Members of the team regale with their experiences

Friday/Saturday
Two coach buses: the first leg of our journey to Poland. A brief mechanical delay to our departure from Newark, but otherwise without a hitch. A little over 7 hours to Berlin, collected the baggage, two more coach buses, and a sack lunch. The finish was in sight. We completed the night’s sleep en route to Poznan, the fifth largest city in Poland.

By the afternoon, we got our land legs and jogged off the puffy ankles as none but the coaches ventured to the course today. During the jog, we got acquainted with our new surroundings and encountered some of the local hospitality. As we jogged along, an older gentleman stepped out of his car, donned the biggest smile, and cleared the path with outstretched arms as he cheered U-S-A as we passed: a most pleasant welcome to Poland.

After a good bit of stretching in the hotel’s well-equipped weight room, it was time for dinner and bed…not a moment too soon.

Sunday
Complete with a year-round ski hill, putt-putt course, beer gardens, an open-water swim race, parks, recreational facilities, and expansive permanent amenities, the Poznan course is more than anticipated. On first glance it resembles a sort of play-land, with its towers and winding buildings outlined in red, yellow, and blue. But with further inspection, workers are busily transforming the aura to that of the World Championships.

As for the rowing part of this journey, the entirety of the American contingent headed to the course for a four hour a.m. session to finalize rigging, get familiar with the course, and go for a row. It was all quiet as the other teams have yet to show.

None of us minds having the place to ourselves. Getting set up and adjusting to our new environment before the hoopla begins enables us to focus on our job all the better. Perhaps others will show by tomorrow.

Monday
As the official shuttles to the course began this morning, we did not have to venture to the course as an entire squad. As the bus made its rounds to other hotels, we expected to see more athletes. A few have begun to trickle in, but still…only a few.

The legs started feeling more sturdy and it was time to get back to work having slept better horizontally than in a plane or bus seat; rowing rather than recovering from travel. Some solid work put in. Maybe this afternoon a few more countries will show.

As for the afternoon, all that showed was a little more tailwind. With as quiet as it is, racing still seems far off.

Tuesday
Up and ready, we all had our own schedules to follow. Some boats earlier, some later, all coordinating lane use.

This morning there was a slight wrench in the works, as yet again instead of more crews, just more wind. It proved a small matter, as we shuffled our schedules and waited it out until the afternoon. As the wind remained, some chose to erg, some braved the seas.

And as for our competitors, a few Aussie and Kiwi crews joined us and Greece at the course, with Canada arriving to share our hotel by dinner. All in all, the numbers round out to a few dozen crews or so. We are another day closer…

Wednesday
As the wind shifted our plans a bit yesterday, we prepared again for some work this morning. Sure enough, as we headed to the course, the wind did calm a bit. That being said, none that we have seen has compared to what we have encountered in some recent years (it’s good prep for the prospect of Eton again).

As for the conditions otherwise, without the obvious presence of the Chinese, the course still feels quiet as racing approaches. We are focused and aware of just ourselves as we take our laps on the course and prepare for the coming week. Perhaps there really are more crews around than we realize. Two encouraging rows in a row?. A little more each day…

Thursday
Yep, it was a good morning for some speed. We headed out for some more work and looked forward to more rest afterward. With an afternoon around the hotel, we all found ways to recover and occupy our time. Who knew just how much time could be spent stretching, doing a bit of hot/cold water contrast to flush out the muscles, napping, hanging out with teammates, getting in some PT from Marc Nowak (the expert!), reading, surfing the internet, napping…

Friday
We’ve fully settled into the rhythm of race anticipation. The hurry up and wait has arrived yet again, and now we remember just how long each day becomes as one runs into another, broken up when we each find it our time to head to the line and find more within ourselves than the last time. Even though racing should seem like an old hat, there are those things you forget about and there are those things ultimately unique to each competition.

When you have plenty of time to think, you find yourself thinking a lot: about each row, about what you could be doing in your down time to prepare for the next row, wondering what will occur in the days to come, and have you done everything you can as crunch time approaches. It is the night before the night before. Not close enough to feel the nerves, yet not far enough for racing to feel as distant as before.

And now with such a name as Armin van Buuren for Opening Ceremonies evening (for the techno lovers out there), I am ever the more impressed. We have been talking about the concert all week. The odd coincidence of it is that before each race, there is one song I always listen to…one by Armin van Buuren himself. I consider it my personal soundtrack.

