Megan Kalmoe

Hello again, from Switzerland this time–the USA women have transitioned from our lovely two week camp in Breisach to the more familiar setting of Lucerne.  We arrived on Sunday afternoon and have been easing in to our new routine over the past few days as we focus in on this weekend’s racing.
Lucerne is a little different for us this year in that we are prepping for our racing while surrounded by hundreds of other athletes who are right in the middle of some very important racing of their own for the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta.  For them, it’s their last chance to punch a ticket to London.  For us, it’s even more reason to put the blinders on and stay completely focused on what we are here to do.  Our tickets are a long way from being punched, and racing this weekend in Lucerne is just one of several remaining steps for USA athletes in the W4X, W2- and W8+.

That having been said, it’s lovely to be back here.  We’ve missed the worst of the weather (so far), the food is good, the beds are good, and it’s nice to not be slogging through jet lag as we sometimes do with this trip.  Our faithful waitstaff is still here at our hotel, as sharp and obliging as ever.  I’m back rooming with Ellen after having a hiatus from one another in Breisach and we’ve done a thorough job of creating the illusion of having been squatting in our hotel room for well over three weeks instead of just three days.  We had a pretty relaxed first day yesterday, so for our afternoon “workout” we took a short walk over to the canal to snap a few photos and to do my favorite thing there is to do in Lucerne: feed the swans.
There is rarely a time when I’m out and about that I’m not keenly aware of the local avian population–to the point where my closer friends on the team swear up and down that I must have been a feline in a former life.  At home in Princeton, it’s Great Blue Herons and Bald Eagles; in Chula Vista it’s Western Grebes and hummingbirds; when we’re here in Lucerne, it has to be the swans.  The Mute Swan population here are very docile–at least on the canal–no doubt from years of experience being hand fed by big softies like me.  But I love them nonetheless and am fascinated by the aesthetic and behavior of the giant white residents of Lucerne’s waterways.  Yesterday, we had the close company of just one couple of swans, but who were basically sitting in my lap, happily eating all of the bread I’d brought with me to the canal.  I snagged a few photos of them before sauntering back to the hotel and tucking in to dinner.

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We’re back to the Rotsee this afternoon for another row, and then continue to buckle down over the next few days to get things smooth and sharp for racing on Friday.  Looking forward to tomorrow when most everyone else who isn’t already here will roll in to town, and the lake will really come alive with its unique spirit and energy.  Gotta love Lucerne.

Long Live the Dream,

–MK

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Tags: 2012, Final Olympic Qualification Regatta, fisa, london 2012, lucerne, luzern, Olympics, racing, Rotsee, rowing, swans, Switzerland, team usa, us women's team, world cup, World Cup II

It’s been a busy couple of days, getting things ready to pack up and leave again after it feels like I’ve only just returned from our long winter camp in California.  This time, we’re off to Breisach, Germany, for training camp leading up to World Cup II in Lucerne.  For some of us, this is the start of our European campaign for 2012; for others, this serves as an interim camp between World Cup I and II, as the US women raced two pairs and a quad last weekend in Belgrade.
I was part of the group who made the trip over on Sunday night, and who are still settling in to battle the jet lag and airplane cankles.  It was a fun trip over, despite a memorable moment on the plane when we all realized the abandoned backpack that was being announced over the PA as being a potential security threat belonged to Natalie–because a Swiss woman had unapologetically removed it from the overhead bin and moved it to the back of the plane for no real reason whatsoever–and the extra time spent negotiating in German/English/sign language our rental van contract, which somehow USRowing had neglected to pay in advance.  In the end, we got to Breisach alright on Monday afternoon, and the women coming in from Belgrade met us at the hotel shortly thereafter.
We had a good first trip down to the course in our monster rental vans, and took a short flush run to break up the boat-rigging process.  Run leader, Meghan Musnicki, took us off the beaten path (literally) and through the mud, nettles, electric fencing and beehives, we managed to flush out a pair of wild boar piglets–a first for me (did you know there has been a surge in the wild boar population of Germany in recent years?).  It was at this point that I demanded we return immediately to the marked trails before we also encountered an angry adult boar.
We now have our boats rigged and ready, and have logged our first miles out on the river.  This is my second trip to Breisach; the Team also trained here prior to Lucerne in 2008.  It was a very different trip for me four years ago.  I was part of the World Cup I group meeting the rest of the team in Breisach; I was coming off of my very first Senior National Team racing experience (an unforgettable 7th place in the washing-machine-waters of the Munich racecourse), I was absolutely ecstatic to have been included in the Europe group, and was doing everything I could not to screw it up.  Now that I’ve been here before, gone through it before, and know what to expect, I’m focused less on not screwing up and more on how to make the most out of camp.
We have only two short weeks here in Breisach before the whole team heads over to Lucerne to see what we can do at World Cup II.  That means we don’t have a lot of time to get our boats clicking and for coaches to sort lineups before we hit the line in Lucerne.  The next three weeks will be very important for everyone as we head in to the final stages of selection for the Olympic Team.  Training in Breisach and results in Lucerne will have everyone here very focused and working to continually sharpen our edge in order to be as fast as we can be at the end of June for the Naming Date, and ultimately, for the beginning of Olympic racing at the end of July.
I am so happy to be here with my teammates and to feel the group coming together as we wind up the last remaining days of this Olympic quadrennium.  I know I’ve said it before, but every day I go to train, I am blown away by the sheer power and talent of the women I train with.  This group is truly something special, and I am so lucky to be a part of it.

