Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/46359
live on the move A Team Effort Making strides for more than just fi tness with a dragon boating team By Meagan Parrish You can't miss TEAMSurvivor. Gliding down the waterways off Lake Monona, the team of 20-plus women are a sight to be seen. Donning purple caps they sit side by side in a 40-foot, 800-pound dragon boat, an ancient watercraft that hails from China. Rowing in unison to the rhythmic commands of their coach, Nancy Sauls- bury (who also serves as director of out- door programs at Rutabaga, the area's paddle sport outlet), they speed along. Yes, it's quite a sight—but what you can't see is even more incredible. Each woman's story is different. Th ey come together under the guise of getting in a great workout, but those purple hats tell a different story. Th ey don the hue—a color of support—to announce a kinship; TEAMSurvivor is a local nonprofi t of- fering free or low-cost fi tness activi- ties to cancer survivors. On a recent evening I was right in the middle of that purple streak, joining the team for one of their fi - nal dragon boat sessions of the sea- son. I had come to break a sweat with a rowing lesson, but I discovered how exercise can mean so much more. Sure, we worked out—and let me tell Where to go: TEAMSurvivor is cur- rently the only organization offering dragon boat lessons in Madison and will resume training in the spring. If you have a hanker- ing to hit the waterways this fall, places such as Rutabaga, Wingra Boats and Hoofer Outdoor Club offer rowing, paddling and boating opportunities. you, if you think that sharing rowing duties with 20 others means you get to sim- ply coast along, you'd be wrong. Dragon boating is a sport with fairly simple tech- nique that lovers of other rowing activities would easily grasp. But it also requires all those aboard to match each other's stroke and effort. Within minutes, my upper body was fatigued and sore (like, it-hurt-later- to-pick-up-my-shoes-sore). And we still had hours to go. My fellow rowers had no complaints. With staunch determination, the women rowed on, offering words of encourage- ment and laughs along the way. Yes, we were strengthening our arm muscles, core and even our legs, but throughout the evening, a feeling of support was passed throughout the boat. Having been in each other's shoes, they understood the need to reconnect in a The Dish on TEAMSurvivor The team: TEAMSurvivor is a volunteer-run nonprofi t that provides free and low-cost fi tness activities and health education to women of all ages with a past or present diagnosis of cancer. 16 BRAVA Magazine The mission: For all women exercise is a way to feel empowered, and can be especially poignant for survivors of any disease who have undergone surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation treatments and more. October 2011 The activities: TEAMSurvivor offers year-round opportunities, from run- ning and biking to Pilates, snowshoe- ing and more. For some activities— like dragon boating—TEAMSurvivor joins regional competitions. To join: Find the team online at teamsurvivormadison.org. positive way with their bodies, which had been through so much. At the end of it all, the woman bellowed a mantra that, cancer or no cancer, we could all stand to live by. "Who are we?" a wom- an called out. "Team survivor!" the group responded. "What do we do?" she asked. "Have fun!" they cheerfully declared in unison. And indeed, we accomplished that and more. Photo by Brittney Scharine