Canadian Henley

Alright so Tom and I head toward Canada on Monday. What started out as a 7 hour car ride turned into a 13 hour ride because of being stuck in traffic at the border for 3 hours! So after we get checked in at our residence I find out that there was a miscommunication and I have no place to stay. I end up sleeping on a dorm couch that was never intended for a 6'1'' man. I was forced to sleep on my side in a semi-fetal position with my arms crossed, which caused me to wake up every hour or so when my arm go numb. I also had no blanket so I wake up because I was freezing! The guys in the place must have set the AC on north pole. About 3AM i go walking around looking for a blanket, sheet, towel, jacket, anything. I find a wind breaker and that is how I spend the rest of the night.

The next morning Tom and I go for a practice row. It was less than spectacular. There were so many boats on the water. My mind was all over the place. But, I still felt that we were going to be alright on the water.

Race Day

We get the course early and just relax. We made sure we got on the water with plenty of time to warm up and practice our starts. We got our starts together and as we head to the line we are feeling really good about our race. We line up and get ready for the race. We start our race and nail our start and are mid pack at the point-of-no-return 100m mark. We are still in the running at the 500m mark and going strong. We pass through the 1000m and are solid but have lost a little on the field due to a problem of staying off the Starboard boeys. We are now in forth and moving toward the finish with about 750m to go. I hear Tom yell back at me that he thinks we are now in lane 8 (we are suppose to be in lane 6). I swear that I don't remember crossing any boeys. I think Tom is crazy and dismiss it because I am sure we are still in lane 6. As we move to the 1300m mark I hear the Referee say that we are out of our lane and need to correct now. I look up and see the shore approaching really fast. Tom stops his stroke, I change the point and we bee-line back to lane 6. We get back in our lane, now solidly in last place. We pick it back up knowing that we have ground to make up. We know now that we can't qualify but we are going for a solid time. We move into the last 250m. We take a 5 on the fly and move into our sprint. About 50-75m from the end Tom and I both hear, "Penn AC let it run." So we stop rowing. After sitting there for what feels like 20 sec, he says that we should keep rowing because we aren't done. We pick it back up and finish our race. The Ref says that he said "Lane 3 let it run." I am still suspicious. We finish, disappointed but it is done. Later, we find out that our time is 7:29. Not a great time but alright given our difficulties. Looking at the other times, we may have qualified if we were in a different heat. It was a sad end, but Tom and I were both glad to not be in the eight.

The next day I left the course and headed back to Philly to relax, do some sight-seeing, and pack for home. It was a good summer and I learned a lot. I am looking forward to training in the upcoming year with what I have learned. To really shave the seconds off my time. I am going to take a little time off from training at the suggestion of an old coach to let my Back recoup and get ready to hit it hard again... in a week or two. Looking forward to some cross training with my roomie and some good cycling.