More to come over the next several days as we continue to soak up the swans, German breakfast (!!) and long stretches of flat, empty river.  I will try to get more photos up if I get some time to wander around with my new Canon Rebel T3… it’s been a lot of fun so far on this trip and my teammates have been very gracious about being in front of the lens while I get to know my new toy.  Breisach is very quaint and deserving of some photographic study, so if I get the time, I will hit the streets…err.. cobblestones.

Long Live the Dream,

–MK

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Tags: 2012, Breisach, Europe, Germany, london 2012, Olympics, rowing, training, travel, us womens national team, USRowing, video, wild boars, World Cup I, World Cup II

It’s been a week since the final at Non-Qualified Trials, and it has flown by.  Between racing, de-rigging and trailer loading, traveling back, getting my house in Princeton back in order, and then reintegrating into the PTC training group, I feel like I’ve blown through the past several days without much time to stop and get my bearings.  And so it goes–now with less than 100 days until the Opening Ceremonies in London, if I don’t keep completely focused on the goal ahead and keep the pace, I’m going to be left on the side of the road–and no one is going to stop to pick me up.

Trials:  a disappointing finish.  I can only commend the other USTC double–Kate Bertko and Stesha Carlé– for having an exceptional performance and for simply outracing us.  The four of us had done a good bit of selection in the doubles over the month leading up to Trials in order to sort out lineups, and all the racing had been very close between us.  It was a difficult decision to finally choose partners, and in the end, the final result was also a close race.  I went in to the final feeling like I was prepared to have my best race, and Ellen and I just weren’t fast enough on the day to come away with the win.  Returning to Princeton and to the rest of the Team, all we can do is do our very best to continue to find more strength and speed before we begin our European camp and racing campaign. Best of luck to our friends and teammates, Margot Shumway and Sarah Trowbridge, who placed third at Trials and who are going to attempt to qualify the double for the US at the Qualification Regatta in Lucerne at the end of May.

Moving forward, I will be focusing on the quad and trying to make that boat as fast as possible for the World Cup Season, and ultimately, the Olympic Games.  We have a very strong group of women who will be competing for those four seats, and I am lucky to be one of them.  Our schedule is essentially set for the pre-season:  a quad and some small boats will be attending World Cup I, and then the large training group will convene once again in Breisach, Germany to prepare for World Cup II.  If all goes well, we will race two quads in Lucerne to assist in final selection for the Olympic Team.  I will not be racing the quad at World Cup I, but will be a part of the Breisach and Lucerne group.

100 Days Celebration: was yesterday in Times Square.  What a cool event!  I was invited to attend last-minute when Caryn couldn’t make it, and so got to tag along with other members of the 2008 gold medal W8+: Erin Cafaro, Elle Logan, Susan Francia, Caroline Lind and Mary Whipple.  I had a blast.  Times Square was completely transformed into an Olympic playground, complete with BMX ramp, beach volleyball pit, gymnastics platform, and… ergs! I spent my afternoon meeting and greeting, racing on the ergs, signing autographs, giving interviews and taking it all in, and the day was a huge success.  It was so inspiring to feel the warmth and support from the New Yorkers who attended the event–thank you to everyone who came out to spend the day with us.  We couldn’t do this without you.

