From: The Minister of Newbie Happiness
Date: Sat, Jan 21, 2012 at 11:40 PM
Subject: Shackleton
To: dieselfish-team
“…Shackleton…”
That’s the first thing that came to mind after I climbed into the boat this morning. The weather, after all, was treacherous. The wind was so intense, Coach Dennis couldn’t steer his chase OC with his foot pedals. The water was so cold, my hand went completely numb. And then it started raining on us. But we saw it through. We were given the option to disembark and do land training inside the boat house, and we refused. This act of bravery further reminded me of Ernest Shackleton, the famous Antarctic explorer from the early 20th century. Shackleton and his crew didn’t have GPS, radios or even GoreTex. All they had were adventurous spirits and the toughness to endure.
These traits will serve us well in the coming weeks. The Tempe race is just around the corner, so we need to continue to train hard. Today, we pushed ourselves to the limit, and it paid off. I was glad to hear Dennis tell us our timing was good (despite the heavy sheets of rain that fell on us) as was our surge (despite the bone-chilling temperature). If we train like this at every practice, we will accomplish great things this season.
I’m proud of you. When I was Head Captain, I always worried that we wouldn’t be able to scrounge up enough paddlers to move the boat. But today, the coaches had to scrounge up room in the boat to accommodate all the paddlers that showed up, despite the inclement weather. DieselFish’s milestone Season 15 will be an adventure, and I’m glad to share it with such a dedicated and tough crew.
I remain your Minister of Newbie Happiness
Hello Internet friends! Doesn’t dragon boat racing with DieselFish sound like fun? Go to http://dieselfish.org/ now to sign up for a free practice session!
