Pool of Life News 2007
Worcester ‘Pool of Life’ Race Report
At last the wagons rolled down to Worcester charity regatta now that the floods had dried up (and a few of the crew)! Someone up there was thinking of us as we had a late start. Our first race was 12:00 noon - halleluiah! Arrived at 10:30am with a 5 mile trek down to the river and set up camp "Pool of Life" and then off for a safety briefing - all of 2 minutes. “What, we have to wear buoyancy aids?”
11:00am and all the members of the team arrive (thank god) as we only have 16 with no spare paddlers on the river bank. "Pool of Life" gave support to the Worcester Busters' first race with 8 breast cancer survivors and 8 supporters in their team. A loud Amathus cheer from the river bank for the Busters.
Well, now for our first race! We loaded the boat with a pool helm and a pool drummer and with the mighty girl power of "Pool of Life" (this included the 3 lady boys, Geraldine, Josephine and Christine) there was perfect balance first time. We did our 80 stroke warm up down to the start line. What did someone shout? "You’ve done this before!" Did we look that good? Yes, we were awesome in our first race and we won by a full boat length. The Thursday night hard training paid off. Races 2 and 3 - same result - 1ssssssssssssssssssst - we were on a roll and no-one could stop us. The Amathus blood was running hot and we wanted more.
A paddle salute was given to Worcester Busters - a courageous team of breast cancer survivors on their journey to find the dragon. Memories of Singapore and the 1st World Championships came flooding back.
A place in the MAJOR PLATE FINAL! What an achievement for "Pool of Life" - a first in 3 years. After our warm up and group hug, Brenda shared her "sex wax" and with some good advice from Geraldine (we will be getting a Dave tash for Gerald at the next "Pool of Life" event) off we went with a song in our hearts!
We loaded the boat. Geraldine’s advice was to plant it hard with some aggression! If this is the way he speaks to us what about poor Marion??? We agreed that Geraldine would shout this as we paddled to the finish line. We were off to a good start - all paddles buried, hands wet and we rotated long and strong. We kept with the other teams all the way and at the finish line we were sure we had won! The drummer agreed and the race officials at the loading area agreed. We had to wait until all the races had finished for the result. "Pool of Life" 2nd - we could not believe it. Was it a photo finish? I thought of Dave with the pixel finish in London. None of us could believe it. Should we ask to see the photo finish? Their strokes were 2 seats behind our strokes on the finish line! Our drummer belonged to their team and could not believe that we had not won - 1.33.85 and the other team 1.33.65. Anyway, I will stop whingeing now. I think you get the gist. We didn't complain - after all it was only a charity race and we did win our first ever trophy on British soil. The Amathus blood runs hot in the veins of ’Pool of Life’. We want to win!
A big thank you to the girls and boys who joined us on this triumphant day. It would not have been possible if these wonderful Amathus people hadn't supported us at Worcester on this successful joyful day. THANK YOU.