dragon boat

Plank Story: You’ve Got to Feel the Car or Why I’m Incapable of Driving a Lamborghini Fast

Getting Ready to Drive

I raced a Lamborghini. More accurately, I drove a Lamborghini around a small track at a mall parking lot in Pennsylvania, but it was awesome. Some of our great friends wanted to take Matt to drive a fast car for his birthday, and I said if we were going I’d try too. I’m not a car person, but why not?

I hadn’t thought much of it until a week before we were going when I woke up in the middle of the night, bolting upright in bed, realizing that it might actually be hard to drive a fast car through sharp turns. I was right.

On our way to The Motorsport Lab and Experience, temporarily in Harrisburg, PA for our driving pleasure, I asked Matt whether I should choose the Lamborghini or the Ferrari. It’s all the same to me. He suggested the Ferrari—apparently everyone gets that a Ferrari is fast. I’m not sure what most people think of Lamborghinis. If they are like me, they don’t. Then I got there and said, “Oh, which one is the yellow one? I want to drive the […]

Plank Story: You’ve Got to Feel the Car or Why I’m Incapable of Driving a Lamborghini FastMaggie Downie2017-12-29T21:20:13-05:00

Dragon Boat is Over

Dragon Boat is officially over for the season. This is my first Tuesday without practice since mid June. I’m going to miss it. Last week we saw a bald eagle twice. It flew over our heads letting us know it wanted us to get out of its hunting ground. Last week the weather was perfect and it was a fabulous way to end the season. On Tuesday there was steam coming up off the water in mini spirals that looked like small tornados. It was a beautiful. I wish I had a camera.

One of the staff from Riverfront Recapture (who organizes the race and lets us use a boat for practice) reminded us that while some people were starting their day tense, gripping the steering wheel while driving to work, we were calm and out on the water enjoying nature. I love starting Tuesdays and Thursdays with Dragon Boat all summer.

You can’t beat it. It was a fun season. It helps that we raced so well in Hartford. We came in second place, .03 […]

Dragon Boat is OverMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:48-04:00

All About Dragon Boat

So last Saturday was my first Dragon Boat race. If you take my classes you probably heard all about it during plank. It was awesome, especially because my team did so well and paddled together in such syncopation.

I really enjoyed the day. I especially enjoyed coming in third (with only a few seconds between us and first place) out of forty-some-odd teams, but that is my competitive spirit shining through.

What shocked me the most was how tired I was. I’ve played sports most of my life, and, in the case of field hockey, you spend an hour on the field running around in a squat position. Once the season got going, I played in games two to three times a week and didn’t feel particularly sore after the game (and I put my all on that field–it […]

All About Dragon BoatMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:32:10-04:00

Dragon Boat Race –Video

If you have an interest in watching the full video of our first race, this is it. You have to stick with it because the beginning is slow and you can’t tell which boat we are, but we are in lane two (lane one is closest to the people filming). While you can’t really see our form, you can hear my sister say, “They are really in sync”–or something to that effect. You can definitely see us win.

Best of all, listening to my family’s commentary is amusing. Enjoy and check in tomorrow for more stories about the actual race.

Dragon Boat Race –VideoMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:32:10-04:00

Strength of Speed

I’m not sure that everything in life relates to this, but I have certainly found it to be the case since I’ve joined a Dragon Boat team. The faster we paddle, the slower we move. The problem is, we are moving fast, but not getting much strength behind each paddle. When we paddle slower we get more for our effort. Still, it’s hard to convince people to go slow. Our minds think the faster we move our bodies the quicker we will go.

More and more in life, I am finding this to be the case. When I try to rush through things, […]

Strength of SpeedMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:32:10-04:00