I’ve been participating in whatever company I happen to be in a the time’s dragon boating team for most of my time in HK.

Typically my training has been for an hour or two each Sunday for about 10 weeks prior to race day. This year, that’s Saturday 20th June.

It’s one of a few sports that I’m actually good at. I’m generally quite uncoordinated yet somehow, my body seems to work the way it’s meant to for this activity. As a bonus, I enjoy it too.

After all this time, I have figured out a few things:

• how to stretch far enough forward and to use my legs and lower back to pull my paddle back;

• how to stay in synch with the person beside me and how to get the drummer in time with me too (I sit at the front which probably help with me not having to coordinate myself with too many others – my role is partially to lead the boat so by default, I can’t be out of time).

• I’ve learned, when I train, exactly when I need to drink my orange Gatorade, yes, that was part of an experiment too and this works the best for me. 

• On race day, I know how soon in the day I’m able to drink alcohol and still race well.

I know that it’s good practice to wear sunglasses and a hat. I also wear a long-sleeve wetshirt to protect me from the sun. There’s also my gloves which are similar to cycling gloves though others use gardening gloves. I prefer the extra cushioning and it helps to avoid calluses and blisters. My boardshorts almost complete the look with my flip flops / thongs on my feet since it’s a rule that you have to wear shoes on the boat. I generally kick them off when I’m paddling since the grip is useless and I can’t see the point in buying a pair of shoes specific for a sport that I do for a short period annually.

I’m sun smart and practical.

It is not an attractive look.

I’m also mindful of various injuries.

Over the years, I’ve bruised and blistered various parts of my body. I do the same things every year, at least once, as an accidental refresher. The most painful being the bit on my butt that wears raw from not wearing padded shorts, and sliding back and forth on the seat as I’m paddling. It’s a friction burn in an awkward spot and stings like nothing else in the shower afterwards.

That one was done earlier this season and I’ve avoided it since.

There’s the skin I lose off my right thumb each year, again generally only once. It’s from sitting on the right side of the boat and pulling the paddle through the water, a little too close to the boat. It also stings since once I’ve done that during a session, it seems to be drawn to the boat as if both it and my thumb are magnetised. It’s not quite as painful as my friction burn on my butt though it is up there.

Next is the bruised butt. There’s no avoiding this one except to keep going to the training and building up the butt muscles to add some cushioning. Those seats are hard!

The right side of my right knee also cops a bit of a hammering since it’s that leg that is wedged against the side of the boat. Moving back and forth with each stroke, I generally tend to bruise this part. I bruise easily and these tend to be particularly sickening looking and can be most colours of the rainbow within a few days. I’ve been put onto Neosporin which is great for healing bruises quickly.

Then there’s sunburn.

I’d thought I knew all the bits of me to cover. My face, my lower back (since that’s the part where the wetshirt rides up while I paddle), my neck, the tops of both my legs, the inside of my right leg (that’s the leg that is forward while my left leg is wedged backward) and the tops of my feet.

The place I had never though to cover is now where I’m considerably browner (some would call it ‘red’) today.

It’s the place around my wrists between where my wetshirt finishes and my gloves start. I have never had this happen before and now my wrists look like I know Christian Grey very, very, very well.

I will be wearing a long-sleeved shirt for work tomorrow.

* Thanks to Krewella for the title to this post. Now I feel like dancing…