No Opening Ceremony for Team USA though. We are used to that, so we returned to The Sheraton to rest up after our evening row. Our flight from Newark and bus ride from Berlin seem so distant as our bodies feel charged and ready for the challenges that lie ahead. We are all quite rested and ready…right on time.

Sunday
The “A Day” events began today. That included many of the lightweight events and the open-weight small boats up through the Men’s 4-. The rest of the lightweight and open events begin tomorrow, along with the adaptive races.

So now that racing has begun, it feels like we have been here in Poland for an eternity. Our World Championships are a reality, not just an event to be anticipated. It marks the year’s (or years’ depending on how you look at it) efforts and just how far we’ve all come. We have the chance to show the world, and more ourselves, just what Team USA is made of…

As for racing itself, the US had a very solid showing on the first day. Those of us that did not race watched from the hotel via internet, awaiting and hoping, sending fast vibes to our teammates, along with all those back home in the States doing just the same.

Just as many of our teammates did yesterday, we took one final spin on the course; one last pre-race row to relax in our own rhythm. No more thinking. No more talking. The rest of us take ours tomorrow…

Monday
Our bodies know what to do. We just have to let them. Now is not the time for thinking. It is the time for doing. And when we look at it like that, we shape our own outcomes, with pride in every one of our efforts.

We awoke from another long night’s sleep. (With nothing to do but row, it leaves a good bit of time for rest as you can tell…funny how that works). I opened our curtains and took a nice, deep, slow breath. The sun was shining. The flags outside our window were shuddering a bit in the breeze. You can feel it when race day arrives…

We headed to the course calm, ready, the energy building with each minute that passed on that bus ride. We hit our routine. Bags down, flipped the boat, found a quiet place to stretch, away from the buzz of race day. A jog, an erg, one final meeting…okay maybe two…then hands on.

The warm-up area was busy as expected (hence the longer time on land), busy, but still room to get our engines revved and feel the power all together.

Regatta Time here at the Poznan course is a little ahead of schedule, but that too was anticipated. So off we went, perhaps a minute or two early, as the wonderful, speedy tailwind from this past week could now be felt on our backs as quite an opposing force. It was one of the longest races (outside head racing) we have had since college…

What follows the race is always a new experience; new because we forget a little more with each minute past the finish horn. Thank goodness we are good at forgetting. The forgetting keeps us coming back for more…

Tuesday
Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday…Sunday. Today it seems as though the five days between now and the next time we race will be an eternity. Come Sunday, I am willing to bet that it will seem much like that ellipsis, an undefined space, a blur, one long day that ran together while waiting and resting and preparing; gone by in an instant.

So for now, we wait. We watch. We rest. We cheer. We encourage our teammates during their challenges, and pat them on the back as we periodically cross paths, recognizing the tension of racing and results as it mounts. Most of all, we keep training and keep preparing, gaining as much more speed as possible between now and finals day.

When we first arrived, we traveled together as one contingent, one recognizable giant. Now, just over a week into our stay here in Poland, we have spurred off according to our race schedules. Fewer people are seen at breakfast and lunch, a large group only at dinner.

We have settled into the rhythm of spending all of our time either at the hotel or at the course. At this point in the trip, everyone begins to talk a bit about the smell of his or her laundry, the predictable cycle of meals-the same items every couple of days, the books read and reread and passed around, the movies that have been watched and re-watched...

Everyone has his or her own ways to calm the mind and avoid cabin fever, as there truly is a fine line between focus and boredom.

Wednesday
Uf! Early morning practice…we just can’t shake it. Seeing as how we don’t race again until Sunday, the regatta seems to continue on without us. We remove ourselves from the daily goings on at the course and we await daily results just like everyone watching back home. We become hermits in our rooms, saving as much energy as possible. And despite the fact that we are all in the same hotel, we become a little detached from each others’ realities until we cross paths in the lobby, in the elevator, in the dining room…

And so, as the competition must go on, morning practice time is limited to nice and early, before the day’s races begin. This means we rise with the sun once again…no more able to gently ease our way out of “the perfect amount of rest” to which we have become accustomed for the duration of this trip. (This experience has led me to believe that I am less of a morning person than perhaps I realized.) Never the matter, we rise, we warm up looking for just one inch more with each stroke we take. Our goal is to be ever the smarter, ever the cleaner, ever the more willing to earn every extra inch we can get between now and our final. Every year, it amazes me what can be gained in just a short period of time. Come Saturday and Sunday, when the countdowns are t-minus zero, we’ll take a deep breath and know how to go with what we’ve got...stepping on it…all together…as one.

