It has been almost 2 months since my last entry, and so much has changed. The beginning of 2008 is already a stark contrast to my life last year. I have a new job and a new home, both major transitions that have been a long time coming. But I still have the same friends challenging me to dig a little deeper, and the same loving family to laugh with at the end of the day. And I always have my boat and my paddle; my muscles and the water. What more could a girl want?
I honestly had no idea how many people were reading this blog until I stopped posting for a month. Missouri paddlers I hardly knew where asking me when I was going to update. I am both humbled and flattered by the interest. I am deeply passionate about racing, but because almost all of my practices are alone, I feel as though I am by myself in a bubble. The interest of others in my efforts and in whitewater slalom is extremely motivating; thank you.
So here, by popular demand and in no particular order, are ten things that have happened to me since I last posted! Now that the holidays have passed, expect more to be coming soon. The MWA Pool Slalom is this weekend! And qualifier races around the country start in just three weeks!
(click on pictures to enlarge)
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1. Paddled the Saint Francis River
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Unfortunately, I have only done this once. Last year, I had already been on about 10 times by early-January! That was my first year paddling, and it seems I got spoiled by consistent high water. Long chats with friends over a fire at D-bridge were wonderful times, and I was looking forward to them this winter. The river has been too low so far this season (USGS graph) except briefly in early December. I will keep watching the weather reports for rain and keep my gear ready to go! Perhaps, by a strange stroke of luck, we will have water for the races. Here's hoping.
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2. Found the Limits of my "Truck"
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My friends know that I call my toyota corolla my little truck. It has survived the Rockies, hauled hundreds of pounds of lumber, and faithfully delivered my boats to race after race. Sometimes, I forget it is only a light weight, 2-wheel-drive sedan. Looking for the put-in of a river, I drove over some iced-over wheel ruts from construction vehicles. Crack! As my wheels broke the ice, I discovered they were deceptively deep! I was stuck. My wheels just spun, shooting a jet of muck into the air. I decided I would have to jack up the car and put large branches under the wheels to move. I was muddy and frustrated. Rather than get angry, I just took my boat and walked the rest of the way to the river. After a fantastic hour on the water, I returned to find a family, out for a walk, examining my car (it looked pretty obviously dumb once the ice melted). They helped push me out and I was on my way!
Christmas Day, around 3pm, I said goodbye to my family and hit the road. After a year watching video of the whitewater center in Charlotte, NC, I would finally have a chance to paddle there. This was by far the biggest water I have tackled in a slalom C1. I absolutely loved it and I cannot wait to return. I am very jealous of my friends who have the opportunity to train on this water regularly. I struggled with my roll during the week. Not the physical skill -- I had trouble staying calm upside down in water that I was so intimidated by. At the end of the week, I had nailed a few combat rolls and I was running the top half of the competition channel comfortably. I never ran the bottom drop, the largest rapid on the course. I made obvious progress during the week, but not as much as I would like. I am looking forward to returning soon. Below the bridge.
...Memphis, Tennessee! Christmas was spent at my Grandparents' home, surrounded by family. It was a wonderful holiday. When you get all three siblings together (which does not happen often enough) it is guaranteed to be a blast! We made great food, laughed until the late hours of the night, and shared family stories. The chance to spend time with my Grandparents and my mother was priceless. I also had a chance to workout on the Wolf River in Germantown, Tennessee, which actually had a few eddies. After freeing a trapped basketball, volleyball, and soccer ball from a strainer, I invented a new game called "stern ball" where you race around the balls in a triangle as they float downriver, alternately sinking your stern below them or lifting your bow above them. Good fun.
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5. One Bedroom, Second Floor
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On January 1st, I officially moved back in to the city of St. Louis! This puts me closer to work, friends, Forest Park, the Mississippi, downtown, and the FPCC pool class. I feel like I am in the center of everything and it is delightful. Here is the first thing I moved in. I have never lived completely on my own before; I have always had at least one (or as many as 5) roommates. I love having my own space! I can get up when I want, cook what I want, and keep it as clean (or not) as I want, and I am only accountable to myself. I have thought for years that living alone was something I wanted to do at some point in my life and I am grateful for the opportunity to do so. Because I am not in a point in my life where I can have a puppy, I bought a plant and named it Spot. We are still working on "fetch," but it has "sit" totally perfected.
...aka Down River C1. This boat was tippy! I also did not fit in it, and had to crouch in front of the hipblocks and pedestal in order to get in. This boat is designed for speed in whitewater. Racers sprint down a course as quickly as possible, choosing whatever line they think will be the fastest. I think paddling a DR C1 and a sprint (high-kneel) C1 would be great cross-training for me. It was such a strange creature under my knees, twitchy and responsive so differently that my squat little slalom boat. It clearly craved speed, but I never really figured out how to turn it. At least I didn't fall out into the Catawba River.
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7. Took a Nap on the Road
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Quite literally. On my way back to St. Louis, in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee, traffic suddenly stopped on highway 40. There was light snow falling, and the temperature had dropped significantly that evening. After 20 minutes of not moving at all, trucks began to turn off their lights and park on the highway. I hopped out and knocked on the cab of the nearest 18-wheeler. The driver told me 2 semis had jack-knifed and flipped on the highway a few miles ahead. It might be hours before we moved. So I thanked him, parked my car in the left lane, lay back my seat, and took a long nap. Oh, and I had a whitewater boat in my car. A boat that had been stored outside for months and I was sure was full of spiders waiting to crawl out once I turned off the lights. But suddenly it was an hour later. The rumble of truck engines woke me up, and finally we began to inch forward. Also on the road: a giant peach.
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8. Smashed my Stern in the M-Wave
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The course in Charlotte recreated the M-Wave in all its shallow nastiness. Before my week there, I had never been really stuck in a hole before. In Charlotte I was - intentionally, unintentionally, right-side up, and upside down. We got all the bases covered. Halfway through the week, I flipped and swam out of the hole at the m-wave. Unlike a paddler earlier that morning, I got out with only scraped knuckles. My boat was not so lucky. The stern got crunched, and the seam tape along 3 feet of the bow blew apart. Ugly. Some good friends helped me repair my boat that evening (thanks, guys!) so I could finish up an important paper I was working on. I was back on the water the next day.
The new year also brought a new job for me, and a return to politics. Now I am one of those people who is actually in the field of their college degree (a small minority among my friends). I am thrilled to be back doing work I care so deeply about. For now, this means focusing on healthcare legislation in Missouri and plenty of drives to Jefferson City, our state capitol, 2.5 hours away from St. Louis. I am working alongside other intelligent, passionate people, and I can already feel the fervent buzz of energy building around the election this fall. This is going to be a lot of hard work, and a lot of fun.
So, I show up last Friday, thinking I am going out on a date, and there is my little sister! She lives 9 hours to the north in Minneapolis, and drove down just to surprise me. Thankfully, she coordinated with my friends to pick a weekend that would be open. It worked out perfectly; it was a fantastic few days! Having Jenna around is always a grand adventure. We had a few mis-adventures as well, but what would a weekend with a sister be without them?! I have only grown closer to my sister and brother over the years and it rocks.My Dad and Tess also visited me the weekend before to bring me some furniture they did not need from Detroit, where they live. The furniture really filled up my empty apartment (I was using boxes and boats as chairs and tables). It was great to have them come stay with me, and they really helped me settle in to my new home. Even if the trailer my Dad borrowed looked like a giant metal robot or something!
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