K offered to drive me to the Lake on Friday morning. I was supposed to meet R there at 9:00 to depart for Columbus. K and I were on the highway, and heard a thud. Bad news. K had a flat tire. Inauspicious beginning. We called Dad, because I needed to get to the Lake. In the meantime, we starting changing K's tire. Dad pulled up in his big truck and blocked traffic so we wouldn't die (we were on the side on the interstate), and we finished the tire change. Just about that point, a friendly neighborhood police officer showed up to make sure all was OK. Thanks for the help, dude, we're good.
So dad took me to meet R at the lake, and K had to go get a new tire :-( R and I set off to pick up C at his house in Glen Carbon. (One of Money magazine's 2009 best cities! Who knew?) Anywho, we set off for Columbus, with a brief stop in the middle of nowhere for lunch at...wait for it...Cracker Barrel!
Our Trusty Steed
And just for the fun of it, because E (another rider in our caravan) had never had any:
We arrived in Columbus sometime around 5 and headed to the course to rig up some of the small boats. It was a nice course -- straight and fully buoyed -- though only about 900 meters. (But trust me, I'm not complaining about that.) The scene:
Dinner that night was at Champps, then fairly early to bed. Finally, a good night's sleep! In bed by 10:30 or so, and didn't have to get up until 6:30! That's a full 8 hours! Geez, I can't remember the last time that happened. Not to mention that we were staying at a Hilton, which typically have amazingly comfortable mattresses. This one was no exception.
The next day started out overcast, and got more overcast. And drizzly. And windy. Those were the charming conditions of my race in a single (1x). However, due to the shortage of club boats for lightweights, I did not have a good one to race. R was very generous, and let me use his fancy new Kaschper.
The race actually, despite a major-ish mishap, went better than expected. I was racing in the open weight category, so the girls in the race were significantly bigger than me. Additionally, I was in the lane that was getting the worst wind, because it had the least protection from the stake boat dock. Neither of these things are comforting as we're sitting at the stake boats waiting to start. Then the flag goes down. I had a pretty good start; I didn't go quite straight, but I did manage to get out ahead of some of most of the other boats, including T, the other girl from St. Louis. Then the warning siren goes off, and they call our race back to the start. I had probably taken 15 strokes or so, and somehow during that short time, the girl in the lane next to me ended up in the water.
So we go back to the start. She pulls up to the dock and a very nice man dumps all the water out of her boat for her. Then we start again. Still a pretty decent start, and I went a bit straighter (I was learning to compensate for the wind). I was holding on to second place until about 5 strokes past the 500-meter mark, where I caught a crab on my port side. I was inches from going in the water. The launch that was driving along next to me thought I was going to go and came to a screeching halt. (Thanks anyway, guys.) Thankfully, though, I was able to get my blade out of the water before total disaster struck. I started rowing again, and managed to finish 3rd!
Oh, and there was a spider in my boat. I saw him crawling around before the race started. I tried to flick him out, but he ran away. After that I couldn't find him. That always makes me nervous.
The remainder of the races were not quite as eventful as the first. T and I raced together in the open weight womens' double (2x) race. We also finished 3rd. There were some fast boats in our flight.
Sometime after the 2x with T, the weather totally turned around, and was all of the sudden miserably hot, humid, and with blistering sun. But that didn't deter R and I; we were a last-minute entry into the mixed 2x, and we finished 4th, having never rowed together before! The last race of the day was the quad (4x). Another bronze medal, but a pretty good race altogether. I could tell I was tired, but I think all four of us managed to hold it together pretty well.
Regatta planners typically put mixed eight (8+) races at the end of the day. They do this because those races are usually kind of a joke, people who have never rowed together before, just for fun. But the problem is this: 8s are the first boats that have to go on to the trailers. I mean, there's some stuff you can do without them, but you have to still have enough clear space to be able to get the biggest, heaviest boats up to the very top rack of the trailer. That requires a lot of people. And they need places to stand on the trailer. So you can't put too much stuff on the trailer or you'll never be able to get the boats up.
It probably took another hour and a half to get the trailer loaded after the last boats came in. Then we started the long trek home. I think I finally made it to bed about 2:30 this morning. And I have three bronze medals to show for it.
my hero(ine!)
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