Twenty-One and Dragonboating

Greetings.

This past weekend repeatedly proved to me how much I love Burlington, Vermont. The weather was beautiful. The events, energy, excitement and people of this small city were truly wonderful. I’ve spent very few summer weekends involved in Burlington and it is a wonderful place.

I turned twenty-one on Saturday and think I may have experienced one of my best birthdays. I worked for Blue Cross in the morning, distributing hundreds of blue balloons in the center of Burlington with a couple of co-workers. A theatrical festival was going on and it was really a nice event.

 

Later that afternoon, Carol, one of my closest friends from New Hampshire arrived in Burlington and we began our search for a margarita (and some chips, salsa and guacamole, naturally).

 

The search was successful and delicious. We headed back to Saint Michael’s a little while later for an unofficial campus tour and a quick change before heading back downtown for dinner. We met up with my friends Amanda, Kirsten and Lizzie once back in Burlington and as any Saturday night in August can be, downtown was incredibly busy, but also so fun and filled with people. The night was beautiful. We entered a few different places that had long waits and then settled on a new restaurant, Mr. Crepe. The savory crepes were delicious. We ate outside and paired sangria with our meal. The red sangria I had was definitely my favorite drink of the day.

Amanda, myself and Lizzie

Amanda and myself

A theatrical street performance unfolded in front of us and it was so relaxing and nice to be with everyone. Afterwards, we picked up frozen yogurt and headed to a pub where we shared a pitcher of beer  before heading back to Saint Michael’s where Amanda was so kind and surprised me with a cake! It was so touching and fun.

 

Sunday was an early morning, and while it was slightly challenging getting out of bed, I knew the day’s event, dragonboating with Blue Cross on Lake Champlain would be exciting. I found parking downtown and arrived at the Burlington waterfront a little before 8:30 for the Lake Champlain Dragonheart Vermont Dragonboat Festival! I had joined the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont dragonboating team about a month ago and along with 17 others, was placed on the beginner team. 18 other employees (dragonboating veterans) were placed on the advanced team. Together, we practiced one Saturday morning last month and were all excited for yesterdays’ festival. Dragonheart Vermont is an organization aiming to raise money for breast cancer research. The festival itself involved 68 boats of 18-22 paddlers, 8 or 10 of which were made up solely of breast cancer survivors. Dragonboating is a sport that can best be descriped as rowing or, as I thought recently, ‘Viking ships’ (without the sail). Each team had set up a tent along the waterfront, and it became an enormous festival of racers, spectators, food vendors, and supporters along the waterfront.

 

Once I found our two Blue Cross tents  and co-workers, we began preparing for our first race of the day scheduled for 9:56 a.m. The festival (which kicked off with the first races at 9 a.m.) was especially exciting as Blue Cross was the chief sponsor of the event. Several representatives of the organization were there, including a group of my co-workers who distributed water to the thousands there from a GIANT water tank truck. The advanced team had a first race that began later than ours, but together, the group of 40 of us warmed up with jumping jacks and stretches. We gained our race bracelets and tied glitter ribbons to our elbows, fastened our life jackets and once we received our formal instructions from Dragonheart Vermont, we lined up as a team to begin Zumba (with the advanced team cheering us on) before grabbing our wooden paddles and jumping into the boats. I was in the last row with a female co-worker with two other women in front of us. The four of us had so much fun throughout the day. Two of the women had missed the practice and had never dragonboated before. We got along so well, danced together, cheered together and had a blast throughout the festival. Once in the boats and away from the docks, the first emotion is how tight the boats are. Together we rowed out to the starting line, and it all happened so fast. Dragonboating is about rhythm solely and when we count together as a boat, that rhythm is achieved and the boat flies through the lake. Our first race began and from the beginning, the counting wasn’t there and the opposing team gained on us quickly, winning the 90-second race. We enjoyed our time out, but felt a bit confused and bummed once it ended. It was hard to believe we were finished. Until! It was announced we would race again! Our second race was scheduled soon after, but we had time to head back to our tent, grab water, a snack, cheer on the other Blue Cross team during their race (which they won!), and buckle the life jackets once again.

Once back in the boat, we were assigned a new coach from Quebec who was great in guiding us, leading us in counting and taking us on a practice race. And then, it was time. The coach stands at the very back of the boat (right behind where I my seat partner and I sat). Once in our boat, we rowed back to the starting line and lined up next to the opposing boat among nearby sail boats and views of the Adirondacks, and it was time. “Go!” was shouted through the megaphone and we began. With our heads up and ‘in the boat’, we counted loudly and stroked on each ‘One!’ ‘Two!’ ‘Three!’ ‘Four!’ and ‘Five!’ only to begin the sequence again. And we sailed! We flew! Our other Blue Cross team on shore cheered us on and we won the race! I think this victory may have been the most incredible moment of the day. We were so, so happy. Once out of the boat, there were so many high-fives, cheers, screams and smiles for each of us. We took off our life jackets and returned our paddles knowing that we would race again. We cheered again and again and were told we would have an hour between races.  I wandered the large ‘Athlete’s Village’ with co-workers, visited working co-workers at the GIANT water tank truck before the two Blue Cross teams congregated again.

