I am not a morning person. I never have been. In fact, I DETEST waking up before 7:30. Unfortunately, I'm up everyday at 7, but this morning I made an exception to go try out dragon boat racing. A woman from my gym suggested I try it, so I asked her a billion and a half questions about it, and next thing I knew, I was getting up at 5:45 to try it out! By the way.... It is still dark at 5:45.
I get there, expecting to sit and watch, but oh, no, no, no, no....The team was short a few people today, so I was put in the boat right away. Did I mention I've never done this before? One of the girls gave me a quick run down on what to do. Dragon boat racing is H.A.R.D! My my feet hurt, my butt hurts, my back hurts and of course, my shoulders and arms. It was a killer workout for sure. I felt sorry for the girl behind me because I'm sure I splashed her a few times. As I said, I'm new at this!
The team practices behind the Marriott waterside between the Forum and the Convention Center. It was such a nice morning and the water was perfect. There were even a few dolphins out. I saw a part of Tampa from an angle I've never seen before. Never realized how huge those cruise ships were either until I was in the water with it! They practice 400 meter runs and rowing against each other (front of the both versus back of the boat) for a solid hour. It's exhausting and I'm so impressed with these women. They mentioned to me that it would take a few practices to feel comfortable with it and to increase endurance. It's really a beautiful sport.
I don't know whether I will take this up as a sport, but it was really fun to try it out! Sundays are really tricky for me these days and I want to be able to make a full commitment to this. In the end, it was an awesome experience and I got to try something new.
Here's a vid in case you're wondering what Dragon Boat Racing is all about.
Dragon Boat Vid<<--click here
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