THE FOLLOWING IS A COPY OF A PERSONAL MESSSAGE SENT BY HASIB TO ALL HIS FRIENDS ETC AND IT EXPLAINS THE DAYS EVENTS IN A WAY THAT I COULD NOT. I HOPE HE DOES NOT MIND MY SHARING IT WITH OUR FELLOW ROTARIANS.
"Dear lucky ones (those who attended) and unlucky ones (everyone else),
It was good wasn't it?
After 3-4 months of build-up, tension and angst the day finally arrived. Heeock and I arrived at the venue at 7.45 am to find most of the Tower Hamlets Rotary Club busy setting up. I started assisting the other parking volunteers (Celia, Jacob, Columbus) from 8am-9.45am, and the chores included helping people find the venue (Royal Victoria Docks seems to be a bit of a Bermuda Triangle for older Sat-Nav's).
With hindsight I should have left my post 15 mins earlier because, come 0945, I was met with 30 frantic about-to-be-boaters not knowing where to be or what to do. Sorry about the stress guys. It was new for all of us to be fair, but the Dragons Alive team were helpful and we were soon "cooking on gas". Everybody in both camps put on their Tower Hamlets T-shirts (courtesy of Casual Tees).
To the backdrop of the African Band and opening ceremony we assembled our 2 teams:
My first surprise of the day was seeing just how few people wanted to be in the "fun boat" and how many preferred the "serious boat". Yunghan and I refused to join our wives for example. Competitive bunch aren't we! Jon, Nim and Stephen (probably our 3 strongest units) valiantly stepped in to help the damsels in distress (and Mike :-) )
Anyway, we lined up as follows
Serious boat - Tower Hamlets Tigers
Rachel (drummer)
Saqeeb, Me
George, David
Tony , Paul Cooke
Shish, Sumfais
Ash, Yunghan
Jack T, Tom B
Leo, Andy
Adil, Will
Fun boat - Tower Hamlets Titans
Michelle (drummer)
Lawrence, Leia
Heeock, Haitham
Jon, Nim
Stephen,John
Mike,Stephanie
Patrick, Amen
Spectators
Leonie (photographer) , Ish (tailbone), Ina, Dina, mothers of Andy's, Ash's and mine.
After the safety briefing and technique guide from Buzz (foghorn) we wondered who our initial opponents would be. Well, well well... who would have guessed it? It was the local derby, Tigers v Titans. Friends v friends. Husband v Wives. Much trash talking ensued up to the starting line.
1st heat
The race was competitive for a while but the greater numbers prevailed in a time of 44 seconds (for 200m). Perhaps next time a slightly longer course would be better. This was just a sprint.
To give you some context, there were 17 teams in total, Racing Pandas were top with a time of 40 seconds with Barcap in 2nd with 42 seconds. We knew we'd improve, however. Unfortunately, Titans were in last place for a while with a time of 58 seconds.
2nd heat
The second race saw the Titans lose 2 people and they struggled to cope - losing their race in a time of 57 seconds.
Tigers faced off against Barcap in the 2nd race. They are a strong team and race seriously and regularly. In a stunning upset we pipped them to the post and recorded the 2nd best time of the day - 40 seconds. We really clicked into gear after a reasonable start.
3rd heat
Titans saved their best effort till last, ripping through an overconfident youthful opponent to reach their best time of the day (51 seconds) - ahead of at least 4 other teams. Good effort!
Tigers faced up against the favourites in the last heat - racing Pandas! These guys are serious. They turn up not only every year but they are semi-pros. Brought their own paddles and elastic bands to gain every advantage. In fairness they're a brilliant team. We ran them close but couldn't make up for a poor start. Our time was 41 seconds, theirs 39.5. However, as the 3rd best team so far we qualified for the A-final. For. The. First. Time. Ever!
Bravo!
Food
The longish queues whetted the appetites, but our food vouchers, the biryanis, waffles and drinks soon replenished our reserves. Great credit must go to the volunteers in the food tent. Great job guys.
Raffle
The impressive prizes (weekends breaks, champagne) didn't go to any of us unfortunately despite several near misses (I think a few people mislaid their tickets). Still, it was quite funny watching the district governor sweat whilst having to repeatedly count down for dramatic effect and calling out "winning" number after "winning" number that nobody claimed.
Other distractions
Did anyone have time for the face painting or bouncy castles? Maybe the spectators could get back to me!
The final (the A-final)
This was nerve-racking. The Tigers, a team of mostly first timers were taking on seasoned pros. We really wanted to win this, in the face of the long odds. Despite our best planning, we made a poor start. A mixture of fatigue and inexperience meant we couldn't close the gap on the leaders and we recorded our worst time of the day - 46 seconds.
After an initial disappointment and a few "what happened's" we comforted ourselves with the fact that, really, as relative beginners, we had no right to be in the final. If anything, we overperformed in Heat 2. And you know something, we'll be better next year so those racing Pandas and Barcap (worthy winners this time) had better watch out! Also, we won the prize for best Rotary Team so cherish your medals Tigers!
Final thoughts
Thank you so much. All of you. I was really nervous that the day would not go well - as this was our first stint at organising. Without your participation and support my fears would have been realised. It goes without saying that my fellow Rotarians were both Tigers and Titans when it came to the behind the scenes work and planning.
Also, thank you to Haitham and Nim for staying back and helping clear up just as it started to pelt it down with rain.
Finally but most importantly, thank you to all those who have donated (including those who couldn't make it such as Preeti, Rajib and Masood). We are still counting up the numbers and collecting but the event broke even a long time ago and I'm confident that our 3 causes - Macmillan Cancer Support, St Marks Trust and Local Tower Hamlets initiatives - will be getting a lot of funding and positive publicity out of this. Job well done.
We've already set the date for next year - Sunday 15 May 2011. Put it in the diaries please. You're all officially invited again.
The venue (undecided), food, performances, race course, smoothness ought to be even better than this year's as we actually know what to expect next time.
Yours in Rotary
Has"