The Dragon Divas

Our first festival: Lake Phalen

August 2009 update

The Dragon Divas participated in our first festival of the season on Lake Phalen, July 11 and 12. After over six weeks of strengthening and conditioning and six weeks of paddling on White Bear Lake, we were "paddlers ready." This is our third year participating in this festival. Thanks to our increased member numbers and the generosity of a last minute sponsor, we were able to enter two teams. This year, 26 teams participated in the festival, but Dragon Diva 1 and Dragon Diva 2 were the only all-female boats. Each boat requires 18 paddlers, a drummer and a flag catcher. Together our two boats held 33 survivors, and we filled the remaining positions with our daughters, our paddling coach, Geeta, and our trainer, Leah.

Each team was in two races comprised of two 240-meter heats. The races had two boats on the water. Ultimately we race against time, but it was fun to have the visual incentive of racing another team. Our second race of the day put Dragon Diva 1 and Dragon Diva 2 on the water together. We were moved by the wonderful reception spectators gave us as we paddled to our start positions. As it should be, Dragon Diva 2 won the first heat; Dragon Diva 1 won the second. We were only one second apart for total time!

In the end, out of 26 teams, Dragon Diva 1 and 2 came in 24th and 26th. We finally did beat another team—one with both male and female paddlers! Most importantly, our team is improving. We were contenders. We are stronger than last year, we are better conditioned, and our paddling technique and timing is more unified. We looked good out there, and we had fun.

The Dragon Divas are proud to report we received the Spirit Award this year again for the third year in a row. We also continued our mission of spreading the word that you can be strong, healthy and participate in life activities despite the diagnosis of breast cancer. We had many inquiries about our team.

We would like to thank all our family and friends for their support. It was great fun to see the newbies' smiles as they watched, then participated in, the day's races. We reveled in the delight we saw on our families' and friends' faces as they finally figured out what dragon boat racing was all about and what their wife, mother, sister, friend had been working toward all those previous weeks. It was great fun to see the pride we had in each other, in what we had accomplished, in becoming a team.

August will be busy with three festivals: Starbuck, MN, Fort Dodge, IA, Superior, WI. We will keep you updated.

Thank you again to St. John's Hospital and the HealthEast Care system for their continued support in our adventure.