The USOC has just launched the RAISE OUR FLAG campaign, which allows US Olympic Team supporters to buy stitches in the flag that will be carried by Team USA at the Opening Ceremonies in London.  Stitches are just $12 each, you can donate to Team USA by visiting:  https://raiseourflag.teamusa.org
Please remember that the United States Olympic Team is the only Team in the world that operates as a non-profit organization–we do not receive any funding from the government to train and compete for the United States. We rely completely on the generosity and support of Americans to fund our training and to live our Olympic Dreams.  Please support your 2012 Olympic Team!

Check out the video I took of our visit to the NY Times and to the 100 Days Celebration:

Long Live the Dream,

–MK

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Tags: #raiseourflag, 100 days, 2012, caroline lind, donald trump, elle logan, erin cafaro, london 2012, mary whipple, Megan Kalmoe, new york city, Olympics, raise our flag, rowing, susan francia, team usa, the red bus, times square, usa, usa olympic team, USRowing

August 9, 2008:   The day of my Olympic heat in the women’s double.  After much preparation and anticipation, Ellen and I launched and headed in to the warm up area of the Shunyi Olympic park to execute our pre-race warm up and get ready for our Olympic debut.  Things went fairly well and we had a good warm up–things were clicking and we felt loose.  As we worked into the last part of our warm up, a  30-stroke piece at race rate, I watched the turnaround opening in the buoy line fly by as we overshot it by quite a bit, leaving us to row 500 more meters before we could turn and head back to the start area.  This little addition of 1000 meters to our warm up put us just a bit behind schedule, and we ended up having to row quite quickly back up to the start area, and then very quickly as the time to race start wound down to 5, 4, and then 3 minutes.  We ended up pulling on to the race course to find the other five boats aligned in their lanes and waiting quietly for the last countdown call: 2 minutes to go.

Crews must attach themselves to their start pontoon at least 2 minutes before the starting time of their race. [...] Two minutes before the designated start time, the Starter shall announce “Two minutes” and this shall signify to the crews that they are formally under Starter’s orders. (FISA Rules of Rowing)

Fortunately, we had drawn lane 5 for the heat, and only had to cross in front of one boat in order to make it to our lane and get locked on.  We did so hurriedly, and our stakeboat holder took hold of our stern with exactly two minutes to go.
In the end, I think it ended up being good for us because it gave us less time to sit on the line and let nerves build before the race started (I can’t say the same for our coach, who may have been a few seconds away from a panic attack waiting for us at the start).  We locked on, got our point, were polled, and started.  And just like that, we were off.

April 10, 2012: (today) I raced the heat of the United States Non-Qualified Olympic Trials in the W2X.  Ellen and I are back together in the double and up to our usual antics like Beijing was only yesterday.  Still firing insults back and forth in the boat, taking forever to dock and launch, and so on.  And like so many other things, my impeccable timing hasn’t changed a bit.  This morning was a virtual replay of our Beijing heat as we warmed up for our race–I had a plan to get us there on time, and it just didn’t quite work out.  I watched a little anxiously as my watch ticked closer and closer to race time, realizing with about five minutes to go that we were going to make it to the start line right on time.  And so we did. We arrived at the starting docks with three minutes to go, and then turned and got aligned so our stakeboat holder could put her hands on the deck as the umpire announced “two minutes“.
Ellen wasn’t very impressed with our dramatic entrance, but again–we dealt with the circumstances, got ready to race, and then we were off.

Afterwards, we laughed about it.  And I took full credit for not giving us more time at the start.  As the bow seat in our crew, I have three primary responsibilities: 1) match my stroke 2) make sure we don’t hit anyone or anything (also still working on this one) 3) get us to the start on time.  Even with all my experience and all the races I’ve competed in domestically and internationally, I still managed to cut it pretty darn close this morning, and it could have affected our ability to compete.
As we’re getting ready for the final stages of preparation and selection for London, it’s good to be reminded that with as much as I’ve learned over the last four years, it’s never too late to learn from mistakes (even ones that you’ve made before).  In this case, it was a relatively minor one that didn’t prevent us from getting the result we wanted.  But even so, at this point in the game I don’t want to make a habit of repeating the same mistakes I made four years ago.

All in all, racing went well today.  Ellen and I were happy with our piece, and are looking forward to putting together an even stronger piece for our final.  Racing will be very close as we narrow the field to just four boats for Thursday’s race through tomorrow’s rep.  More rest and recovery between now and then.

See you at the start line on Thursday.  A little earlier this time.

