Race Week

So we are racing this week, coming up on Saturday. It's been so long since I've raced I forgot the subtleties, like how you really start getting 'zoned in'. It's kind of a hard feeling to describe, but everything just starts to fall away from your consciousness except for thinking about your race, almost like your field of starts to narrow and you are wearing blinders. It gets easier and easier to focus because you can feel your adrenaline start to pump up in anticipation. And every time you are out on the course practicing, you are thinking about what it's going to be like when you are screaming down the lake at maximum speed in a few days. Even looking at the starting docks, which have recently been added to the lake, I start to get anxious and nervous in my stomach, which is the natural reaction to pulling your boat into the starting line.

This week isn't the end-all, be-all for selection, but we are basically racing ourselves in two-person boats under simulated racing conditions so we get a sense of how people perform under a little more pressure than a typical practice. It's got a lame acronym (NSR, for National Selection Regatta). Anyway, it's a good chance for me to establish myself if I do well with the guys and the coach, and will start to prepare me for racing in Europe later this summer if I get selected to do so. Regardless, I love racing week because things start to get interesting - especially because coach can't beat the snot out of us with hard workouts since we need to be rested for the weekend.