We started our day off on the right foot. A great big breakfast, we got our #1 boat sticker, we had our family and friends for support. But for some reason, when I was on the water, all the wrong songs kept coming to mind. For example, "Just keep swimming". Now these are not the songs you want to be thinking of while in a canoe during a race at the end of April after a long ass winter. No, instead I should have realized it was an omen of what was about to come.
Our first mishap was being nice to other contestants and allowing them to pass. To our demise, we got pushed up against some rocks and our boat was lodged between some pretty hefty rocks. With the current running as it was, that boat weighed a million pounds...I swear! At least it felt that way after paddling for a couple of hours at this point and being waist deep in iceberg water. After a good 5 minutes, we managed to free our boat, empty it of water and continue walking down stream with it until we found a clear spot to jump back in and continue on with the race. We still didn't see any all female boats pass us and we didn't waste much time freeing ourselves, so we still stood a chance at placing in top 3.
I remained overly optimistic about the race this year. My partner, +Robyn Poore kept bringing back to reality saying we have a 50/50 chance of making the dam. I knew she was right but I was trying to blow her out of the water with my optimistic views of us potentially finishing the race and possibly coming in 3rd place. (our outstanding goal now for the past 3 years) Well, let me tell you this! I was fine up until I saw the sign that read "DAM" then all that could come out of my mouth was "Oh crap!" "Oh CRAP!" It's like I knew right then and there. We lined ourselves up properly, we had the perfect set up! We were doing great, people were cheering us on, then I don't know what happened but we flipped! Went completely under water. The moment I realized we were going under, the only word that came to mind was "F#$*". Nothing I could do about it but embrace it. When I finally managed to get up out of the water I looked back to make sure my partner was still alive and well. The look on her face was of pure shock. I think she was in shock after inhaling ice cold water haha. Poor girl!
Being that cold with the shock to the body makes it hard to think straight. I was running on pure adrenaline and tried to grab our boat that was pleasantly floating away down stream at a somewhat quick pace. I had the boat in hand but I couldn't feel it..I was numb! My hand was stuck in a somewhat closed position and trying to run in ice cold water....proved to be futile. I managed to pass off my paddle to one of the cute by standing fire fighters, continued running down stream until I found a clear passage of shore to get up on to and continue my sprint down stream to catch up to our rental canoe. I managed to gain up on it and had to get back into the water. Thankfully, a nice old man who was watching the race and no doubt watched me struggle to catch up to our boat went out in the middle of the river in just his jeans and rubber boots and helped me bring back the boat to shore. If it wasn't for him, I was giving up on the high speed chase. He was kind enough to bring us in his home so we could call for back up. Our families were on stand by with towels, blankets and our dry clothing but they had no clue where we were. At this point, I shook so violently that the house and its contents were shaking with me. We didn't even get to making the call when our rescue team showed up at the door and guided us back to the vehicle where Robyn and I immediately started to get out of our clothes. I think I can honestly say I put on the least sexiest strip tease on earth at that moment. haha But at least the bystanders had a good laugh and it was all in good fun. I wasn't even disappointed that we were unable to finish the race. It's all in the adventure, so next year, we try again!
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