Long Live the Dream,

–MK

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Tags: 2008 olympics, 2012, Beijing, Ellen Tomek, late, Megan Kalmoe, non qualified olympic trials, racing, selection, two minutes, us national team, us women, USRowing, w2x

I didn’t get to watch it this morning, since today is our only morning of the week to sleep in.  But there has been plenty to watch and read after the fact given the amount of drama that flooded this morning’s race.
I’m not a diehard Boat Race fan, but I do take interest in it as one of the few events in rowing that gets great media sponsorship and spectator presence.  I also have numerous friends who have rowed in past Boat Races for both the light and dark blues, so it’s difficult to miss their commentary every year and the friendly banter that ensues on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
I think there is a lot of debate about what’s fair and what’s just tragic given the circumstances of this morning–moreover I think opinions on the outcome are largely dependent on one’s university affiliation.  But my short take on the race with no personal Ox/Cam bias is that this was a situation with multiple instances of bizarre or unexpected circumstances, and one crew handled those circumstances better than another.  For anyone who argues that Cambridge should feel less pride about their victory today, or in any way feel disappointed about the outcome, I disagree.  The boat race is touted as an epic and storied contest of power and toughness between two crews, but steering and strategy are huge components of a crew’s success and in this case, Oxford came up short.  Crashing is never ideal in a rowing race, but if it does happen, it takes a lot of focus and resolve not just to come out of it but to also turn it in to an advantage (an early lesson I learned as a novice rower when coxing was often at its most unreliable was that if you were going to hit someone, at least take them out).
As far as I’m concerned, Cambridge capitalized on a bad situation that was not their fault and produced the best possible outcome.  The rules of rowing can be cruel and unforgiving if a crew or cox make steering errors and it doesn’t get much more real than a broken oar as a product of said errors.  Ouch.
Overall, a very tough contest today for both crews.  Sorry that it wasn’t perfect, but part of preparing for competition is being prepared for the unexpected.  Well done Cambridge (esp. Niles Garratt, Cambridge stroke and UW Class of ’11!!!!).

This is today’s Twitter feed from William Zeng, Oxford 2-seat–very emotional and worth a read (note: have to read bottom to top):

Well, enough of this.  I have my own racing to prepare for (hopefully no swimmers/protesters and/or clashes involved) as Non Qualified Olympic Trials begin here in Chula Vista next Tuesday.  More to come on that, but first: laundry and taxes.  Oh, the glamorous life of an Olympic hopeful.

Long Live the Dream,

–MK

PS: as of this afternoon, all reports indicate that the Oxford bowman who was escorted to the hospital after the race is doing well and is on the road to recovery.  Can’t say that I’ve ever blacked out from rowing before, so tip of the hat to you, sir.

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Tags: 2012, cambridge, crash, niles garratt, oxford, racing, the boat race

Wow!  We had a great weekend at the 2012 San Diego Crew Classic.  We split our time between the USRowing tent on Saturday and the Stewards’ Brunch on Sunday, and it was a welcome excuse to get away from the training center and spend some time socializing with friends down on Mission Bay.  If you haven’t already checked it out, I uploaded some photos from this weekend to my Facebook page.

One of the most exciting parts of the weekend was being present for the official launch of USRowing’s new fundraising campaign for the National Team: ROW TO LONDON.  This campaign is taking a new approach–asking the rowing community to fundraise specifically for the National/Olympic Team in these last crucial months before the 2012 Games.  How?  By taking advantage of that most inalienable truth that drives all rowers to do what we do:  making it a competition.
One element of the Row to London campaign is challenging rowing clubs and teams around the country to raise money to support the 2012 Olympic Team.  The club or boathouse that raises the most money will win a visit from members of the 2012 Olympic Team (men, women or both) to run an event of their choosing (Learn to Row, Fantasy Camp, meet & greet, cocktail hour… your choice!).
This is an awesome opportunity for the rowing community to get involved with the Team during the final buildup to London, and to bring some of the world’s best athletes to your boathouse to do whatever YOU want!  For more information on how to get involved with the Row to London, contact:

Beth Kohl
beth@usrowing.org
(203)761-8643

Check out the official ROW TO LONDON Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Row-To-London/356559541041973

or visit the National Rowing Foundation to set up a Team fundraising page:

http://natrowing.donorpages.com/RowtoLondon

Now tell me… what would you do with 2012 Olympians if you won the Row to London Team Challenge?

Long Live the Dream,

–MK

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Tags: 2012, 2012 Olympics, fundraising, london 2012, Megan Kalmoe, National Rowing Foundation, non-profit, row to london, row to london poll, rowing, us national team, USRowing