here's some more "about me" specifically talking about rowing. today i went to rowing practice. no surprise there, i have practice everyday from 3:30- 6:30. Tuesdays we have land practices because our team doesn't have enough boats for both teams to go out. so today, instead of going out on the water, we all were ready to have a really tough day on land. well here's the surprise, our coach will be sending one boat to the OK state and so instead of having a land day he sent us out on the water to do seat races. seat racing is an exercise where each rower is placed in a boat adjacent to an opposing crew. the rower is matched up against a rower from that boat and then they race. the coach determines the distance and certain other rules. this is extremely nerve wracking because you never know if you are going to be racing next. so, my coach picked me to go first in the seat races against a kid who i have had trouble beating every single race we have. and today, i crushed him which made me very happy. the unfortunate thing is if we win the race, we might still have lost in the overall goal of seat races. the overall goal, is to determine who is faster than who and works well with the boat. our coach never tells us the result of seat races so right now I'm still kinda nervous. after the first seat race our coach tested other rowers to see how fast they were. at the very end of the day our coach had me race against another kid. this time i had an inkling (and yes i said inkling big whoop) that i would beat him. so when our coach started us off i said to myself , " you can lose to him don't let him off easy" so for the five minute race that we did i pulled my ass off and I'm pretty sure i won. I'm very happy about winning both my seat races : )
Unfortunately i wont know if I'm going to the OK until after tomorrow. i know this isn't very interesting but its something in my life I'm proud of. and that, doesn't happen very often. if u have questions let me know. also, rowing isn't an easy sport. you can look at your varsity football team and yeah, they're ripped and really tough. look at a rower, look at his hands, and you will see his struggle to be better in the boat. as my coach likes to say "the strongest chain is only as strong as its weakest link." rowers are tough mentally and physically. if you think this is wrong look at a varsity rowers hands and you will see calluses and scars from the oar handles. a past Olympian tore the muscle between his back and his ribcage and still went on to row in the Olympics winning gold for the US. now that is one tough Cookie. live, love, laugh, and be happy
2 comments:
I've see rowers, they always looked pretty well muscled. I mean those arms, wow. Its inspiration to watch them row in unison...sounds corny, but good team work is always nice to see. It shows how we can become one, and get the job done.
I am recovering from major spinal surgery. So when I first came home from the hospital, I was on the sofa quite a bit. I got to see Michael Phelps win most of his medals live...why. Cuz I could not sleep.
In staying up due to recovery issues, I got to see many an off the beaten path sport, while watching the Olympics. Why does the media concentrate on certain sports. Why does swimming, trackand field, gymnastics, blah blah blah, get all the attention.
Why not spread the wealth. If rowing got more coverage, do you thyink more studnets would sing up? Probably. And I would bet my botom dollar, that many people sit back and say. "Ah rowing, that is for wimps." Think again turkey brain(I wante dot use a more colorful metaphor, but a lot of teens read and I wanted to play nice)
Suffice it to say, I bow to your athletic prowess. I am still having trouble putting one foot in front of the other, but this too shall pass.
Keep up the good work.
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