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| Paddling the river Po in Torino, Italia, in the afternoon |
It's been another day of rigging in the rain. At times today, shivering and swearing at little pieces of metal, I lost sight of what I was even doing here. It's worth it all for a good race - sometimes you have to do the really un-fun parts of the sport to better enjoy the good stuff. Have to rig your boat to race fast.
Finally back at the hotel, able to relax knowing that everyone has their equipment in order, and is set up perfectly to race fast tomorrow. We have bibs to race in with our numbers on them, a real upgrade from domestic pinned numbers! Craig stayed late with me and Shane after all the kids had already rowed and gone back to the hotel to help us get our boats perfect. Now they are... we can all finally forget about that noise, relax, and go fast.
One of the Malvern trainers traveling with us snapped some great rowing shots yesterday while the sun was out. I look at these and am reminded of how little we are out there on the river. When you're rowing the river feels so narrow and short, cruising along, especially at race pace, but from these photos it's clear we're kindof alone out there, in another world, which turns on its own axis and has its own rules. We're measuring our boats and oarlocks down to the degree... but in the larger picture, what are we doing out there? It just looks fun. It is fun.
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| Craig and I laughing at the ridiculous oar box. Thanks to Craig's oar box, I am using my own sculls for the race. |
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| Paddling the course upstream... |
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| checking the point |
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| at the finish |
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| paddling back downstream |
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| ...checking the point... |
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| at the catch |
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| mid-drive |
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...and rowing off into the sunset. This is a wonderful experience
and I feel so lucky to be here at all. I will race as
fast as I can to honor the event. |
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