Beware of Dragons

I lost my mind temporarily last week and joined a Dragon Boat team. I have never been in a dragon boat, nor seen a dragon boat race or frankly, had any desire to do it. Somehow, while convincing a colleague at work not to quit the team, I ended up signing up myself. We aren't as hard core as other teams - we only practice once a week, and we only have one race day. The countdown is on - June 16th is the big day. I will be racing at the Hong Kong dragon boat festival.

Yesterday, I made my way to Stanley Beach in Hong Kong, was given a quick lesson on how to paddle by our coach in very broken English and made my way into the boat (it wasn't a pretty sight). The water was rough yesterday, but the sun was shining (a rare occurrence). It took me a few minutes to get the hang of it, but it wasn't too hard. I think all of those years of canoeing and kayaking have paid off! After a few minutes, I was completely soaked by the waves and I am currently waiting for giardia to set in - I must have swallowed a gallon of dirty sea water. After an hour and a half, I was quite certain I couldn't continue. My legs and arms felt like jelly. After one drill, my arms were actually shaking. How am I going to race? I thought - there is no way I am strong enough. Oh well, I have five more practices before race day. I have to improve before then. I hope.

As I stood in line to shower the caked on sea salt from my body, a girl from my team came up to me and asked, "How long have you been dragon boating for? Your form is really great!". I laughed and told her that this was my first time. She looked shocked and said, "Well good for you - you are doing so well!". Maybe it won't be so bad after all.