Oh, what the heck!! I have decided to plaster an image of myself here. I have been pretty successful being in the outskirts for long, skimming the sidelines all these times. I thought it would be nice to give you a glimpse of the person behind the words. Besides, I'm sure my friend Mavic will find it easier to hook me up with her nice friends. :-)
The photo was taken by a friend last Saturday during an annual local dragonboat race held every May which my team joined. Close to ten Manila-based dragonboat teams joined the annual race for the 500-meter event. I have to thank Joaquin for waking up early and heading to Manila Bay and play with his camera. Since I'm the only one he knows there, I became a captive subject. My thanks also goes out to my friend McVie for driving all the way from Marikina to Baywalk just to watch.
We did good in the race. We finished first in our eliminations heat to advance in the semifinals. In the semis, we were pitted against a pseudo-civilian team where more than half of the rowers came from the former Marines team. Even then, we didn't allow them to go past us so easily. We finished a close second which assured us of a slot in the finals.
Of six teams in the finals, we clocked in for third. Not bad considering the winning teams weren't really civilian-civilian. We were glad that gave us the chance to go up the stage in the awarding to receive our medals. Meanwhile, our women's team did us proud. They made sure they left their mark. All of them were present in the awarding to receive their championship trophy and medals.
For those who missed last Saturday's race, there's another one coming three Sundays from now.
