Weekend of Firsts, 2 of 3

The second new experience of the weekend was a complete honor and, of course, paddling.

I was designated to sit Seat One in our race on Sunday. Seat One is pretty much considered the hardest seat in the boat. You're right up front and it's both physically and and emotionally draining. In the first seat your paddle hits the water before it's moving in the right direction so your muscles feel it. And you're right up there so you set the stroke rate and have no one to follow. I was completely floored when I found out I'd be "stroking" the boat (don't really know why it's called that, but Seat One is the "stroker"). It's emotionally draining because you're sort of disconnected. You can't see the other people in your boat. You can't feel if it's going well. In fact, I kept my head down almost the whole time so I had no idea what was going on.

When I found out they wanted me in Seat One I thought they were joking. I've never stroked a race, I've barely sat there in practice. But they think I'm good at it and I figured I could do it. I did. I did the whole thing. It was a long distance race so 10 of us swapped in out of the six seats of the boat. I kept waiting for our coach to pull me out but he never did. I figure I did about 40-45% of the race. It was a 25 mile race so I'm pretty darn proud of myself. I gave it 100%. Which is funny to think about. I don't really often give 100%. Not at work, not grocery shopping, certainly not cleaning. But I can say with certainty that I didn't leave more in me than a percentage or two.

The race course was absolutely gorgeous. From Kailua to Waikiki. Along beautiful beaches and cliffs and around Diamond Head. At some points our canoe was less than 15 feet from the cliff walls with blue and water swirling around. It was a true experience.