U23 Trials

Wow that was an intense trip! I left last Thursday and finally came back tonight, it was a solid week of rowing and driving. I will shortly explain the trip. After arriving in Princeton, I was told that the course wouldn't open for practice until Sunday which was definitely not part of my plan so I made a few calls and was able to erg at the Upper Merion boathouse until then. When I finally got to Mercer Lake, I had to somewhat catch up on my rowing with a few extra meters. This was definitely one of the most frightening events I've attended since I had no idea what everyone was capable of and where I stood since I've only been in the single for about 2 weeks now. Tuesday morning's time trial came around and I was restless. I raced the lonely race as best as I could, and with a little bit of luck, slipped my way into the final. That was my first goal so I was happy, but my lower back started to hurt a lot as I started to recover from the race. I think I ended up stretching a little too much because of being so nervous. With a few baths and a massage, I was back to normal. Making it to the final eased my mind because I had nothing to lose and I had done the work to be there. The final was very quiet and nerve-racking. Off the line, all four boats were quick but after about 500m the others were gone and all I could do was race third place. I had told myself to execute the first half as planned and the rest was improvisation. My moves worked well, and I was able to finish third but was never able to catch the leaders. The winner definitely deserved it since he took an entire year off to focus on the single. This was a bitter sweet moment because I was content with my race but it was definitely not fun watching the winners get their USA gear. I got to meet a lot of new people and got to see old friends too. Now I have a few days at home until we get to return to the Garden State for Club Nationals where I'll be racing the Intermediate 1x and 2x, but also the Senior 1x. 

If you have time, please check out UVA's Jonathan Furlong's new blog on his way to worlds in Lithuania. http://www.findingspeedlosingweight.blogspot.com/