Well, I had to climb back up onto my boat twice during the trip down the Wenatchee R. My goal on race day is to make it down without falling out of the boat. Despite the cold water immersions paddling down the Wenatchee is pretty thrilling. Now let me pause here and warn you not to get impressed. When I say the waves were big and scary I mean that the waves were big and scary to a girl who hasn't been in a surfski for a couple years. I went down the river with my mom and Kathleen in a canoe and Shaun and Torin Koos also in surfskis. Torin's racing the r2r iron division too, but I don't think I'll be able to beat him. So I fell out of the surfski in the first set of rapids. And then fell out in the second set of rapids through the "fingers." After that I managed to stay in the boat. Although, in my defense, the surfski isn't the easiest boat to take through rapids. It's a sit-on-top kayak, about 20' long and 18" at it's widest. I'm paddling a carrera; it's real fast as long as I don't waste time in the water. Through the rapids I grit my teeth and switch into survival mode -- not so much legitimately paddling as frantically swatting at the waves with my paddle blades.

There's something pretty special about paddling though. I think it has to do with control. Most of the time people (myself included) strictly control their life -- jobs, training plans, their kids' or spouse's schedules, routine, tradition, deadlines. But when you're in an element as strong as water, and not the domesticated pool water but the feral kind, you only have the power to respond to the water. When I got into a set of big and scary rollers and would climb up one and seem to pause on top before the bow of my surfski slapped resoundingly down into the next trough I had to channel all of my focus and energy into absorbing the forces from the wind and waves and transform that into a relative serenity. It's good.

oh dear, the newspaper just came... front page: Koos, Valaas to compete in R2R iron. Wow, I just signed up yesterday. And whatever happened to the days when no one noticed what I did? On more r2r news: I'll be on the radio tomorrow/thursday morning 8:30am pst on 560 KPQ to do an interview with Eric Granstrom. I hardly feel like the polished athlete that he probably expects, especially for a multi-sport race when I haven't run fast since last summer, alpine skied since last winter, my TT bike is still in it's travel case from college, I just fell into the Wenatchee River twice...