Thursday
We planned a quick lunch today at the hotel so that we could zip back to our rooms in enough time to pull up today’s A/B semi-final races via internet. Just as we rose to head to our computers, Low and Behold! EuroSport began airing the World Rowing Championships “LIVE”.

The TVs in the dining room where we take all our meals were dedicated to our very own sport, highlighting our very own teammates. Imagine: a room full of American athletes, eyes locked to the same sporting event, lungs inhaling and hearts beating to the rhythm of their teammates’ strokes, imagining just how many people out there might just be watching the same thing. What if this aired in the states? What if more people knew about the sport we have come to cherish and revere?...

Our US crews progressed to the A Finals in three events in a row. All were proud of the day’s accomplishments, all looking forward to the weekend’s performances.

Friday
Once again, it is the night before for the “A Day” events, and the night before the night before for the “B Day” events. The difference this time: a gold medal awaits the first to traverse those two-thousand meters, the first across the line, the first to cause the finish horn to sound.

We have all spent the time here in Poznan storing up energy and honing our skills to the point of peaking on the appropriate day. The roads travelled have been unique to each crew, but we are all ultimately the wiser as these World Championships near an end.

Each of us knows the anxiety and nerves that await if they haven’t flared up yet. The key is to make that an advantage rather than a hindrance. Use that race day edge to get a little more out of the legs, out of the lungs, out of the mind, out of the heart.

So on this crucial night, we athletes head to bed with a plan for just about every minute of race day leading up to start time: when to wake up, when to eat, when to stretch, when to arrive at the course, when to begin the warm-up… But first things first, hopefully some solid sleep works its way into the equation.

May our US crews have their best races of the season, crossing the line proud of their efforts, regardless of outcome. For having the stars align on Finals Day: priceless.

Saturday
Still on lock down…but I must say I don’t mind as that means our crew slept in this morning, getting that crucial “night before the night before” solid sleep. Waking refreshed and a little edgy, it’s almost our turn to have those expected nerves become a reality rather than something to be anticipated. Those nerves are not just for our own races that lie ahead, but also for our teammates whose chances at medals come a day earlier than our own.

So as the day’s races began, it was our US Women’s Pair duo of Erin Cafaro and Susan Francia who were among the first few to take a crack at a medal. All morning I checked my watch and imagined where they would be at that moment. As they prepared for their race, what would they be doing, what would they be thinking…

As room- and boat-mate Anna Goodale and I watched on the TV in our room, we felt as if we were there; our nerves building in anticipation of the start command, breathing with each stroke the two took, standing and jumping up and down as they worked their way down the course, coolly playing the field, and in the words of the commentator “injecting the race pace with even more speed”. They took over the lead position in the closing strokes of the race. Having lined up alongside one another many times in practice, we knew what they were capable of…

As Erin and Susan crossed the line, with both Anna and I screaming loudly enough that we may just have been heard the 20 minutes away at the race course, they became the first ever Women’s Pair to win that event for United States Rowing. What a way to start the morning.

As racing continued, we watched our teammates mount heroic efforts in each of their finals. Regardless of outcome, it is my hope that each racer is proud of this process we are in…for though this World Championships is the immediate step along the way, we see what we are building toward. We are beginning to understand just what our ultimate goals are and what we are going to have to do to achieve them. May we never forget. May we do everything we can on our way there.

It is the night before. We hope for solid sleep. We prepare for solid racing. We remain focused despite the fact that half the regatta has begun to pack up and head home without us…

Sunday
After heading to bed relatively early, waking up this morning was no problem. I had a smile on my face as I zipped up my sweatshirt and headed out the door to breakfast.

It was 8:00am. Four hours and 48 minutes. I took my book with me as I thought it might be nice to have a cup of tea and read a few pages as my body slowly loosened and mind readied itself for the day. I avoided the hot foods and went straight for the bread and toaster, the Cheerios and milk.

