Royal Canadian Henley Regatta

Yesterday I had two big races. Quad and Double Semi final.

First up was the quad, 6 in our heat with top three going to the final. we pwnd. seriously. amazing start and we were in front by the first 250 down. then it was cruising (code word meaning extreamly painful and wrecked feeling from energy output) to the finish and come out second in our heat. despite a few problems it was our best race in the quad so far.

Double Semi was two hours later. First off. I hate the double. you have no idea how much i dislike this boat. I feel fear 75% of the time I get into it. my strength is not finesse and form which is what this boat demands. I pop so many supplements that are supposed to help with mental stress, anxiety, to staying calm before i get into the double. I needed to nail this race, I panicked in the first two regattas of the season adding to my weakness and I needed redemption. Even more so since the heat race went well. Top two go to the final.

As i was praying I knew that I needed to go with what i knew. The SPU race plan.
So as soon as the start sequence ended i worked my way down the seats Starting with Savage. thank you SPU teammates for getting me through that, i even remembered your focuses. around 750 or rather 4 seat, we crabbed. dropped from the middle of the pack to the end. we quickly picked it back up, the best rescue ever and hammered it out. I would just like to say that I appreciate people who can stroke so much. I do not enjoy it, its hard. I like the quad because the boat is stable and I get to follow. In the Quad I have Caity's back. In the double she has mine. I have to hand it to my partner she has been very patient with me, doing a wonderful job bowing, as well as giving me as many verbal cues as she can. (I'm still a little to cox dependant) we hammered it at the thousand. and at the 1250 started pulling even on the boat next to us.

I honestly dont remember most of the last half of the race. I remember the coach yelling at me from the shore, and knowing i needed to take it up a notch. my legs ached, my lungs felt like they were useless, but th last 500 we walked back up to our original position. and finished 3rd. and in the lane of the club we walked on. they were not happy we were in their lane. but they obviously didnt need it right then. I have a sneaking suspicion that when we walked they freaked and crabbed, adding to their dislike of us in their lane. So we didnt advance, but it was our best race. Caity was happy with it and i was so brain dead/oxygen deprived that i was gripping the riggers and trying to breathe. It was an aggressive race. Overall we finished 12th out of the 18 in the Semi's. honestly it was a longshot to get into the final. For only skulling 2 months vs most of these girls have several years of experiance I'd say we did very well. I am happy with what i accomplished. I pulled everything together in the last week.

as Caity and I were getting out of the boat at the dock, an official came over and commented, "much better than tuesday night." it was the guy who fished us out. redemption full circle.

tomorrow is the quad final, we're ranked 4th out of 6 with only ten seconds seperating us from 1st. its going to be a race. and its going to be good.