Arrrrrrrrgh! There Be Dragons!!

Jodie (the girl-who-won't-date-me)'s Mom is on a dragonboat team. For the uninitiated, this is a group of 22 people who all sit together in this big long boat and race down a river rowing like mad.

A lot of the teams are made up of all women - breast cancer survivors. For that bunch, winning isn't the big deal - the fact that they are *there* and *able* to row is the victory.

So, last weekend Jodie's Mom was in a festival. Jodie and I got roped into volunteering to help run the event. Ok, we just ran the Silent Auction table, but we helped. Where we were set up was right by the finish line, so we could watch all the races. Jodie's Mom's team got a silver medal (they lost by 5/100ths of a second.)

Jodie and I decided that it kinda looked fun. So, this week we've rowed with the team twice - just to try it on. Well... I like it. It's a hell of a workout and there's something about being part of a team that's just... really cool. I'm sore, my shoulders hurt and my back muscles are slightly complaining, but I think it's going well. And they seem to be really happy to have us.

I think we're going to keep it up. They have a race coming up in a few weeks and we're going to go and watch. I think that's gonna be my "get into shape" activity *grin*