Wow that was a hot day! Non-stop the sun was pounding and was making it a lot harder for everyone, especially me with because of having to race 4 times. This is my little race recap of the Halifax Regatta by event:
-Men's Open 1x: first race of the day but I was fresh and ready to go; it was a combined race with the open lightweights; we all went off the start fast as I expected it to be but after 250m we dropped the lights and began fighting, with a small lead of about 2 seats, I tried to relax and save up as much energy as possible instead of repeating myself at regionals, at 500m I went for a strong 10 and picked up more speed but the other two wouldn't let go and made up their lost ground right after, at 300m to go, I gave a quick look to see where I was and decided to make a move, my plan was to be ahead and stay ahead so I I stayed strong until the 250m buoy and then powered up for the last 20 strokes; the competitor from ROCCS to my left was 3rd most of the time until he hit the 250m buoy and ramped it up to try to catch me, which gave me even more motivation to finish strong, and ended up passing the Halifax rower by less than a second. It was a great race all around.
-Men's Open 8+: my friend Marvin called me to replace him in his club's quad so I decided to add that race, only to find out the next day that his coach wanted me in his 8, in the stroke seat; wasn't really ready for that but I accepted it anyways; I hopped in a boat with people that hadn't rowed together and a novice coxswain: not the greatest boat composition; I took it seriously but it was hard to compete in that race with other practiced boats; we finished 2nd.
-Men's Open 4+: this boat was fun because Brian Cosmillo and I decided to compete with Jess Mellinger and a few other MRC kids (Jp Gutierrez and Chris Congora) to win the four even if we were marked as the B boat; we had practiced the day before and Brian has had a sprung wrist for a few days but we did it anyways. We sat in lane 5 with four other boats wanting to including the cocky MRC A boat. From stroke one we had the lead, and every push was opening the gap even more; with a rating no higher than 30 we powered through the race with no problem and finishing first by over 15 seconds. It was a great summer reunion race for the JU team.
-Mixed 2x: as I walked of the dock with the four, I traded the four with the double. I hot seated into this race, but took my time to get there because I was hot, tired, and thirsty. My double partner was Jonnie Smithson and was sitting stroke seat; she hasn't really been rowing this year but still pulled off a great warm-up and race. With a cross win and choppy water, I sat in bow not worrying about a thing but having fun and keeping her relaxed. After a great start, I looked over and we had had already a half boat length lead. With that notion, I coxed her and made her stay relaxed. She didn't want to disappoint me so she rowed clean and pushed enough so we could stay ahead. Great plan if you ask me! At the 500m mark, we took a large 10 stroke burt of power to open the gap because we wanted to beat the next heat's best time. With 250m to go, I let myself push whatever was left and we finished the race with more than 6 seconds to spare. That was a great ending to my day and regatta.
So at the end of the day I ended up with 3 golds and 1 silver (I won all my planned races) and got to race with my teammates.
PS: congratulations to Casey Baker for stepping up and competing in this regatta and finishing second by less than 0.6 seconds because of handicap, and to Jake Combs and Andrew Stebbins for winning the Jr. double and having good performances in the single.
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