
Coach emphasized again the up's are up front. If we're tire, keep the paddling up front.
Critique on the side, Coach Mui reminded us to bring the paddle out of the water instead of pulling too far.  A lot of us are putting a lot of effort in our strokes pulling really hard and all, but it drags the boat down. Why? Check if you're paddling too far back. You may start up front but pull way back. If you remember, "there's no point to put so much power to pull your paddle so far back when all it does is drag the boat down." Take it out and hang till the next stroke.

If you're tire, make good use of your technique.

Relax on your reach, and bamm!!!! on the pull.
Don't tense up~~~ Relax and accelerate through your stroke.
Don't relax through your stroke.
Hahah this **honk** is not easy hahaha.. Play with it... see what you find and if this makes sense to you.

Thank you, Way, for coming to steer for us : )
and of course.. taking care of DH's ride and stuff.
You're the bomb!

Oh dear, this is the second time I'm writing the recap. I just lost the blurb I wrote from Thursday practice. Anyway.. Here it is again:

If you're paddling at the back, technique to you is more important than anything. You have to paddle in a more technical way. How so? The water runs much faster at the back of the boat. When you put your blade in the water, the water pushes your blade back much faster than any other spots at the boat. All the heavy water is WAY UP FRONT. In order to catch the heavy water, you need to rotate AND put some weight on to your paddle as you rotate. The command you might hear is "get on top of your blade" or "reach for the heavy water". Emphasize on putting the blade in (really in) before pulling it. What might happen is that the water will take your blade back before you can plant the blade in. You just have to fight it. Get your blade in the water first before accelerating through your stroke. If you pull too soon, you are only pulling light water and you're dragging the boat for pulling too fast. Remember "WHAT'S THE RUSH?" "SPEND MORE TIME UP FRONT". Now you know what that means.

We had three crazy race pieces, and two 20 to 30 minutes endurance training nonstop. We paddled to Graville Island dock to drop off Kitty and said bye bye to K&K. "Ok, we have to bring the boat back to Dragon Zone." We were so together when we said "Awwwwwrgh!!!!!" Can you say "TEAM SPIRIT?"

We were puked! Luckily, no one wanted to race us. YESH!!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this next practice. Are you?