Loving It More Than Ever

Yesterday I paddled the Kaiwi Channel from Molokai to Waikiki in six hours and 30 minutes.

It rocked. I loved it, absolutely loved it. Everyone who has paddled for a while considers this the race to race. And it's not just because it's the longest or hardest race around. There's something about the channel that gets you. It's magical somehow. The six and a half hours went by in a flash. It felt like maybe three. My body didn't hurt too much. My mind was sharp. It was amazing.

They also say you go through every emotion in a race like this. From happiness to frustration, to sadness and glee. I was up the whole time. I had nerves in the beginning, complete exhilaration when we neared other boats, a headache in the middle I had to fight, and a total perma-grin when we crossed the finish. As we approached the finish we could hear the announcer calling our boat in with each of our names, "Waikiki Beach Boys.... Jenni James". My name clearer than anyone else's. And I almost cried from complete happiness.

The down emotions didn't get me until today. This has been an incredible paddling season for me. I am so proud of myself and I have gotten so much out of it. And I'm sad it's over. It concluded with this monumental race. I thank all of you for your support and best wishes. I wish you were all here so I could get hugs and smiles. I don't have too many folks here in Hawaii to share this with. Most of them paddle so that's sort of an even trade. A few friends offered to meet me at the finish and I turned them down - which was stupid, I won't do that again. And almost everyone else I know is at work. They weren't interested in my race. It was like something I had just done over the weekend. It's been hard not to share it with people through the day. However, paddling is not something I ever did to impress anyone else. It has always been about my own enjoyment and growth. It's good to reflect on it personally. It's good to share it with the world (or my tiny world) with this blog.

We ended up in 42nd place, 15 minutes faster than last year. I had honestly thought we would finish better. It felt like we were flying every minute of the race. And the conditions were working in our favor, good current, waves, and the wind pushing us in. However, this was the most competitive race in many years. There were a record-setting 83 boats entered in the race, with all of the top crews in the world represented. Aussies, Kiwis, Tahitians, Californians, even some Canadians and mid-westerners (they paddle in lakes). A predominantly Hawaii crew finished first. Our first boat got 5th and our second boat got 17th. So a very, very impressive finish for the Waikiki Beach Boys.

When we neared Oahu I felt like I still had hours of paddling left in me. At one point in the race our coached called a change for me to get out of the canoe and I thought "I don't want to get out, I'm not tired, I'm having too much fun." I hope every Molokai race in my future has some of that too it.