There was a bit of a stir in the breakfast room this morning, so as I buttered my toast and munched on my cereal, I read not a page, but breathed deeply and ate slowly. I assembled a PB&J for later, nabbed a packet of honey and a banana, and headed back to my room for my hot shower and to gear up. Four hours, ten minutes…

Our 9:30am chariot: three hours, 18 minutes. Over the course of the next few hours, we stretched, drank water, nibbled on whatever wouldn’t sit heavily in our stomachs, breathed, and focused…headphones in, game face on. It felt like an eternity, those last few hours.

One hour, 8 minutes; last bathroom run, nothing else left to be done. There was no more preparation. We were tired of waiting. We were ready to go. Fifty-three minutes….

It was bumpy out there in the warm-up area. Each of the last few boats to race trying to get in those final strokes. We anticipated as much and took it in stride. Five seconds…

Attention. Green light…6:05.34…finish horn. Collapse. My mom told me a few days later that she thought perhaps I had hurt myself. The heap I became once we crossed the line lingered. Sounds were muffled. My heart beat in my teeth. A few moments…As my ears recuperated, the plethora of sounds became discernable as cheering and the related commotion. The amount of energy it would take to raise an arm or give a yell adding to that commotion seemed out of the realm of possibility. It was all too precious at that moment for breathing purposes...

(Five or so strokes from the line, the announcer would later say: “And it’s the Americans. They are the World Champions, and they are STILL the World Champions”. Headlines after the race read that we rowed an incredibly aggressive race, that we had one of the great performances of the regatta, that there had not been double-gold medalists in one World Championship since 2001 (Then Pinsent and Cracknell. Now Cafaro and Francia). We just thought we raced as we knew how. Nothing special, nothing cute: just simple and hard. Who knew?)

…After the medal ceremony, we rowed back to the dock. A few hugs, a few pictures, and made sure there was nothing left to do with the Jo A. Hannafin, MD (our vessel that braved the high seas carrying us to our ’09 World Title). I gathered my things. Forty-five minutes until the next bus.

So I stood back and watched as the “trading pit” dwindled. People running this way and that, beer in hand. As for me, I was ready to head back to the hotel.

Few of our parents made the trip this year. No Shoops, no Goodales, no Linds, no Cafaros, no Whipples, no Mickelsons, no Davies... There was a different type of quiet after the race. It was not the loneliness of the course as the wind swept across the once so busy lanes. Nor was it the emptiness of the boat racks themselves. There was a calm in the familiarity of the sites as I watched and waited for the time to head to the bus. Shower, dinner, ready for an after-party, up for a 3am bus to Berlin…

On the plane, ear plugs in, eye mask on. Heading home. And just like that, it was all over. Again.

Lindsay Shoop, Shields Fellow

The team had good results in Lucerne. More importantly they learned some great lessons. Two athletes became ill starting on the Thursday before the regatta. Susan Francia was scheduled to row the 2- and stroke the 8+, and Megan Walsh was to row bow seat of the 4X. Once it became clear that these athletes would not be able to race, we moved Katie Bertko to sweep (previously stroke of the 4X) and put the women’s 2X of Megan Kalmoe and Ellen Tomek in the stern pair of the 4X. The athletes raced very well and were able to get some great racing experience.

Women’s Pair: USA 2 (Caroline Lind, Lindsay Shoop) 4th, USA 1 (Erin Cafaro, Mara Allen) 5th
This was a disappointing result for USA 1 and a good result for USA 2 due to the substitution of Shoop for Francia. We received great info from this race. From it we can safely say that we need to re-select a pair combination for trials. The event was not deep and the speed of both of our pairs was not impressive. We will continue to try different combinations against Lind and Francia to see if a faster one emerges. Our target for the World Championships is to make the final for this event.

Women’s Double: (Ellen Tomek, Megan Kalmoe) 1st
Good race and a first for the US Women at a World Cup in the 2X. These athletes will accept the 2X nomination and our target for them is to medal at the World Championships.

Women’s Quad: (Ellen Tomek, Megan Kalmoe, Jen Kaido, Stesha Carle) 2nd
Great race and very close to a win. Because of the last minute switches and the prioritization of the 2X, this line up’s first row was in the warm up for the race. They raced well and almost pulled it off. Our target for this event is to make the final at World Championships.

Women’s Eight: (Kathleen Snyder, Katherine Glessner, Caroline Lind, Lindsay Shoop, Anna Goodale, Mara Allen, Esther Lofgren, Katie Bertko, Erin Cafaro) 2nd
Good race for their first piece together. Target is to medal in Poznan.

