An Apple a day...

Day one of the slalom race on the Apple River (Buttercup series #1):

Set-up was fun. Just a few of us came out but we worked quickly. Poison Ivy EVERYWHERE! For those of you who don't know, I am very very allergic to the stuff. Have to get shots every time I touch it. I washed in the river repeatedly (thanks for the soap, Mary) and no signs of it yet.

Anyway, I helped set up both here and at the MWC races - a great learning experience. At these smaller races, you get to chat with the race director / course designer as they discuss which gates go where and why, what moves they want people to make, and how they want to challenge the boaters as you fine tune the gates. Not a bad deal for just crawling out of bed a couple of hours early. For a newbie like me, it's a guided tour of the course though much more experienced eyes.

This race was a junior olympic qualifier so half the competitors were juniors or cadets. Amazing kids, many who will be making the US or Canadian national teams in a few years, no doubt. Hailey, 13, from Wisconsin was a delight. Such a positive & determined girl. We ran our K1 and C1 practice runs together, and took a practice run in the C2. I later raced C2 with Susan and OC2 with Dave.

C2 and OC2 rocked my world. Seriously. Until today, I thought I would hate having another person controlling the boat with me - the thing that is supposed to be just an extension of my hips, moving easily with my body - but I loved racing tandem. It was like figuring out a puzzle with another person, having a supplemental engine on your boat. The power of two paddles was awesome. We had so much fun every run. And, interestingly, I raced harder on both of my C2 & OC2 runs than I did solo. Something about being instantly accountable to another person made me bring it, pure and simple.

That scares me a little. Where is that extra drive when I am solo? I think this might mean two things: 1) I need to figure out how to harness it when I'm alone in a C1. How can I become as accountable to myself as I am to other people? I do think that I can develop this. 2) This might just mean I would rock the C2 someday.