Dragons on the Ohio - Team Vectren!

This weekend was jam-packed with fun! Vectren (the regional utility I work for) was co-sponsor for Dragons on the Ohio - a dragon boat racing event on the Ohio River. I was drafted to the team and Kenton was also on it - Vectren had two teams. In case you aren't familiar, dragon boats are long canoe like boats that hold 20 people - 18 rowers, one drummer, and one catcher.

Kenton and me with the dragon boats

We found out on Thursday that the river was rising fast (continuation of flooding...) and that all festivaties would be moved to Eagle Crest Lake - right by the hotel we had for the wedding. One Dragons on the Ohio veteran said it was for the best because with the river so rough we would row and row and not go anywhere.

On Friday we had an opening night Luau and karaoke! We got to know our teammates and the Indy Survive Oars (an all female breast cancer survivor team from Indianapolis). It was a good time!

Indy Survive Oars

On Saturday, we arrived bright and early to set up our tents and to decorate everything for the Hawaiian theme. Kenton and I had also put together Vectren cheer boards! We won "Best Team Cheer"!!!!!

Best Team Cheer Award!

One of our favorites:

We're Team Vectren,

we bring the power,

we're so good we'll make you cower.

We're Team Vectren,

we bring the power,

when we done your faces will be sour.

We're Team Vectren,

we bring the power,

we're gonna beat you within the hour!

We also made a Captain Vectren cheer to the tune of "Captain Planet" theme song, but there was a generation gap... no one knew that theme song. The cheer to the "Brady Bunch" theme song went over much better.

For a couple of the races I was the catcher which meant I climbed up on the head of the dragon boat and leaned out over the edge to grab the flag (whichever team grabs their flag first wins). The boat was really hot and I got quite a few bruises on my legs...

I'm the one on the left leaning over the boat and Kenton is the fourth rower on this side of the boat

The other races I was a rower and that was intense. After every 1 minute heat, my arms felt like jelly. It's not like canoe racing, you are supposed to lean as far as you could getting your hand wet with every row, and you weren't supposed to paddle like a canoe - instead put your paddle straight in and lift it straight out. We also had an angry professional dragon boat racer steering in the back (yellow shirt) and yelling words we didn't understand like "pull water" and "hold water". All this in rhythm with the other 17 rowers... it was more difficult than we thought.

I'm turned around trying to cheer everyone on and the angry professional is getting frustrated with us...

More information about Dragons on the Ohio at http://www.dragonsontheohio.com/.