U23 Coaches
8+/4-/2-: Steve Perry (Varsity Lightweight, Dartmouth) and Annie Kakela (US Rowing)
4X: Kevin Sauer (Women’s Coach, UVA)

European Report – Henley and Lucerne Regattas - July, 2009

The US men’s rowing team yesterday completed a one week European tour which included the Luzern World Cup regatta. The main objective of the tour was to gain international competition and race experience but also to evaluate our progress and international ranking before the final naming of the team for the world championships in Poland.

The men’s Quadruple scull of Elliot Hovey (stroke) Will Miller (3) Glenn Ochal (2) and Sam Stitt (Bow) also competed at the Henley Royal regatta in the UK on its way to Luzern for the final World Cup regatta of the season. They were beaten half a length by the Great Britain National Team Quad who have won silver medals at two World Cup races this year.

On the final day at Henley, the scullers then teamed with three members of the Brown Alumni crew (Jamie Koven, Luke McGee and Wyatt Allen) and a Senior from the winning Brown Varsity crew from 3 hours earlier – Matthew Wheeler - to race in the Grand Challenge Eight against the Great Britain National Team eight.

After a poor start which saw us clear water down, the crew fought back gamely to draw level with just 300meters to go. Unfortunately the GB crew had the better of the finish and squeezed a few seats to finish less than half a length ahead at the finish line in what was described as the best race of the final day. It was a commendable effort from a last minute composite crew and the regatta organizers were extremely grateful for our efforts in helping to save the main race of the day from being a row-over.

In Europe we had a large team at Luzern compared to previous US attendances and several crews were self-funded. We had entries in the single, double and quad sculling events along with the Lightweight men’s and women’s double sculls along with the pair, four and eight. This mirrors the selection ranking of the crews.

The men’s pair and coxless four both finished in 3rd place against most of the World’s best crews in their events. Kris Korzeniowski has done a very solid job with these crews and it was a commendable effort all-round considering the opposing crews were competing in their third world cup race.

The men’s eight was beaten out of a finals place by 100th of a second by the Italian 8 that had won the first World Cup race and placed in the second. The German and Canadian crews were the dominant crews in this field and went on to finish first and second in the final, followed by a Dutch crew that contained two US College athletes from Cal and BU.

The Eight was a new combination and was coxed by Ned Delguercio from the Princeton Training Center. It was made up of Grant and Ross James (Wisconsin) in the stern, Henrik Rummel (Harvard) in 6, Guiseppe Lanzone (5), Mike Holbrook (4), Alex Osborne (Stanford) 3, Steve Kasprzyk Penn AC (2) and Beau Hoopman (1). The crew had only been selected the previous week and had six athletes in their first senior international race. Ultimately, a disappointing result in a hard fought race and a tough introduction for the newcomers that included four College students from this years IRA. The crew however raced very competitively and were in the mix with the crews ranked fourth to sixth so we are looking forward to improving on this performance at the World Championships in Poland in August.

Training recommences on Wednesday morning July 15th and there is the chance of further trialing for positions depending on the availability and health of returning senior athletes. Josh Inman (back operation) and Jake Cornelius (viral infection in Europe and did not race), along with Tyler Winkelvoss (back injury recovering) could all be considered. We will spend this week training and evaluating our options and carry on with trialing and testing if need be next week. The team will be named on the 26th July and will leave for Poland (Poznan) on the 14th August and one week of racing commences on the 24th August.

Look forward to seeing some of you there if there is a possibility.

Kind regards,
Tim McLaren, US ROWING -- Men’s Head Coach

It’s that time of year: crunch time for athletes vying for spots on this year’s Worlds Team. With July 26th as the official naming date for camp boats and Worlds Trials tentatively held August 3-8, USRowing is setting its sights toward racing in Poznan. The year has already seen productive winter training camps, selection events such as the Spring Speed Order and NSRs 1 and 2, chances to head to the line on home waters at Elite Nationals, and opportunities to test speed internationally at the Henley Royal Regatta and World Cups. Each of these has become integral to team selection and affords athletes opportunities to gain valuable experience and show their strength and potential as the year progresses and “the main event” approaches.

In case you missed out on any of the action so far ...

