It’s been a busy couple of weeks of traveling and adventuring after coming back from Poland. I spent some time at home; I spent some time out in the woods; I spent some time cross training. I’ve also spent some time racing with some good results at two very fun regattas.
The Battle Between the Bridges
Held in Mystic, Connecticut, this was my first experience racing at a dash regatta. The course runs between “the swinging bridge” (Amtrak bridge) and the drawbridge in downtown Mystic–roughly 350 meters. The races are all run as dual races between two single scullers in a double-elimination program. We had beautiful weather and great conditions for our racing on Saturday the 19th which was fortunate since it was the first time back in a boat for many of us who were just back from Poland–and maybe the first time back in a single in a long time for a lot of my big-boat teammates who didn’t have the good fortune of staying in touch with that particular boat during summer training.
I raced three times, and may not have actually taken a full-slide stroke all day long. I’m not really sure what I was doing with my rate or with my blades, but whatever I was doing worked well enough to get me out front and keep me from flipping (always a plus), and I won the regatta by defeating PTC teammate and 2009 senior national team alternate, Jessi Reel in the Final.
This regatta couldn’t have happened without the amazing creative, administrative and organizational talents of the NRF. They put together an great weekend of fun and celebration of our sport in a beautiful setting. I had a great time, and I can’t wait to go back and bring more of my teammates next time to make this regatta even bigger and better!
Head of the Potomac
At the last minute in the middle of last week, a few of us from PTC decided to beg our way in to this year’s Head of the Potomac regatta. This was my second experience with this regatta–an injury prevented me from racing in 2007–but I came back in full force this year to race in the open 2x and open 4x and spend some quality time with my friends from PBC. Ellen and I jumped in to the double on Sunday morning and made the best of it, taking the 4.5k course in 16:57 to win the event. A while later, Ellen and I jumped into a quad with Stesha and Margot and did it all over again and took our second win of the day. No small feat for Stesha who had already raced the 1x and the 2x (taking second in both), and for Margot who won the 1x earlier. All in all a successful campaign for us, followed by Rocklands bbq and a beer out on the sunny PBC deck overlooking the Potomac–there are worse ways to spend a Sunday.
But I can’t emphasize enough how… long 4.5k is when you take a little time away from distance work. Yikes.
Big thanks go out to everyone at PBC who worked extra overtime to squeeze our delinquent entries into the program, loan us boats, allow us to use the boathouse facilities, and then crash the party afterward. I had a great time, and would love to come back again with more PTC teammates in tow.
I know for certain that I will be racing at the Head of the Charles coming up on the 17th and 18th of October; and there is some discussion of finally getting some entries into the Head of the Schuylkill (possibly the mixed double??), but no promises.
Until then… I have to catch up on some sleep after getting home late last night (let’s just say that my ability to navigate in DC prevented us from making a timely return to Princeton). Especially since we’re back in singles tomorrow morning–I’m going to need my wits about me to pick up where I left off this summer. Looking forward to it!
Long Live the Dream,
–MK
Megan Kalmoe, OLY 