Breathing was difficult.
Paddling?
No problem. Nikki Kassel could still do that.
Kassel, a 36-year-old outdoor sports enthusiast, cracked a couple of ribs when she catapulted over the handlebars of her mountain bike last Tuesday at the Otway Nordic Centre. Confronted with those levels of pain, most mortals would limp back home and hide out in the dark for a couple weeks. Not Kassel. There was no way she was missing the Two Rivers Canoe Club invitational races on the weekend.
So, on Sunday, Kassel was on the Fraser and Nechako Rivers with paddling partner Phil Evanson. The two of them powered through 20 kilometres of water and eventually finished in third place in the mixed pro-boat category.
"It hurts to breathe but you just adapt your paddling stroke," said Kassel, who works as an operating room nurse at the University Hospital of Northern B.C.
"We paddle on both sides (of the boat) and it was painful both ways. I just took Ibuprofen. They say there's nothing you can do for broken ribs."
See Tuesday's Citizen for more.
