This weekend is the third DragonHeart Dragon Boat race on Lake Champlain in Burlington. This will be my second year paddling in the event on a team called the Dragonflies, made up of 20+ friends - all women. There are 80 teams in the event. Most of them are community teams that have no more practice time than the single practice paddle that the event organizes in July, so we're mostly just winging it and not really that competitive. There are amateur teams that own their own boats and participate in races all over the world. We'll even have to compete against them in our first two (and maybe only two) heats.
The real DragonHeart teams are made up of breast cancer survivors. The event is a fundraiser for their organization and another organization of their choice, which is Vermont's "Cancer Patient Support Program’s Emergency Fund" this year.
It's an amazing day and there are over 2000 participants (80 teams * 20 per team) and thousands of spectators. Hopefully we'll luck out with the weather.
Our team's first paddle is at 9am. Early pearly.
