pennants, maladies and seat racing

It's Tuesday and it's raining (typical England, right?). But as much as the rain sucks I'd much more rather be out in the rain at Caversham (where the GB squad train) to assist with my guys' seat racing than stuck here on the sofa with whatever malady is plaguing me. I do not know what's wrong with me- headache that comes and goes, a tired and wiped out feeling. No appetite (the only positive to this mystery). I feel like I've got an endless hangover. And NO, I did not party THAT hard on Saturday night. I really didn't drink much at all. Must have been the Tideway I accidentally* drank whilst calling a piece during training before the 8's head.

Speaking of the 8's head and partying ... you might have well painted everything pink on Saturday. Leander owned the Thames. Our 1st 8+ of mostly squad guys won the whole thing & set a new course record. Our 2nd 8+ (the lightweights) won the lightweight pennant and finished 4th- the highest our lwts have EVER finished in the race. A big congrats especially to my sweetheart of a boyfriend- John Preston- who sat in 2 seat and helped make that boat go so quickly!

MY 8+, Leander III, finished .07 seconds out of the top 10 (11th). We won the senior pennant. The 4th 8+ was full of blossoming youngsters and while they didn't win a pennant they blew past TONS of people! #36... #37.... #44! (or something like that). WELL DONE LEANDER! So today's lesson is if you want to go fast and win stuff go row for Leander (also, DO NOT drink the tideway- heck, avoid it all costs costs if possible). Until next time...!

where have all the bowsiders gone?!

Well in the last week we've gone from good to worried ... all of my bowsiders (starboards) are either injured or ill! We were supposed to be seat racing today, tomorrow and Wednesday but as of Saturday we had ONE guy left- Ed Whitely. So that being said we're not seat racing but rather we're in quads and now a coxed 4 and a pair for two guys who are recovering from injury/ illness. Alas, fear not! (or so says my coach, Chris) He expects that we should have the 8 up and running by the end of the week. Doing the 2k pieces, probably not. But at least we'll have an 8 going (hopefully!).

It's less than a month before me race Oxford (who beat Molesey on Saturday, btw...) and while I'm not going into the race with the expectation to beat them I am at least hoping to be close and not get my ass kicked. Anything can happen- you just never know. The only thing I can do is focus on myself and my crew. The rest is out of my control.

On that note I'm going to go back to watching some soppy movie from the 80's. Until next time, remember ... adventure is out there!

insomnia

It's 5 am. I can't sleep. I don't know why- maybe because I'm fighting off a baby cold. Whatever the reason I just can't sleep. So I'm blogging. Someone save me.

It's time for the Tideway. Yes, my last post was about the Tideway and now I'm back. Only this time it's prep: prep for our fixture against the Oxford Blue Boat in a month's time and the 8's Head of the River in a month and a half. In the past 2 1/2 months I've gone through a sort of coxswain metamorphosis and am much better than I used to be. Hence why I get to show my stuff and give Oxford a run for their money. Yeehaw! But seriously, I'm pumped and doing my homework. I'm going to win. Now if only I could get some sleep...

me? lazy?

So there has been a lot going on and as a result I've become a tad bit lazy about a few things ... like this blog. But this time I mean it (really). So the fall has been a busy time with a lot of rowing in small boats (1x's, 2x's, lots of sculling) and a handful of opportunities to get out in the 8+ and a couple of coxed 4s. This coming weekend we have the 4's Head of the River. www.hor4s.org.uk/ I was supposed to be racing with one of our coxed 4s but took a "leave of absence" and headed home for a couple of weeks for a few reasons: 1) It's been 6 months and I haven't seen my family 2) I need winter clothes (yoga pants and juicy hoodies will not cut it even now) and 3) I wanted to race the Head of the Charles and Head of the Schuylkill.

Before I even booked a flight I checked with our head coach several times to make sure it was ok and that I wouldn't have a problem with my absence. He said yes every single time. Yet when I came back I found that my seat in the 4 had been replaced with the explanation being "you were away". I'm going to say that I'm frustrated. Let's leave it at that. This is not my personal b$!@# board.

