The Journey

So Funday Sunday didn't go as planned.  We got to the course, made weight and raced.  2/3 of those events did go as planned.  We all took the 720 bus down to the course to check our weight and sweat for an 846 weigh in and a 1046 race.  We weighed in perfectly, averaging everyone out at 70 kg exactly.  The warm-up went really well and we felt like we were ready to go out and give it our best shot.

We got to the line and the official starting polling the crews.  After he said, "Australia" we were all set.  The light turned red and then green.  GREEN MEANS GO.  We pressed the hell out of the first stroke, trying not to rip water and then took a quick second, shorter stroke and continued to build the rate over the next 4.  We were off and instincts kicked in.  Go hard, keep us in this race.  We were in the race.  The Italians got out on us a little bit, but not nearly as much as they had in the previous race and Jack, our coxswain was filling us in where we were.  Then it happened...  We caught a pretty heavy digger with an oar and all of that momentum we had gained in the first 200 meters of the race was lost.  We immediately dropped back to last and had to start regaining boat speed all over again.

My first thought was "that just happened, now lets DO WORK and get ourselves back in to this."  From this point on the crew fought and fought, inching ourselves back in to the race.  We never really got in to contention for 1st, but we pulled up almost even with France and Denmark with 5 or 600 to go.  When Jack called for the sprint it just didn't happen.  We had spent too much energy working our way back.  It was heartbreaking at the end.

I felt, for the first time in my international rowing career that we were as fast as the top boats in the race.  We had a chance.  If we had a good race, we may not have won, but we would have left it all on the water and I can deal with that.  However, we didn't have our best piece.  If you don't have your best piece at the World Championships you are not going to win and probably not going to medal.  The margin for error is slim.  Needless to say, I was really pissed on Sunday and it was no Funday.

Then it hit me.  This result changes nothing of the past 8 weeks I spent at Dartmouth, on the Connecticut, selecting 9 guys from 25 and being coached by one of the best in the US.  Up until Sunday at 1052 I would have told you the previous weeks were some of the best in my post college rowing career.  Between 1052 and 2 pm I was saying things like, "what a waste."  It was not true.  We did pass up an excellent opportunity to put ourselves alongside the top guys in lightweight rowing, but it was not a waste.

I had a great time with this crew and would do it all over again the same exact way.  We can't let this result define us.  I will always be proud to be a member of the 2011 US LM8+.

- Jimmy