Dead Water Sucks

So, in a moment of total insanity, I volunteered to join my hospital's Dragon Boat team, the Tide Riders. Mind you, I joined up in the final week and a half before the festival itself, so I haven't had the amount of practice time the other paddlers have. My first and only practice was yesterday evening - I came close to a full-blown asthma attack only once, but I did refine my stroke and learned that I need to use at least a 48" paddle.

The gal who ordered the T-shirts for the participants has a rather Barbieesque view of things - considering she's barely twenty-five, I guess I can't fault her. She ordered mostly size S and M shirts, on the premise that all the women wearing them would be those sizes; any woman who didn't fit into one of those sizes must be an obese hog, so the only other size available is a 2XL. Now these shirts are cut fairly generously, and since I am only 40 lbs overweight, I could have fit into a L, but instead I am stuck with wearing something that would fit me and my niece under it with room to spare. And it's green - NOT one of my best colors.

Our first race was tonight, at 7:30 p.m., the first Health Care Challenge heat. Okay, there are extra bodies available, so my asthma and back and I chose to sit it out and cheer from the shore. Our organizer and tireless leader also sat this one out. She hadn't eaten all day and had worked a full shift on three hours' sleep. The Tide Riders were in lane 1, closest to the shore. Their timing was excellent, all paddles moving up and down in absolute unison. Unfortunately, the North Saskatchewan river is low this summer, and has very tricky currents. Close in to the shore is a channel of 'dead' water, one that resists the paddles' efforts and almost bogs a paddled vessel down. Even though our team had the finest form and the neatest (Norwegian, yet!) chants, we came in dead last.

Tomorrow we race again at 11:10 a.m., then, if we qualified among the three fastest in Health Care (Ha! fat chance) again at 11:40, and once more at 3:00 p.m. Wish us luck!