The day started pretty early, a 4:45am wake up followed by the usual routine; brush teeth, put on clothes for the day, pack the last few items in my bag and then make up my oatmeal then return to my computer to check the weather and eat.
After managing to eat most of my breakfast without feeling too sick with nerves I stepped outside into the hot, thick and humid air and hopped in the car all while continuing to pray for relaxation and courage for what lie ahead. I had been praying that the Lord would put the best conditions out there for me whether that be wind or calm waters and I guess I had to take confidence in the wind that prevailed in the heat.
I arrived at the boathouse and did my usual thing; gather water, socks, a hat, sweat rag, some electrolytes in a bag I take on the water (just a simple giant ziploc) and headed into the boat bay to take my blades to the dock. Upon making it back up the hill from the dock I proceeded to warm up on land and think over my race plan. The next step is visualization. I knew I needed focus and I needed to make sure I had a plan going into my race. Typically we work on race plans in advance which I did do, and practice its execution every chance you get, whether in your mind or on the water. So this is what I did, one more run through while sitting in the morning sun, eyes closed, taking myself through each stroke, and even touching on the worst case scenario.After visualization everything falls into place, I took my boat to the dock and did what I had been doing for weeks, warm up on the water.
At 7am I was ready to go and waited at the top of the course for the larger boats to start their time trial so that we singles could get to our race side by side. At this point I had no idea what was to come but I did my best to relax, stay calm and trust in the work I have put in. In the end I have and did trust that God's will would be done.
We had a floating start, which simply means we had to line up evenly without assistance from a boat holder. It makes things slightly difficult and adds some stress for us rowers but it all works out in the end.
The lane polling was complete and I sat at attention ready for the call; "Attention, row!" And we were off, I managed to get some great start strokes in and found myself at the front of the pack (slightly). This was a major blessing as I had been struggling up to this point in getting my floating start right. As I lengthened into race pace I thought about long and powerful strokes into the head wind. My goal was to stay focused on my race and what I was doing not others and thankfully I picked a hat to wear by accident that acted like blinders so even if I wanted to look it was hard to see. I lead the race from early on and it was not until the second half that I started to have trouble and even caught a crab (not the crustacean but a term we use to describe the blade getting stuck under water and usually stopping the boat). I had a brief moment of panic and the one girl closest to me opened the gap on me to take the lead. I responded to my blunder quickly and made my goal to take back the water I lost on the following crews. I was not going to settle for anything less than 2nd and was going to push to be as close to the now leading rower so that in the chance that the coaches decided to go on time gaps I would have a chance.
At this point my legs were on fire, and my lungs were about to explode with the effort and the extreme humidity and heat but I managed to hold off the heavy wheezing with some solid exhales going into the last 500m. I did not have the best of lifts to the finish but I got the job done. I had no idea how far I was from the leader but I knew I had left no questions about 2nd or 3rd.
I was pleased with the efforts I put in but clearly saw a need for several improvements on my race overall. This is what I will be working on for the next few days until we race off on Tuesday with our top sculler.
I am grateful to you all for your prayers and will ask yet again for them as Tuesday approaches. This will be phase 2 of three to qualifying for the World Championships in August. I have confidence in the plan that is set out for me in life and here for rowing and the race this week was a good reminder for trusting always.
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