Big Girls on the Water
Back to finesse, to power and strength, back with my team. Back to an 11 hour day for less than 60 minutes of paddling. Because that's what a sprint race comes down to: a lot more time off the water than on - rigging boats, sitting, talking, napping, reading, eating, waiting, cheering.
(Pa'a waiting to race. Photo by Jennifer Villamin)My rookie year I was impatient with the excess downtime, the amount of commitment it took to race for maybe a total of 3500 meters over 3 races - if you were lucky enough to get into a boat for the longer ones, of course. But gradually I came to see that sprint races are just an extension of what I seek in life. Time outdoors, in good company, being active. Friends, nature, fun. You can only do so many 7-hour run days anyway. (Now skiing is a completely different story.)
So on this last day of the sprint season all my 'A' girls were in attendance - ladies of broad backs, sculpted shoulders and competitive fire. We killed it in the 2000 and 500 races. And in the 1000, we went out to dominate the first heat. But as we cruised back to the shoreline we learned it was not our heat to race in and so with seconds to spare we turned our boat back to the starting line to race in the 2nd heat, which we won. And of course, 2 heats meant a final that we wrapped up nicely (and quickly) for a trifecta of victories across all our 1000 races and for me, Steph, Julie and Sue - a trifecta of victories across all the races we entered.
It was a spectacular day of racing in good company on a beautiful breezy day that I was reluctant but ready to say good-bye to. After all, there were 18+ miles with Dana on the trails waiting for me the next day.
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