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| obligatory plane wing-in-sunset shot before take-off in Vancouver. |
A few posts ago, I entitled my entry ‘de-classified
information’. That was in respect of racing a para kayak. This past week, I was
officially classified to race V-1, the para outrigger. I travelled to Montréal
to partake in the classification process, and it was successful. In the eyes of
the International Canoe Federation, I'm officially disabled enough to be worthy
of that particular boat.
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Stuck a maple leaf on my paddling prosthetic just to
remind myself of "what's possible" each time I take a stroke. |
Don’t get me started on how being a partial hand amputee does
not make one worthy of also being a para kayaker. Who needs fingers to hold a paddle?! It is what it is, though!
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Same tree. Same idiot. (editors note: it hurts more to
do this with a hand with missing fingers. I didn't love it). |
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Finish line at the Bassin Olympique.
This happens to be a women's canoe event. |
SO aaaanyway, the classification was part one of the trip to
Montréal. Part two was to race in a couple of national team trials sprints to
see if qualifications for the 2015 worlds could be achieved. In a word: no. Neither
Saturday nor Sunday did I manage to post a time that qualified. I was
disappointed in this, as I have been training on times well within the range I
was trying to achieve. My Saturday race, admittedly, was sloppier than I would
have liked. The Sunday race actually went quite well, though in different,
generally slower conditions. I managed to post the exact same time on both
days. Logically, then, had I put down as clean a race on Saturday as I did on
Sunday, I may have put in a qualifying time. Ah well, no sense over thinking this.
In general, I am happy with my weekend. Many objectives were
achieved. I am classified. That’s a big weight lifted. I know where my time
stands where before I did not, and I know where I need to improve.
A third aspect to the weekend: a return to the Montréal race course that I haven’t
paddled on since 1997. Nostalgia couldn't help but play a role in the weekend.
As I paced around the compound, I recalled the victories my wife enjoyed back
when we were teens (she was a national champ that year, on that course). I myself
enjoyed my best single boat showing as a teenager that year, getting into a K1 final. Camaraderie
with team mates, humid summer weather, exploring a new city—all of these memories came flooding back
to me. Granted, I had all my fingers back then. There's no accounting for every circumstance, I suppose.
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| Guess you could call this... a... hand bag? |
I revel in the fact that the sport that gave me so many experiences and lifelong
friends—not to mention girlfriends, and my wife!—is affording me a second existence of new friendships, new explorations and the continuation of racing in a sport
that is so ingrained in my life.
So, I didn’t post a championship-qualifying time… for now. But that’s OK. in the 18 years since I came to this spot in Montreal last, I
know I’ve already won quite a lot.
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| Ahh, progress. three photos side by side in 1997 vs. a panorama in 2015 taken on this thing called a "smartphone". |
