Heats in the Snow

Day one of the 2011 NRC's is now over and an experience I will remember. There were many races all through the day from bright dark and early 8am to 4:30pm. The weather was in constant change from rain to shine snow and hail, sometimes all simultaneously. A steady West wind was gusty throughout the day and there was no way to predict the direction. Eric and I raced our pair at 1:54pm... or so we thought until a crew scratched and changed our heat into 6 boats with only the 1st place advancing onto the finals. The race was bumped up to 1:45pm, so we had to rush to get our 45min warm-up in. While finishing our warm up and getting into position for the start there was some confusion with another pair who didn't get the memo on the changed race times and were in our position. To make a short story long, we got a "yellow-card" due to our late entry into the starting gates, which Eric argued against and was promptly thrown out and the race continued on as nothing happened. Who knew someone could argue with an Umpire and they change their ruling... With that, comes Woelfl.

The race went just as planned! And we ended up pulling away from the group at 1200m in. With these results we don't race tomorrow (Saturday) and move straight to the finals on Sunday. What a relief and that concludes my first race in a pair (2-) (or pear...?)

My partner Eric has helped me immensely and constantly explains things that are probably elementary to him (and most other rowers) such as... You need your ID to launch your boat? Something that I didn't think would be necessary on the water, but as I find out from Eric before we lift the boat I need to run to my car and grab it.

 

Next race, Sunday @ ~11am. I'm excited to watch a day of racing tomorrow.