Whirlwind

Post # 176

Amsterdam, The Netherlands - I'm not sure I could've been more spot on with foreshadowing the rest of my summer more in my "Constantly Changing" post from late July.

I last left off at Trials, where Nancy and I raced the final of the lightweight double.

Nancy and me, two days before our final race together

We came in three seconds behind the Oklahoma double. With that result, we'd failed to punch tickets to the World Championships in Amsterdam. My long, crazy season was over.

Or so I thought. I was visiting my family in Boston when I got a call that one of the girls in the lightweight quad heading to Worlds got injured on a training run and it wasn't looking like she was going to be able to race in Amsterdam. They needed someone to fill in, and they needed it to happen fast. I was in Philadelphia for practice the next morning and jumped into the quad with the talented team of Hillary, Sarah, and Mary. Two days later, we were on a flight to Europe.

The three of them have been training in the quad for the majority of the summer, so when I joined them, I wanted to make the transition as smooth as possible and not mess up the good stuff they had going. We've now had a week together in the boat (hooray!) and are starting to feel more comfortable rowing together.

Amsterdam so far has been...rainy. Every five minutes the weather changes between pouring rain/thunder/wind to pockets of sun and warmth. The course has been filling up more every day and by now most countries are here. My favorite parts of pre-race week are seeing athletes, coaches, and support staff - either from different countries or just different parts of the US - that I haven't seen in a while and feeling the anticipation of racing build by the day. Only two more days until the start of racing and three more days until my LW4x races our heat. Go USA!

- Full schedule of racing
- Results page
- Gallery of us training together in Philadelphia
- Press release on the switch

Trials

Post # 175

Princeton, New Jersey - The final day of Trials of the year is tomorrow and we've got CRC boats in three events:

7:30 am - Men's Single featuring Ryan Shelton
7:40 am - Men's Double featuring these guys and these guys
8:00 am - Lightweight Women's Double

Nancy and I have a two-boat race with the Oklahoma double, which means there are no rounds of racing leading up to the final; it's just a one-and-done.

As always with Trials, it's winner takes all. In this case, the winner of each event gets to compete at the World Championships in Amsterdam in the end of August.

Results can be found here and live video is available as well. Here we go!

Constantly Changing

Post # 174

Princeton, New Jersey - If there's one thing that's consistent about rowing (and really, life) it's that it's always changing.

Kate and I started training in the double after returning from our last round of Trials in New Jersey but shortly thereafter, she had to get a very random but essential surgery. Everything went really well at the hospital and, in true Kate style, she was such a champ about all of it. In terms of rowing, we knew pretty quickly that she'd be unable to compete at doubles trials. So after talking to Kate (who is dealing beautifully with the difficult task of recovery, I might add), Bernhard and I called up a few other lightweights to try to make a new doubles combination for Trials. Nancy Miles was super interested and was miraculously at CRC the next day to row with me. Nancy is a student at Stanford and stroked last year's US lightweight quad to a silver medal in Korea. The energy and enthusiasm that this twenty-one year old brings to the double is awesome, and she has a great work ethic as well. She's been a fun person to get to know and work with. We only had a week or two to row the double in California, but have already made some great progress. I'm happy with how far we've come in a short time.

Nancy and I flew to New Jersey last week for what will be my eighteenth regatta at this course by her count. Not sure whether to be proud or slightly depressed about that one. We'll be racing Trials next week and so far the entries show just us and the Oklahoma City double of Michelle Sechser and Devery Karz gunning for the line. Those were the two who represented the US at the World Cup in France earlier this year.

None of us really had any time to digest this turn of events because it unfolded so quickly, but if it's possible for the dust to settle this year, maybe this is it. Kate and I had to let go of the idea of racing the double together. I had to adapt really quickly to rowing behind a new person with a new style. Nancy and I had to get to know each other both as racers and people in a short amount of time. Bernhard had to decide whether this new double even stood a chance at Trials.

