First Regatta of MY season - Occoquan Memorial Sprints

Well, I survived!  My first regatta of the season.  It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible.  I was so nervous and felt so much pressure, especially being in the "fast 4."  It would be so much less pressure if I was just in the Women's 8 and the Mixed 8.  So I was torn, excited to be in the fast boat, but oh the pressure.  Those ladies are so gracious and have been so kind about having me in the 4.  I know they keep telling me, that they wanted me in the boat and that I belong there, but they self-doubt is high!  Anyway,  I didn't want to let them down.

The 4's race was first.  Wouldn't you know that just as we were launching...the wind picked up... oh how the wind picked up!  It was pretty brutal.  So, bad that they weren't using the start platform and we weren't even supposed to get close to it, because it was so dangerous, so that made the start truly wonky.  They tried to line us up... but that was pretty futile, so as soon as it was even close they started us... with very little prep...crazy!

We raced hard, but the wind was just crazy.  Ended up coming in 3rd out of 4th.  So not..DFL!

The 8 went pretty much the same way.  The wind was still crazy, but it didn't throw us off as much in

the 8, but I think the set was a little worse.  Hard to get real traction in the water.  We were 4th out of 5.  Again...not DFL!

John and Zack paddled out to watch my race!

I would say we were all happy, but not satisfied.  Hopefully, we'll get a chance to practice more and the next one will be even better.  I'd really love to get some bling!

First Day of MY practice!

The adult rowing season officially started today.  I've been debating since the end of last season whether I should sign up for the competitive women's team or go with the newly created Intermediate team.  My gut said to go with the competitive women, but if I'm perfectly honest there are a couple of VERY intimidating women on that team.  I mean, scary ladies!   I went back and forth, back and forth.  I asked everyone I know who knows anything about rowing what I should do.  They all said competitive.  But only one other Novice, Jullie, decided to sign up, everyone else went Intermediate.  Was I being too arrogant to think I could skip a step?  Oh how I went back and forth.  I finally decided to just jump in with both feet and bite the bullet. (How's that for a mixed metaphor).  We all met on Saturday to go pick up the boat we're using and to do the inspections.  We only got about 45 minutes of rowing in and I was in the launch for 1/2 of that.  What I did learn is that NONE of the scary ladies are coming back this year... oh what a relief!  All the other women seemed very nice and very accepting!

Today was our first full practice.  Took out an 8 and a 4.  I was 2 seat (same as Saturday).  I actually liked 2 seat.  The woman in bow is really nice!  Practice actually felt pretty darn good.  We mainly did drills by 4 and 6 and then some 10 on/20 off by all 8 not the way back.  I wasn't disasterous and actually felt pretty good a couple of times.  I don't think I was any worse than anyone else.  Do I have much to work on... absolutely!!!  I still open my back way to early!  I tend to forget about early rollups when we bring up the stroke rate, I still use my inside hand to do everything so that my forearm tends to cramp up... I could go on and on, but I wasn't a disaster and I felt like I was keeping up reasonably well.  Yeah me!  We'll see how it goes as it gets more and more intense.