To continue the tradition of writing long sports-related posts that no one pays attention to...here is a recap of this past weekend's rowing trip to Victoria.
This was the culmination of our season. There's two regattas, Head of the Gorge on Saturday, and Head of the Elk on Sunday. I have rowed on Elk lake a bunch of times (last year at this regatta, and over reading week for training camp), but had never been to Gorge.
I was supposed to row in the eight on Saturday, but on Friday my coach told us I'd be in the quad instead. There have been 5 people regularly training in this quad all season, and it's my favourite boat, so I was pleased, but we were all taken aback by the short notice.
The next morning, though, I was switched back into the eight, and relegated to honourary member of the quad.
The race went really well. We pushed incredibly hard, and though we lost (to some VERY GOOD varsity crews), we posted a good time.
Gorge is an incredibly beautiful 5k course. You put your boat in at the finish line, and have to row down to the start before you race, so you get to see the whole course. It goes right through this really nice (and probably astronomically expensive) residential area of Victoria, and there are people watching you for the whole course. The most interesting section, though, it Tillicum Narrows, which is under a bridge. There is about a metre of room on either side of the oars of an eight as you go through, so it's very exciting. Huge crowds sit under the bridge and shout as you race through, and the noise echoes all around you.
We lit fireworks in the dark by the lake that night.
The next day, I was scheduled to row in a double at Head of the Elk. I was really nervous, not only because that's a small boat and it's a long course (8k), but because I was in stroke seat, and I'm not used to stroking - that's where you set the rate, and everyone has to follow you, so it's important that you keep a consistent and strong pace.
It went SO WELL!! It was one of the best races that I've ever had. It was really hard, and really long, but I kept a consistent rate, and our technique was good. It's a long race, though, and over the last stretch, we emptied the tanks. I don't think that I could possibly have gone another 100 metres, we were pushing so hard...
Until my coach congratulated us, and told us that we'd both be racing in the women's eight that afternoon!
I barely had time to get a drink of water before we were launching again.
I freely admit that I didn't have any energy for the second race. I just tried to keep up, and push as hard as I could.
The bus ride home was terrible, with many delays on top of the fact that we all smelled like sweat and lake water. Overall, though, it was an amazing weekend.
Photos
here
