Sunday, September 18, 2005

Row, row, row your boat...

Today was the day: 2005 Row for the Cure, Seattle, took place this morning on Lake Union. Apparently, the number of participants doubled this year while the amount of money raised tripled! For that, I must thank my friends and family who have been very generous in making pledges and supporting me.

I was put in a mixed 8+ and was fortunate enough to be in bow seat, one that I enjoy the most. Including the coxswain, there were 4 people from Bainbridge Island, 3 from various clubs that row on Lake Union, 1 from Delta, B.C., and myself. It was a good mix of people of different age, experience and rowing style (a couple of people scull most of the time). The boat was surprisingly set from the beginning, even more so than when I row with people in my class! It was a great row even though we did not win – it was all for a good cause.

A couple of rowers went up on stage afterwards to share their experience with us – one lady is battling breast cancer at the moment (but that did not stop her from participating in this race and many others this season… she is also training for a marathon next month!) and the other lady’s mother passed away from breast cancer more than 30 years ago when survival rates were much lower. It was inspiring to hear those stories. With one cousin who is a breast cancer survivor and another one who is an expert in breast cancer therapy research, I felt honored to be part of today’s event and am determined to remain active in supporting the cause in the future.

It was still early (for a Sunday) when I got home after the race, so Dan suggested that we pick a trail that we have not been to and go for a hike with Gander. We ended up going to Tradition Lake just one exit up on I-90 from the house. The Tradition Lake Loop is very flat and well maintained, so it was quite an easy ‘hike’ – it was more like a walk. It took us just under an hour to go around and chances are we will go there again for quick walks in the future. The only down side is that there is no lake access so Gander did not get to swim. Nonetheless, he seemed pretty tired afterwards, which was a good thing.

Having woken up at 5 a.m., rowed for 50+ minutes and walked for another 50 minutes on a Sunday was enough to get me quite sleepy by 2:30 p.m. – an hour before my usual Sunday nap time! So I had a nice nap and finally got up to start getting dinner ready. Dinner is in the oven as we speak…

1 Comments:

At 12:04 PM, Blogger jamillafox said...

Good job on the row for the cure. Man, I was walking in the park today and saw this adorable little puppy. Makes me want to adopt one too but I know how much responsibility it is and I don't know if I'm capable of that yet...

 

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