I apologize for not writing this blog last night, but the team has good news that I hope is worth the wait. Yesterday, started off like most days, except we were given a extra half hour to sleep in. Initially, we had to rig our Resolute before we could begin rowing, and while we were rigging, we saw our first wave of parents. It was good to see some familiar faces. Coach Mandel gave us an open ended practice where we were able to decide what we wanted to do. This gave us the opportunity to work on some drills we hadn't practiced in a while, and it was fun to explore the Thames at our own pace.
After practice, we spent the afternoon having some fun, eating lunch in town, and watching Transformers 2 at a small movie theater in Henley. The theater was very small, and the interesting thing about the theater was that when you purchased a ticket, you were assigned a specific seat. In the end, the experience was almost more entertaining than the movie itself. The Tabor Academy team was also there, and the whole movie, these younger local kids were being obnoxious. Gonzaga and Tabor ended up finding friendship in telling to the kids to be quiet, but it was all in good fun, and it was a much needed interruption in the middle of the 3 hour long movie.
When the movie finished, we had to return to our boat rack for our afternoon practice, but we were all in for a surprise. Coach had us walk out back where he was rigging another boat, an Empacher from Hampton School in England. Coach said that we were going to borrow their boat for one practice because he was afraid that the Resolute, which is different from the one we have back home, was sitting too low in the water. Although we were tired of rigging boats, it was all worth it when we took the boat out on the water. We had our best practice yet, and we got greater run with each stroke than we have our whole time in England. Most of us expelled our doubts, and agreed that we wanted to continue to row with the Empacher. We feel that this boat will give us new confidence, and even if it is not any faster, we needed a change to help us refocus. Lets keep our fingers crossed.
With a little more swagger in our step, we returned home for a nice dinner of beef and vegetable stew, and got an early sleep.
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Great posting. this is sort of like reading Ernie Pyle's dispatches from the front. We look forward every day to reading them. They are always well done and for those of us stateside, it helps calm our "crew-parent" nerves to know you are getting along and doing what you all do so well, adapt, focus, and move the boat!
ReplyDeletethanks and keep 'em coming!
Brian and Kelly