2010 NSR 1, Day 3

Rain, rain, and more rain was the theme of the day. With the first headwind of the weekend, racing conditions were less favorable for day three of racing, but fair and acceptably calm nonetheless. Racing was mysteriously delayed (all four of them), the rumor being that one of the M1X A finalists had launched late, leaving us ladies to wait around in the rain for an extra ten minutes. Racing was delayed even further when one of the M1X B Finalists flipped near the 500m mark and had to be fished out of the lake and off the course. As we were just finishing our speculations on that situation, one of the W1X B Finalists near the A Final queue at the top of the warm up area turned to continue her warm up and flipped herself too, rounding out the number of athletes in the lake this weekend to the charmed number 3. I have empathy; I almost lost my handles myself during the warm up rowing at a 24, so pulling on to the course anticipating a 32-33 down the course while the rain continued was a little daunting.
Conditions and flips aside, I lined up with some good racers yesterday. I raced hard, I pushed the limits of my comfort with my rate and with my moves on the course, and I finished 5th. MJ and I had a relentless battle stroke for stroke all the way down the course and she nipped me right at the end. But I still feel ok about the Final and my performance. It is one step of many this year, and now it’s time to look toward the upcoming doubles matrix for NSR 2–and possibly having some new faces at camp this week?
Resting today, and hitting it full speed tomorrow, lineups are still TBA.

Thanks for the support this weekend–looking forward to hopping in to my favorite boat with my teammates and doing some racing!

Long Live the Dream,

–MK