At the time I told Christina I would be part of her Race for the Cure walking team, I had no idea how much of a workout kayaking would be. So I didn’t really realize what I was getting myself into. Here I am, up eeeaaaarrrlllyyy on a Sunday morning, muscles sore from head to toe, getting ready to hop on the Max. I hope I don’t sleep through my stop… it has never happened before, but conditions are prime for it today!

Now that my hands have had the night to think over what they did yesterday, I have callouses. Exactly like the ones I had from the monkey bars in elementary school. I was proud of them back then; they showed I had really done something. Now it’s just a little bizarre. Next time I go kayaking I need to wear gloves! That’s what the real kayakers do, apparently, but no-one told us.

No-one told us a lot of things, actually, which is how many folks in my group came to be wearing running shoes when we had to step in water to get in and out of the boats, no-one brought water or snacks, some were way too warmly dressed, etc etc. Our guide didn’t even have any band-aids, or any sort of a first aid kit at all. Although we had a great time and no-one got hurt, I think that guide company is an accident waiting to happen…

Spent the day out kayaking with Jessica and a group of her friends in Scappoose Bay. We had a great time but it was *hard* work. I’m not as tired as I expected to be but it’s starting to catch up to me now (at 9:51 pm). I would have expected my arms to be tired but by far the most tired and sore part of my body so far is my hands.

Between this and the white-water rafting, I’m realizing that I am more of a water sports fan than I ever realized. I don’t see me surfing or sail-boarding any time soon, but I definitely want to spend more time doing this sort of thing next summer. Hmm, I wonder what the opportunities are like around NYC??? More research is needed…

I think I have neglected to post the lowdown on my new activity list. You all were just dying for this, right? ;)

The main changes are that I’m not driving into Portland for bootcamp anymore, and I’m not ice skating right now. Both have to do with not being able to afford the time it takes to travel to these far-away activities. I replaced the bootcamp with a similar, though less challenging, class at the health club that’s 5 minutes from my house. Woot! I had to give up skating entirely, though, and that’s a bummer. I just wasn’t able to go to the rink enough times per week. I hope to take it back up again at some point if I can manage to live near an ice rink… whichever coast that turns out to be on.

So my current activity list is bootcamp twice a week, yoga, group voice lessons and private piano lessons (probably going to add some guitar in there too, so I don’t get bored). It seems like a short list somehow compared to what I used to do, but somehow I still never seem to have much free time…

I was so tired last night that I didn’t have high hopes for today, but it actually went very well.

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I’ve done 5K events before, and even a 10K not too long ago, but I was always a walker. This was my first time as a runner…

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