A dream come true: representing our country at world championships!

We MADE it. Vermont girls who went off to train in Canada in order to make Team USA. The gamble paid off (if those smiles are any indication at all)... here we are at opening ceremonies at the World Nations Dragon Boat Championships in Szeged, Hungary earlier this summer. 

This has been such an exciting summer... it's been a whirlwind of activity: so much so that I've been unable to keep up! In my last post we'd just made the national team... and here we are in the thick of autumn already - the boats are out of the water, paddles have been put away, and flip-flops have been traded for sneakers as we begin our season of intense indoor training.  Over the next few weeks,  I'll be chipping away at getting caught up! 

How to render a border guard speechless

So I'm crossing the border, alone for once, and roll up to be greeted by a tall, young, fresh-faced guy. I've only seen him once before, but I'm apparently quite familiar to him.

"Dragon boating again?"
"Yes sir!"
"Are you going to end up in the Olympics or what?"
"Hell yeah! My team won at worlds last year and I just made the US National Team!"
"Get OUUUUUUUTTTT!.... I was just kidding. For real?? Seriously?"
"Yeah! Why else would I do this back and forth shit so much? Oops, sorry..."
"Oh that's fine, I say shit all the time."
[chuckling]
"REALLY?" he continues. "National team?"
"Yup. We're competing in Hungary next month."
"Wow."

And thus, suitably impressed and enlightened that this is not just a cute little hobby but a kickass, serious sport, he gave me a big smile and wave and sent me on my way. I should have tried to recruit him for our club. Next time I'll have my poster and "come try dragonboating" flyers ready.. (I wonder if there are any laws against trying to solicit government personnel ... )

OC Training - Hungry Dragons style!

So, we have this incredible friend who let us use her OC1 to train on. She lives a little off the beaten path, so her crazy-amazing-inventor husband rigged up their golf cart with a hitch, crafted a trailer, and devised the most fun way in the world to move the thing around.

Here are G and I coming back from our first session with this whole getup. Not sure what we enjoyed the most... the paddling or the zipping around with the cart!

Made the cut for TEAM USA!

OMG so much has been happening!! So, we trained like mad, went to Tampa to check out and paddle with members of past USA national teams and other hopefuls like ourselves, then had our own crew's training camp in Myrtle Beach, then trained some more back in Montreal... and then did qualifying time trials on an OC1 (outrigger canoe) to see if any of it had paid off. 

IT HAD.

We BOTH made the cut for Team USA.

I was in the garden, doing a bit of weeding and whatnot, when my teenager ran out of the house yelling.

"Mommmm!! Aunty G is on the phone. She's crying. I think something's wrong!"

I bolted out of the bushes and grabbed the phone with my grubby, dirt-caked hands. G was SOBBING uncontrollably.

"Breathe, woman, I can't understand a word you're saying!" I said. "WTF is going on?"

"Did.. you.. sniff.. get.. sniff... an email... hic hic sniff...?"

"No, I'm in the garden.. what happened.."

"OMG L... I made it. I made T-sniff-E-sniff-A-sniff-M USA!" (more wailing and sniffing)

"HOLY SHIT, we just tested yesterday!"

We hung up, I checked my messages, and called her back.

"MEEEE TOOOOO!! And apparently I need to go to freakin' Philly and retest because my time was close to what they're looking for for Premier. Double Holy Shit!"

Blah blah blah, lots of yelling, sniffing, choking, laughing, disbelief, etc. Hard to believe that when we first decided to set out on this journey we were told not to kid ourselves, that we weren't athletes. Just goes to show - if you believe in something, and want it bad enough, you can DO ANYTHING.

But you can't do it alone. Look what a couple of our biggest supporters did for us! Flowers, hair pieces, a paper towel banner, flags to wave and guide us all up their driveway... you'd think we brokered world peace or something. So awesome to have people behind us and to share each accomplishment with us :)

L & G's amazing adventure is about to pick up speed

Serious Speed.

But more about that later.

This week we decided to have fun. All week long. Coach A gave me a cool new book of exercises and I've been making up our weight routines. Our bodies hurt in a whole new dimension!! And we're having a blast. And to cap it all off - today our friend Adam was in the gym at the same time, and put us through some incredible ab work to finish off our workout. That was awesome.

Life is sooooo good.

How to do assisted pullups properly

In this month's program, we have, surprise surprise, pullups. No matter how many of them you do, they're still hard and not much fun. Luckily, coach said we can use assistance to get back up this week. So we decided on this method. Efficient (both of us in one shot) and damn cool to boot! Bet no one else has a super-awesome-strong gym friend like us :)

Less than 2 weeks to another fit test

We've got another fit test on the horizon, and then training camp, and we've been working our you-know-what's off to be ready.

So this morning when I saw this cartoon as I was trying to motivate myself to ignore my throbbing head and instead get it together and go train, I was instantly reminded why we do what we do :)

Off to the gym I go then!