Only now do I realize that this big challenge is actually really great for me - and probably for all of us. If things were always normal and comfortable and we weren't forced to test ourselves in new and different ways, we wouldn't learn how to deal with difficult situations. Rowing has taught me that as much as you want the path to success to be as straightforward as possible, it takes you on what feels like the most roundabout, strange way and leaves you wondering whether you're even on the same path you started on.

It's kind of like this. (Credit here)

I'm lucky to have the support of my teammates, clients, roommates, friends, family, and everyone else back in California that make a trip - heck, a season - like this possible. Is this life's way of keeping me on my toes?

Season Wrap-Up

Post # 173

The Artemis season came to a close this week, which is bittersweet. It's always hard to say bye to the kids and wrap up a year, but the team has come a long way since last September.

But let's rewind to 2012 for a second, when I first met these kids. Many of them were shy, not super confident in their abilities, and it didn't feel like they could completely be themselves on the team. It's been incredible to watch the individuals and team change over the past two years. The shy kids are now like Dylan is in this picture. The unconfident kids have now won medals at the Regional Championships. And the team has gelled through common experiences, whether they be fun, tiring, nutty, or nerve-wracking.

I've said it before but I'll say it again: I'm excited to see where this team will go from here. Much of it is in the hands of the athletes on the team and they're taking it to some pretty great places. With three boats making it to Nationals, not to mention an awesome Regionals performance, fall regattas, and an entire year of team bonding, we head into the 2014-2015 with a great platform to build from.

The Road Ahead

Post # 172

Well, it's been quite a summer so far. CRC came back from Trials last week, where Kate and I notched a 1-2 finish in the singles. That finish places Kate on the World Championships team, if she chooses it.

Here's the hitch: the lightweight double that beat us at the NSR back in May recently raced at a World Cup overseas and came in 8th. They had to get top 4 to be placed directly on the World Championships team, so that means the event has been opened up again and another trial will take place in New Jersey in August. Kate and I have always loved the double, so we're excited that we'll get another crack at it this summer. Now having raced fully three separate regattas on the same New Jersey course so far this year, you could say we're getting used to racing there.

If we win that trial in August, we'd be directly placed on the World Championships team in the lightweight double. If not, Kate could still race Worlds in the lightweight single.

Confusing? Yes. Check out this row2k article on the squad so far, which has a blurb about each race at Trials, and an attempt at clarifying some things.

Onward. Go USA!

Trials

Post # 171

CRC is in New Jersey for Under-23 Trials and part of Senior Trials. So far our results have been headlined by our awesome Under-23 lightweight women's quad, who won their final today and landed themselves spots on the U-23 World Championships team. Big congrats to them.

Photo: Bernhard Stomporowski 

The men's quad is also here to race for a spot on the senior World Championships team and Kate and I are racing in lightweight singles. The guys in the quad have been our main training partners for over a year. When all seven of us (quad + me and Kate + Bernhard) were stuffed into the minivan on the way to practice the other day, we joked that it's like we were a big family. It's pretty true, though. We interact with each other every day, both on the water and off, so we cheer for each other's highs and help each other through our lows. We compete with each other all the time on the Oakland Estuary - mainly for best percentages, but everyone knows that bragging rights are really what's at stake. We've experienced crazy, eight hour practice days together and seen each other when we're absolutely dog tired (that's when everyone's in the best moods...). We've eaten countless meals together and been on long rainy hikes and long sunny runs together. I wouldn't rather have another group of people to be on this team with.

Check out the live video feed of the final day of the regatta. CRC is racing in two finals:
7:30 am - men's quad (far lane)
8:58 am - lightweight women's singles (me and Kate, middle lanes)

Go CRC, go USA.

Youth Nationals

Post # 170

This weekend was the Youth National Championships in Sacramento and for the first time ever, Artemis had several boats racing there. Of the three doubles that competed (two girls' boats and one boys' boat), two of them reached the finals and both ended up with 16th place finishes. That's seriously awesome for a group of freshmen and sophomores making their first appearance at Nationals. By the way, one of the girls' doubles was also the one featured in Row2k's Photo of the Day last week - and for good reason!!