Lucerne: World Cup III (July 10th-12th)
With this year’s World Championships quickly approaching, members of the women’s open sweep and sculling teams had the opportunity to head overseas to test their initial speed against some of the best in the world. Bound for Switzerland on Independence Day along with members of the men’s squad, they headed to participate in the third World Cup of this racing season. The women’s squad had entries in the Double, Quad, Pair, and Eight.

This year’s regatta brought with it a few hiccups, though US crews proved ready for the challenge. Just a few days after arrival in Lucerne, several team members (on both the men’s and women’s sides) fell ill. Without spares, this left coaches to brainstorm lineups should those athletes not be able to participate. In the truest sense of team, members of the sculling and sweep squads combined to fill all the seats necessary for racing.

Scullers Megan Kalmoe and Ellen Tomek, who raced the week prior at the Henley Royal Regatta, headed over from England to join the group in Lucerne. Tomek (stroke) and Kalmoe (bow) raced in singles at Henley, but teamed up in the double for the World Cup. The duo, who competed together in that event last year in Beijing, won this World Cup by just under a second having led the entire race.

After their Gold Medal performance in the double, Tomek (stroke) and Kalmoe (3 seat) joined Jen Kaido (2 seat) and Stesha Carle (bow) that afternoon to race the final (as Meg Walsh was unable to race due to illness). Upon crossing the finish line, the foursome added Silver to the US medal count. They were a mere .55 seconds off Germany for Gold, and impressively more than 5 seconds ahead of third placed New Zealand.

In the Pair event, the US had 2 entries which originally consisted of the top two finishers at this year’s NSR 2. But with Susan Francia unable to race for the weekend due to illness, the US went to the line with Erin Cafaro (stroke) and Mara Allen (bow) in one pair and Caroline Lind (stroke) and Lindsay Shoop (bow) in the other. With Lind’s pair finishing 4th and Cafaro’s 5th, the US missed a medal by 1.59 seconds. All four did however get a second crack at a medal later in the day in the Eight.

For the final of the Eight, the team saw sculler Kate Bertko (who sat 2 seat) step up to the challenge of sweeping as she helped teammates Erin Cafaro (bow), Esther Lofgren (3), Mara Allen (4), Anna Goodale (5), Lindsay Shoop (6), Caroline Lind (7), Kady Glessner (stroke), and Katelin Snyder (cox) bring home Silver. After a gutsy race, it was perennial rivals Romania (Gold) and The Netherlands (Bronze) alongside the USA on the medals dock. At day’s end, every American open-weight woman who competed in Lucerne possessed a medal.

With each race, athletes not only gain specific race experience, but also become more prepared to deal with unforeseen circumstances. With lineup shuffling on the men’s side as well, this World Cup showed that the US has a talented group of athletes that understand what it means to work as a team.

Henley Royal Regatta (July 1st-5th)
Numerous athletes from USRowing Training Center competed at the Henley Royal Regatta, which took place July 1st-5th, in Henley-on-Thames, England. Associated entries included the Women’s Single, Men’s Single, Men’s Quad, and Men’s Eight events.

NSR2 (May 15th-17th)
Just as the NSR1 was the first step to selection in the singles, the NSR2 played a role in the selection of this year’s two-person crews.

Winners: W2x: Megan Kalmoe/Ellen Tomek, M2x: Glenn Ochal/Sam Stitt, W2: Mara Allen/Erin Cafaro, M2-: David Banks/Charlie Cole, LW2x: Kristen Hedstrom/Michelle Trannel, LM2x: Shane Madden/Andy Quinn, LM2-: John Dise/Will Daly

Some of these crews had the opportunity to clinch their spots on the Worlds Team if they performed according to their standard at a World Cup.

NSR1 (April 24th-26th)
As one step to official selection for the singles and a resume builder for camp boat hopefuls, the First National Selection Regatta entailed some solid racing. Singles winners had the opportunity to solidify their place on the Poznan team should they perform according a given standard while overseas at a World Cup of their choosing.

Winners: M1x: Warren Anderson, W1x: Brett Sickler, W2-: Erin Cafaro/SusanFrancia, M2-: Charlie Cole/David Banks, LM2-: Will Daly/John Dise, LM2x: Andy Quinn/Shane Madden, LW2x: Michelle Trannel/Kristen Hedstrom

Spring Speed Order (April 9th-12th)
As the ice finally thawed, spring racing got underway in the small boats. Racers from around the country appeared at Lake Mercer as the first of the year’s selection events took place.