Two of my co-workers in communications who I work with daily, Kate and Ally. :)

 

As the main sponsor of the event, it was important that we be present to congratulate and high five the dozens of breast cancer survivors who emerged from their races. The groups of survivors threw pink carnations into the water after racing and employees of Blue Cross formed an arch of paddles that each breast cancer survivor walked under once they emerged from the boat. The arch was quite emotional and beautiful for all involved. Afterwards, and shortly before our third race, I was so pleased to find Carol and Amanda had showed up! We found a space on the waterfront near my co-workers and watched the races together.

Amanda, Carol and myself

 

As we cheered on our other Blue Cross team which was just lining up their boat at the starting line, we were startled and shocked to see the boat they were about to race be hit with a wave (it had begun to rain) and capsize!  Each paddler wears a life jacket, but it still was a scary moment; the boats can tip easily and to see eighteen people floating in the lake certainly set us all into thinking about how that could happen to any boat.

Saint Michael’s also had a team and the three of us were able to cheer on the team and Kirsten who was a part of it. Soon after, we gathered again, warmed up through Zumba, buckled our life jackets, grabbed our paddles and were so excited to be granted the same victorious coach and found our seats in the boat. Carol and Amanda cheered us on from land and we lined up to the starting line again. I think most of us felt we had been lucky with our second race, could we really win again? We all shouted team cheers and words of encouragement to one another to boost team spirit right before ‘Go!’ sounded again. Immediately we began counting. As is common in any part of the boat (but perhaps especially in the back) my seat partner and I were drenched with water. With the other nine rows of paddlers in front of us, the water hit our legs, torsos and faces, and the best protection I had for the day were my sunglasses. Each race is hard work, plenty of upper-body strength and bending and digging the paddle into the water with the rhythm is necessary, and we worked together as hard as we could. Once again, we sailed ahead were victorious! We cheered again and again and congratulated the other team. Carol and Amanda cheered from shore along with the other Blue Cross team who congratulated us with high fives and team cheers once we reached the docks. We had a short break before racing again and gathered more water, snacks and team plans. Carol and Amanda departed and soon after, our team began zumba once again. As the race teams narrowed, I noticed that Saint Michael’s had been racing successfully and winning each race. As the fourth race neared and my college warmed up with us for zumba, I became increasingly nervous that we would race them, but thankfully, this never happened! They were in a much higher division, I later learned. :) And then, we boarded the boats for race four. Once again, we all wanted to win, but for myself, I had accepted that we had done well so far and might not win again. Simply being out on the water and racing is the most exciting and fun part of the day, and we loved winning because it granted us the promise that we could race again. We lined up for the race and began. Immediately, we fell behind. We couldn’t keep up and stayed in rhythm but couldn’t meet the other team’s strength. We were proud and cheerful, but not quite ready to end our paddling and team spirit. Once back on shore, the advanced Blue Cross team swarmed us and informed us that they were supposed to race the team we had just lost to, the team was in a higher division! Delighted, we cheered and our advanced team headed out while the winning team turned around and boarded their boat once again. We were scheduled for a fifth race with a team in our division. Plenty of spectators remained throughout the afternoon (it was now 3 p.m.) and we cheered on our advanced team. Once again though, the opposing team won. Our team was officially gone and we remained.

We completed our final zumba warm-up and boarded the boats once again, now competing for the silver or gold medal in our division. Our favorite coach joined us again and we began. It may have been our waning or lack of strength, (by race five, we were fading fast!), but the other team won easily. We gathered back onto land to soon be awarded the silver medal in our division! I helped my co-workers take down the Blue Cross tents and we all packed our bags.  After over a hundred races throughout the day on Lake Champlain, the water surface appeared calm as the afternoon wore on. We gathered with the other teams at the awards tent and each received a silver medal. The forty of us said our farewells and headed off. The evening brought a communications department gathering and a bit more birthday celebration. It was a wonderful (and very full) weekend.  Ohh and today at work, as one might expect, when team members spotted each other, the cheers just began again... :)

(Credit: Karen Pike Photography) Both Blue Cross Dragon boat teams. I'm not visible in this, but was seated at the right of the boat on the right.