Monday, March 20, 2006
miss rowing miss my girls miss the feel of salt water on my skin and the pounding in my ears and the feel of my heart racing and lungs threatening to burst and the excruciating pain in my deltoids as they scream for me to stop rowing. but i would never stop, never stop seeing the end and the chequered buoy in sight and feeling the tension from the boats to the left and the right and hearing the screams and battlecries of my girls amidst the synchronised splash of our paddles dipping in. remembering the days leading up, the trainings with the crazy ass long-distance tyre trainings and pull-ups and push-ups and punishments for being late and the long runs to sheares bridge and the esplanade from kallang and back and my legs giving way to cramps and my breath just not coming fast enough and the painful sting of tears of defeat in my eyes before my girls come back to run with me back to kallang and hug me around the back and tell me tt i am strong and tt i can do it and i would do it all for them. the times sitting on the ledge making fun of the other teams and their breasts rowing below and singing my one-liners to the chargin of my girls and doing the rock chicks thing with my chick and hearing cindy's crazy laughter or listen to her lame jokes and her 'hur hur', and grabbing the paddles and walking very very slowly to take our baths and get unglam photos taken in the bathroom while we're sitting on the floor washing our hair or just coming out of the showers with towels on our heads and sitting outside the bathrooms later waiting for the boss to finally gel her hair and stroll out, usually the latest of everyone. dinners at beach road or marina square taking a whole table and talking about those pesky food bans and not being able to eat ice-cream or chilli for a month or more and feeling really sad (at least me) for them. and um, breaking the rules of those bans surreptitiously (shh). and race day breakfasts at mcdonald's bargaining with the boss so tt we can eat whole hashbrowns, and making the glucose and shaking it at 132 beats/s, and all the photo whoring of the lefties and righties and the long warm-ups and the lining up and the visualisations. getting into the boats and rowing to the starting line, fingers gripping the paddles so tightly as our hearts feel stuck in our throats with anticipation and trepidation all at once. water's uneven; boat rocks from side to side. but timing stays the same, all in sync. days and weeks and months of training and studying and eating together and familiarity leads up to this. coxswain at the starting line holding on to the rope steering us to a vertical position as the announcer kao beis for the god knows how manyeth time. but we don't care. end's in sight no matter how far away it seems and every set is our last set. we row for each other, we carry each other's weight. horn sounds and we dip in, and the boat surges. just keep rowing, looking at the pacer; nothing else matters. not the sounds, not the boats beside you, not the breathing difficulties or the pain in your chest and the throbbing in your head and not the pain in your arms. nothing matters but the end, the end and the girls in your boat. your girls. and maybe, dinner @ lau pa sat after tt, with the 4x9 food-ban reversing dishes tt everyone overorders for the sake of even though we all know we can't finish anything anyway, and all tt laughter tt follows the tears tt come at the end of a race.
i miss teamnus dragonboat girls.
i want to row again.
i miss teamnus dragonboat girls.
i want to row again.
# posted by Kitana @ 3/20/2006 09:59:00 AM 
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now playing: hotel costes - cafe de flor
So do I babe... so do I. And its so painful to maintain my fitness here when no one else seems to work out.. sighz
Johnny
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Johnny
# posted by 
: 3/21/2006 09:11:00 PM
: 3/21/2006 09:11:00 PM << Home
