“Alright, let’s get this thing over with!”
–me, to lanes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 as we were pulling on to the course yesterday night.
NSR 1 came and went in a big hurry this year, with all of the racing packed in to just two short days. Maybe for naught? As today’s forecasted thunderstorms are actually just bitterly cold, pouring rain, and it held off this morning until a little after 8:00. Plenty of time to race A finals today. BUT I am thankful that I got to sleep in, and I do not envy the college crews taking to Carnegie today. Yuck.
So how was it racing four times in two days? Well, racing on 12 hour centers isn’t ideal and I don’t think it’s all that realistic in terms of how an international regatta would be run, but it was interesting, and you can’t argue that it wasn’t an efficient use of everyone’s time. I didn’t feel particularly rested for our final yesterday evening (especially around the 1000m mark, I really did not feel rested at that point), but Tom would say it was a great opportunity to practice dealing with a less-than-ideal situation and still performing at a very high level despite not having the best circumstances for preparation or recovery. If you’ve read any of my blogs from Worlds, obviously something comes up every year, and I am still developing the skill sets to handle “situations” as they arise in order to have a really good performance. I think in this case, I have to agree that this was a great opportunity, and all things considered I feel like I had a successful regatta.
Looking back on the racing I did this week, I feel like I was able to take something away from each race, and translate it into improvement for the next one. I think I raced the single more competitively than I ever have, and did it while maintaining technical changes that I have been very challenging and elusive over the past two weeks. I feel good about that. Obviously it would have been nice to walk away with a win, or to have been a lot closer to the leaders, but from my standpoint a third place finish is still a good result for me and one I can be proud of. Making improvements, having a consistent performance throughout the weekend, and finishing up the week with my final as my best race all feels really good. I am happy with this year’s NSR 1. And great job and congratulations to all of my friends and teammates who raced this weekend!
Props to the stake-boat holder in lane 3 holding Bertko’s boat for last night’s final. I looked over as we were aligning to see this poor girl hanging her entire body from her hips up off the end of her dock, arms fully outstretched, face barely hovering above the water. I thought for sure she was going to fall face first in to the lake. In the end, she ended up not being able to hold on to Kate’s boat and we had to realign (thanks Margaux for stepping in!).
[me to my stakeboat holder]: Holy crap, look at that girl in lane 3, she is getting an E for effort.
[stakeboat holder laughs nervously]
[me]: Someone make sure that girl gets an extra t-shirt!
[stakeboat holder, excitedly]: we get t-shirts!?
[me]: No, just that girl.
So now we’re looking toward some more erg testing, and then thinking about double combinations for NSR 2. And…welcome, Gevvie Stone, to PTC.
Who’s ready!??
Oh, and for the nerds:
Long Live the Dream,
–MK
Megan Kalmoe, OLY 
Kalmoe (or is it KLAMO =). good to hear you had a sucessful race.
i love the blog! I’ve been “learning to row” in a sculling class, and I have a serious increase in my amount of respect for how skilled you guys are!
good luck with the racing this summer
-ml