It was 9 years ago....

Nine years ago, our team started without a real name, the sole goal of crossing the finish line without capsizing and times of 2:57 as our best. We finished in "S" division but the following two years, slipped down to "T". Such is our history... Our coach back then was Blake (who heads up NDC) and I remember this one practice he wore a shirt that, on the front said, "The pain is temporary" and on the back it said "The glory is forever" ...Here we are, 9 years later and I couldn't agree more with that saying. Let's bask in our glory!! Let me recap our amazing weekend for you: 1. "Personal best" team time on our first day of racing with a time of 2:25:83. 2. Qualifying for the "A" division championship non-profit race which, not only allowed us to sleep in this morning but proved we can maintain our right to be in that race (-- last year was not a fluke!) 3. We climbed two divisions from last year into "L" Today.... we have a brand new BEST TIME EVER (I checked and it's official) 1. Our last race today was: 2:25:51. 2. The fastest ever! (and it should be noted: NO TAILWIND!) 3. Today....we won GOLD in our "L" division Today.... we proved that this team just keeps getting better and better each year. WELL DONE and CONGRATULATIONS to each of you! Thank you for your dedication and hard work throughout this season or, for our guest paddlers, this whole weekend. The boat felt fantastic and while winning makes things extra sweet, I still maintain that I love this team and you guys really are family to me. It's always a pleasure to captain Red Threads and I thank you for making it easy for me -- particularly this season. Thank you again to Domenic and Roland for coming out this weekend and helping us. Thank you to Derek and Roland for sitting out of races today and being so positive about it. We appreciated your support from the banks of the water. Thank you to Lisa for organizing ferry tickets. Thank you to Dave for organizing food.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD7KL1rK9kk

There IS a kid practice coming. I'm in the process of speaking to Blake about our options. Everyone is invited to help the kids paddle -- whether you are an official Red Thread, guest, or a spouse. Andrea has kindly offered to host a team BBQ after the paddle which everyone can join us at is you don't want to paddle. Date and details to follow. In September we will have our standard "Victory Dinner". Date and details to follow with that too. Anyone with photos of the team, please share them either via email or on a website. I think Mike can give access to people who want to share on our blog. If you want to look at our history, the blog is : http://redthreaddragons.blogspot.com/ and I believe you can find details under 2009's entries. In the meantime, just for fun, feel free to do a "reply all" and flood everyone's email accounts with your thoughts and happiness!!! Paddles resting! (How sad...)

#Vacation