Our traveling members are making their way home after well-deserved vacations. Some are already home, some are on their way and some are on extended vacations traveling around Europe.
I’m sure that each of us have taken time over the past week or few weeks, depending upon which event we’ve participated in, to reflect upon what we accomplished this July. It was nothing short of “Awesome good” …a term that somehow found it’s way in to our boat in Hungary from the out-of-breath mouth of one of our crew after a particularly grueling race…and it stuck!
Our teammates who travelled to Florence, Italy and raced in the International Breast Cancer Paddler’s Commission (IBCPC) Participatory Festival for breast cancer survivors from around the globe did us proud as ambassadors of Rowbust! Many of this crew had never been to an event of this type or magnitude and they were thrilled to take part! We are thrilled that they were the crew who represented us at the Ultimate Celebration of Survivorship & Sisterhood! Teams from around the globe congregating in one place to share their love of paddling and togetherness while celebrating the best gift of all…LIFE! A life made better by living it together one stroke at a time.
In Hungary we pulled out some incredible racing. Personally, after our first 200m race when we had to put absolutely everything we had in to keeping our boat in the lead…I was scared. The other teams have been working hard to be faster than us…to beat us! No longer would Rowbust blow the other crews out of the water. No longer would we cross the finish line with fuel left in our tanks. We were pushed hard by our competitors and we LOVED IT! We dug deep. Deeper than we have ever had to in the past. We took no prisoners! We trusted our long powerful strokes, our drummer, our stern and our coaches…but most of all we trusted ourselves. Each stroke was a display of our dedication to this team. To each other. To the members on the shore. To the members at home. To the members we have lost…
I want to thank everyone, again, who followed us through our adventures this summer via our blog. I am never quite sure of how many readers we have until I hear from my teammates about the texts, emails and other messages they get from home and pass on to me. Or when a reader leaves a comment for me to share with the team. It has been an honour for me, Suzanne N. and for Susan O., to share our stories with you from Italy and Hungary on behalf of our teammates. It has been incredible for us to have these experiences and to share them. And to know how much it is appreciated at home makes it so much sweeter!
Humbly yours…Suzanne & Susan 😊
Paddles Up!