Speed: It’s not just for particles

Photo: J. Bryan Lowder, Fermilab

In pursuit of high velocities, a group of Fermilab physicists has found an unusual outlet: They race a dragon boat.

The team, known as the Draggin’ Runners, met at Pottawatomie Park in St. Charles, Ill., one Sunday in June to put their acceleration skills to work, skimming the waters in a 40-foot-long boat that resembles a Chinese dragon.

This form of racing began about 2300 years ago as a religious rite in Southern China. Pairs of teams race head-to-head, striving to be the first to grab a flag at the end. Each crew consists of 18 paddlers, a flag catcher, and a drummer. For this year’s annual “Pride of the Fox River-Fest” competition, Fermilab’s boat carried postdocs, graduate students, and scientists from various parts of the lab.

All but five of the Draggin’ Runners were rookies, Barbara Alvarez among them. A graduate student with the lab’s CDF experiment who watched the race last year, she said that while the activity was physically demanding, it was also “great fun.”

The Runners were founded in 2001 by J.J. Schmidt of CDF, who proposed the idea to his friends as a “fun large-group activity,” and the team’s attitude reflected this cheerfully competitive spirit. Despite their lack of experience, the Runners won their qualifying match and barely lost in the finals. Following the race, Schmidt said the team had been “in sync,” and confidently stated, “We’ll be back.”

J. Bryan Lowder