Winners: M2-: Josh Inman/Charlie Cole, M1x: Glenn Ochal, W1x: Margot Shumway, LM1x: Andy Quinn, LW1x: Abby Broughton

The day after the finals saw smaller boats combine to race heats in doubles and fours as a warm-up for what team boats and summer selection would entail.

Lindsay Shoop, Shields Fellow

Here I am on the brink of 30, in beautiful San Diego, and about to get into a boat where everyone is older than me. As I embark on my ninth year on the National team, I don’t expect to be the youngest in the boat anymore. I guess that’s what happens when you get the title of Masters Rower. What I enjoyed most about the Crew Classic, besides representing the NRF, is the attitude of the gentlemen I rowed with.

I discovered early in the weekend that the competitive spirit of a rower never really dies; it just gets a little heavier and less fit over time. I found that the demeanor and attitude towards winning and losing is also very similar, for instance.

In my race on Saturday (Bushwood Rowing Club, Open) we were in back of the field and far from qualifying for the final the next day. As we enjoyed some waters and bagels in the NRF tent after the race, we discussed all the reasons we didn’t succeed. Of course none of them were OUR fault. It was the rig, or the boat, the lane or the wind. Never practicing together, not being in great shape (for some), being out a little too late the night before, none of these were factors at all.

Now for my second race, which was a straight final (Kent Mitchell Rowing Club, Masters B) we lead from wire to wire and had a great race from the lead. When we got back on land, each of us acted like that was the only possible result.

As for the NRF’s first year at the Crew Classic, we learned an important lesson about rowing regattas. That lesson--keep it social. We rowers spend enough time training, racing, analyzing, and getting coached as it is. We go to these races to see old friends, have a burger, and spark conversations with “Remember when…?” So Next year if you are in the San Diego area or want to try and fill a seat in the Old Glory eight (and there will be one) let us know, because we will be there.

Dan Walsh, Shields Fellow

One major rite of passage, an unforgettably unique experience that we got to share recently, was a training trip out at ARCO, the US Olympic Training Center in Southern California. We headed west this March as a new team with our sights set on a new goal.

When we left the east coast, Carnegie had barely thawed for the season, though I recall waving goodbye to a slightly warmer sun, anticipating spring upon our return. The timing of the trip could not have been better as the weather that was looking up turned cold just after we left. While in California, we woke to sunny, warm weather that made us all hope that spring would come early back east.

Other than the consistently mild weather that any rower would dream to have, ARCO provided us with a boathouse to ourselves, top of the line weight equipment, a full Olympic track to test our land speed, and phenomenal, healthy meals that we don’t have to worry about preparing, to name a few. The 26 of us that got to be a part of this trip shared boats, oars, and our coaches’ time as we rotated practice schedules for the first week. For the second week, we got to row bigger boats all together, and compare speeds across all types of boat classes. We were able to row, run, lift weights, erg, and rest without having to hurry out of the boathouse or off to work for 2 whole weeks. The time to focus on rowing was a good warm-up for the spring season, but above all, the trip gave us a glimpse at what it would be to have one whole team again.

After our two weeks out west, our homes, beds, Marc Nowak our PT guru, day jobs, and lives outside of rowing called us back to Princeton and back to our normal routines. Heading west gave us a chance to focus on our rowing when conditions back east did not permit consistent days on the water, and with each time we visit ARCO, it becomes a little more like a home away from home.

It marks an end. It marks a beginning. As it does every four years, one training cycle has culminated and on either side of that peak, memories were made and there are those that have yet to come.

As the American rowers that competed leading up to Beijing dispersed, a new crop of hopeful and promising athletes emerged and immediately took up residence in Princeton. Some came straight from college and some from clubs from around the country. Several months were spent apart, but as a new year turned, we have begun to join forces in our goal of continuing to build the future of American Rowing. The training, relatively familiar for some and uncharted for others, resumed.

We head to Princeton little by little, for some for the first time. That venue of so many long days of training becomes a reality. The early mornings on Lake Mercer and Lake Carnegie remind me of the simple beauty of sunrise. My mind and heart are calmed as I take a minute to take in the warm colors that light up the sky. We wake up together each morning; me, my teammates, and the lake. It is a beauty that was missed while taking time off after Beijing. So as old meet new, experience meets the green, a new cycle begins and new experiences are shared.

Lindsay Shoop, Shields Fellow