That being said we've got a full regiment racing this weekend and I plan to go down to cheer for all of my teammates and friends- some from other clubs- racing. Before we could race though we needed to do some practice. In an effort to acclimate ourselves to the tideway (yes, the Thames in London is tidal... loads of fun! ;-) we've spent the past few days training there. I had the opportunity to check the tideway out for myself on Thursday when one of our other coxies wasn't able to make it. It was windy, cold, rainy and smelled of sewage. Definitely not the nicest of introductions to the tideway. But we managed and I'm proud to say that my crew handled the constantly changing but always adverse conditions as well as could be hoped. I hope that they kick some ass on Sunday. On that note I need to go find a ride into London so until next time, remember that adventure is out there!

how do you take your rig?

So it's Monday ... but don't let that stop you from looking for adventure! I came across something rather neat recently, courtesy of my pal Gareth who happened to be part of this interesting rowing/ science experiment. It involves rigging, i.e. the order/ placement of the riggers on the boat. You've got some rather standard and traditional rigging styles that you see on about 95% of boats. But then there are the "different" ones. Mostly known as a bucket or the Italian rig, it consists of having usually two rowers of the same side directly in front/ behind each other. But Imperial College Boat Club took that to a new extreme in an 8+ recently. The full explanation appears in "The New Scientist" (not sure if this is only in the UK or not) but for an explanation you can just head over to Imperial's website: http://tiny.cc/qb87j

The photo above is of the crew putting their experiment to the test. I'll be honest- I'm kind of glad that's a boat I didn't get to cox? Either way it's pretty cool to see rowing mixing with science. So check out the article (and the research behind it if you'd like) .... happy reading!

movie

Ok, so I thought I'd add a few more bits on the movie. Only because every time I was the proper trailer I get really excited. Here is the imdb link to the movie's page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285016/ The director, David Fincher is awesome; he's directed a few films you might know like Seven, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button oh and everyone's favorite, Fight Club. So go see it. It'll be better than you think and it'll be my 2 1/2 minutes of fame. Cheers! xxx

it's been a while

Well hello there! It has been a while hasn't it? My sincerest apologies to anyone who actually reads this thing; I have been pretty busy coxing, coaching, being a movie star (yes, more below...), traveling. But fear not! I intend to try to post more often... and I mean it this time.

So recap: I got to cox at Henley Royal this year in the Ladies Plate with the "B" boat at Leander which was a lot of fun. Yes, having a length put on us by the end of the island by Harvard was tons of fun! No, seriously, it was a great experience. I'm so lucky to have had the opportunity to race and be a semi-finalist; I am one lucky girl.

On top of coxing and coaching for Henley I got to do a lot of coxing for a movie. Yes! you heard me right- a real movie... It's out on October 1st in the states; October 15th in the UK. (http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com/) Be sure to check it out! Basically the story is that the Winklevoss twins raced in the final of the 2004 Grand Challenge Cup v the Dutch Olympic Team (stroked by Michiel, how ironic...) and lost. It was the catalyst that caused them to take Mark Zuckerberg to court. So my Leander teammates and I portrayed the Harvard (that's me!) boat and the Hollandia boat. We did two filming runs during finals at HRR and then a week and a half of filming at Dorney Lake for a total of about 2 1/2 min of screen time. Wicked cool.

Beyond that I went to Scotland for half a week. I didn't get to race at Nat Champs because it was so far away and no one sent coxed boats (no one I knew anyway) but my teammates and friends were racing so I came for moral support and a vacation. I took a day and was very touristy in Edinburgh- where I thought of my parents a lot since they spent some time there, oh about 25 years ago....

Other than that I'm back in Henley, enjoying the summer until we start training as a group again at the end of August. Still looking for a job (because making movies is cool but not reliable employment) and just enjoying life. Because after all- you should live life to the fullest, right? Photos from Henley, Yorkshire and Scotland are all on facebook. Until next time ... adventure is out there! xxx