Post WC 2/ Sarnen

Ben and I have made it to Sarnen, Switzerland safely, where we will spend the next two weeks leading into WC 3 in Lucerne, which is about 20 min up the road. Over the course of the travel and settling in the last day or so I have gotten the opportunity to decompress and look back at how things went in Varese. Anyone just looking at the result sheet  on Sunday would not have been impressed with our result. We finished 11th and went 6:21 in a light tailwind, far from where we wanted to be when it was all said and done. Obviously the result board just gives 500m splits and doesn't tell the whole story and it shouldn't-- it's job is to be objective. It doesn't put an asterisk next to the name of the guy(yours truly) who caught the boat stopping crab with 200 m to go. From my perspective, Ben and I were in the midst of having the sprint that I thought we could have, when disaster struck. We had gone out slightly behind GB throughout the race, but firmly in second when we got to the 500 to go mark and began our acceleration to the line. In one stroke we went from rowing 1.36 to 1.31 and it was still light. It was clear we had a lot to give, exactly the way you want to feel. By the time we hit the red buoys marking 250 to go, we had moved a lot and were open water ahead of the Germans and all the others and were moving back into the British. We were about to shift from our long range sprint . It was light, long, connected, and fast. I told myself to keep it simple and work within the framework we had established. It felt like the moment after I told myself that, my starboard blade caught water and stopped the boat immediately. The oar handle went completely past my body and we luckily we were able to recover and finish the race. In the process, the Germans, Czechs, and Danish, all flew past us. I am not exactly sure what the lesson is there except for to tell all you young scullers out there to tap down at the release and clear the puddle. Ben and I know that we had established ourselves ahead of those other boats and we likely would have been 8th, just behind the British, but we didn't finish it out, so we can't claim that. The worst feeling is that its possible we could have gotten 7th. It would have been unlikely to pass the Brits at the line, but I don't think it was out of the question. We were on pace to go around 1.30-1 for our last 500 which would have put us at 6:12-6:13. GB went 6:12.9. I felt like they had used a lot of energy early to try and assert themselves over us during the body of the piece, but we had a lot of energy to give in the last 500 and certainly had shifted the momentum in our favor. But at the end of the day, I messed up, and the result is what it is. It was also particularly sour watching the A final of the 2x and seeing the straight line across for 2nd and 3rd place. Behind Croatia( who is comically far ahead right now) it is anybody's game. Watching Italy get a medal was very indicative of how tight the field was. We know we can be right up in that fight and so our task now is to get back to work and see if we can push through that pack of boats. We have two weeks here in Sarnen to continue to put in miles together and work on our weaknesses. We will be doing a lot of base pace rowing, trying make a base rhythm that is unbreakable under pressure. We know how fast the fastest is now and so we will see if we can begin to make that extraordinary pace ordinary for us. We are staying with Ken Jurkowski and Julie Nichols here in Sarnen. They are great resources for us with their wealth of sculling experience and expertise. I think they are excited to help us reach our goal of moving from being a competitive double to a contending double. Since Dan is back home coaching the rest of the Craftsbury contingent stateside, its very helpful that Ken and Julie are willing hang out with us and help us prepare for Lucerne. We went on our first row this morning in Sarnen and it is clear to me that we have better awareness together of what we need to do from now to Lucerne. That collective awareness  between Ben and I is crucial and is a huge advantage of staying over for WC3. Racing is fresh in our minds, our weaknesses are fresh in our minds, and we are eager to improve upon them. Hopefully we will have some video of us rowing on Lake Sarnen soon.

Swiss Rowing Center dock.