The Torch

The new boat, fresh from Lucerne. Only took four months to get here!

Excited to have Lynn back in the boat with me. 

Two rows done. This morning I rowed 14 k pretty easy getting the feel for the boat and loosening up after a bunch of travel. Fairly rainy and windy here today but somehow I snuck in both rows in quiet times of the day that were for the most part calm and dry. Sometimes you get it right with the weather for no reason at all other than chance. The rest of the Craftsbury folks will arrive tomorrow afternoon which will signal the beginning of the "fun" here in Princeton. It's been nice to get a couple quiet rows here by myself before things get going, although it will never really get too crowded here, at least compared to a race like the Charles. The Speed Order is really informal and has a relaxed feel to it. I say that, however, I know once there are 30 men in an erg room lining up to do a 6k, it will feel less relaxed. The same goes for Sunday morning. I say this is informal, but once we are queuing up for the start, all of that will go out the window. When its race time, the name of the race doesn't matter to me and the people who are there are of no importance to me. When I get that pre-race feeling maybe a couple minutes before the start,  my reflex is to just fly off the line and race like kid who has been inside too long and just wants to play outside! Haha...but seriously, I definitely think about that. What's worse as a kid then being stuck inside too long? I remember in fourth grade, my homeroom class was always the last room out to Recess. Our teacher would always keep us a couple minutes longer than the others. I would watch the other kids sprint out of their rooms and onto the fields and courts. I wish that for no young boy or girl. Anyways, kids play hard and they love every minute of it. I try to channel that exuberance on the water, as well.