It was not the shaking that first woke me up on the night of March 14th. It was the hollow banging of the cheap plastic light cover that was the shot of adrenaline. As I slipped into a blurry consciousness and realized that it was not the result of a person but something else, I instinctively opened my sliding glass window to take the first steps outside and evaluate the scene. Maybe a car ran into my apartment? After a few more seconds, it hit me…its an earthquake. When the shaking stopped I had one regret, I did not have my camera.

I consider myself a brave person and actually looked forward to the next earthquake video opportunity but that night did something to me. When I lay to rest now, its always a tentative sleep, waiting to be interrupted. I snap awake at a car passing my window or one of the ubiquitous trucks barreling down Route 2, just 50feet away from my window.

On the night of the 24th, I went to sleep at 9:30pm with the intention of a full 8 hours of restful sleep and a record 70K paddle the next morning but my subconscious mind was also waiting. It was waiting for the shaking, the violent banging of this cheap plastic light cover, the earthquake that did none come. Only the whooshing of cars and the wine of trucks tore at the veil of night.

Needless to say, I did not sleep and my kayaking reflected that. I was angry, I was exhausted, I was not going to paddle 70K. In the end I went around Kasado Jima for a 30K training day.