The bonds created in high school rowing are so strong that they last well beyond senior year. Case in point: my high school coach is visiting the Bay Area for the week and I get to see him this afternoon AND at a big reunion dinner tomorrow for all of the Community Rowing alums in the area. It's been ten years since I graduated high school (scary) but every time we all get back together, we fall right back into reminiscing about the good times we had in high school. I'm so fortunate to have had that experience and to hold onto so many great friends from it.

Here's a BIG congrats to all the Artemis kids - I can't wait to see you guys later today!

Diana Nyad

Post # 169

Oakland, California - I'm not one to watch commencement speeches. I've heard a few pretty good ones, but otherwise the ones I've listened to or watched haven't been that memorable.

That's why this commencement speech is worth sharing. One of my teammates just graduated from Middlebury and told me I had to watch the commencement speech, delivered by none other than Diana Nyad. Diana is a long-distance swimmer who, among other incredible achievements, completed the first swim from Cuba to Florida last summer. In this speech, she describes how she goes about squeezing every last drop out of life. She challenges the audience to live a life so full and wonderful that you can look back on it and say with confidence that you couldn't have done it any better.

As we hiked the hours away together, my teammate told me she couldn't have had a more perfect speech given to her at her commencement. And even though it wasn't my own graduation, I think Diana's speech is a reminder for all of us: life has its ups and downs, but in the end, you just have to ask yourself the fingernail question. Take a look:

#HowWeBean

Post # 168

When ITA announced its partnership with L.L.Bean last week, I was pumped. Not only are the two such a great fit for each other, but I've always been a huge L.L.Bean fan. Growing up in New England with two VERY outdoorsy parents, my family took a trip to the flagship store in Maine every year to stock up on all the hiking/camping/swimming/playing/traveling gear we needed. As a kid, I was always decked out in L.L.Bean stuff.

It's no surprise that after I left home and started traveling for college racing and, later, international racing, L.L.Bean bags were the ones I used. I've used my tried and true red rolling duffel to haul my stuff to every college race and training trip. It sat in the back seat of my car when I drove across the country in 2011...three times. It has come with me to every World Cup, World Championships and to the Olympic Games. By my quick count, it's been with me to about half of the states in the US and roughly ten different countries. That's one well-traveled bag...and that's just one of my bags. Turns out I have racked up a few of these things:

Four L.L.Bean bags in one picture. I was heading straight from the Collegiate National Championships to U-23 Worlds selection camp and simultaneously trying to move some stuff back to my parents' house in Boston. 

Bushwhacking to the beach in Rhode Island with my striped tote

Heading to the 2009 World Championships in Poland with my L.L.Bean rolling duffel 

The newest addition to my L.L.Bean bag family: the ITA tote

A big THANK YOU to L.L.Bean for getting on board with ITA. We can't wait to see how great this partnership will be.

Nationals: Junior and Elite

Post # 167

Princeton, New Jersey - Artemis is awesome. They competed at Southwest Regionals last weekend, facing crews from all over the lower left quarter of the country. Over the years, they've worked their way up the results table, and this year they finally broke into the Youth Nationals qualification spots: the boys' lightweight double got third place and qualified! It was a first in Artemis history...and these guys are a freshman and a sophomore. I'm so proud of them. Youth Nationals is in a few short weeks in Sacramento.

 Big congrats to Josh and Kenyon in the LM2x!

(this is what happens when you give Dylan and Chris your camera...)

Over on the east coast, Kate and I are through the first two rounds of racing at National Selection Regatta 2. We won yesterday's time trial and this morning's semifinal. In typical New Jersey spring style, we battled a strong, gusty headwind. This photo is a good representation of what racing was like today. We're pumped to get on the course tomorrow for the final. Only the winner gets to race internationally at the World Cup regattas.

Our CRC men's pair sneaked through the semifinal today to make the A final in their event. They race tomorrow morning at 7:20 am and Kate and I are at 7:30. Check out the USRowing results page and follow California Rowing Club on Facebook. We also have teammates racing in Germany and Mexico City this weekend. We're everywhere!