Have Fun....

On my high school rowing team, I had two coaches who knew how to coach.

They trained us brutally.

6 days a week.  Year Round.

 It was long, hard, mentally, physically and emotionally challenging.

We were fit.  We were at the top of our game.  

We never lost.....

Well, almost never.

On race days, our coaches would help us get into our boat, and send us off down the course.  

The last thing they would always say is

HAVE FUN.

I didn't get it.  They knew perfectly well what the next 8 minutes had in store for us....

We had a nasty sprint at the start, and our lungs would be screaming within the first 2 minutes.  By then we'd  only be in the middle of the course, and because our start sucked, we'd usually be down by that point.  We'd push until our legs were on fire, and some how make it to the second half of our race.  This was where it got HARD.  This is where your hands start to sting because your skin peels off, your legs burn with lactic acid, you can barely breath and you wonder whether you actually have the guts not to stop - but you don't stop.  Because stopping would be suicide.  You don't stop because you know the 7 other girls in your boat are in pain too, and you trust that they wouldn't quit on you.  So you row even harder.  And you get to the last 500 meters.  And the coxswain screams that it's do or die.  The thought of losing is incomprehensible, so you bust it out and you move faster and faster, you push harder and harder.  Until the sweet sound of the bell goes off and your body turns to mush and your stomach turns and you gag.  Then you look around and you realize that you won.  

And it doesn't hurt any more.....

This year, I joined a rowing team that doesn't have the coaching I had in high school.  

We've been going to races and losing.  It is not fun.

But yesterday we won!  And I finally realized what my high school coaches meant when they said 

"Have Fun."  

Having fun is winning.

You know that saying, it doesn't matter if you win or lose it's how you play the game?

I don't believe that.

I want to be successful at everything I do.

What about you?

Doncaster Regatta

On Saturday I had my first regatta with my new rowing team.  It was a very nasty, rainy day.  I only had one race and it sure wasn't the most fabulous race of my life...

The river was so small, and right off the dock we were in the way of the race coming down the course.  We moved aside as quickly as possible, bulldozing into a single and receiving a "Warning" from the officials.

The start of the race was a total disorganized traffic jam with boats running into each other.  It was a floating start (meaning was no one there to hold the boats in place and its tricky to get everyone lined up evenly).  So we were heading straight for the trees at the start... Not good.

The other crew were beating us from the get go, but we managed to catch up with them and were neck and neck around the half way point...

Then we decided to do a pretty brutal push to win...

Check out those faces!  Pretty darn extreme, huh?  But we got flustered and couldn't keep it together.  They walked straight past us and won the race by a long shot.

All in all not a successful day - I looked like a soggy lobster and had nothing to show for it.

Hopefully I'll have better luck next weekend!  Oh and I hope you like those rowing pics Nick took.  I dragged him along to the race, he's never watched me row before and he has now decided that rowing is the most boring sport ever and never wants to come to a regatta ever again.  Thanks for your support, honey!

31. Join a team

So there is one good thing about being f-unemployed.... plenty of free time!  I recently joined a rowing team.  For those of you who don't know me, I rowed for 3 years, 6 days a week during my awkward teen phase in high school.  My life basically revolved around rowing.

Evidence : 

I wish I had better photos, but they're all like actually pictures and in America, oh the days before digital!

We were pretty serious about the sport in high school, and I rowed with people who competed at a National level, I of course never made it past regionals because I'm not much of an athlete, but I do like being part of a team.  I had my first practice with the team here last night...

First Impressions/thoughts:

• People are nice, but take themselves a little too seriously
• The club is a little disorganized for my liking, but maybe this is a good thing because it won't matter if I miss practices.
• Speaking rowing is a foreign language and American rowing language doesn't translate to English rowing language which makes me look like an idiot.
• This team REALLY needs a coxswain, (short bossy person that steers the boat / yells at the rowers)
• Stereotypes are there for a reason, and most these girls fit the rowing stereotype.
• I keep thinking they're doing things wrong, but really they just do things differently, and I guess that doesn't make them wrong.
• Rowing is like riding a bike, getting back in the boat was a very familiar sensation.
• There are some muscles my back has forgotten it has.
• Rowing in the English countryside is much prettier and less smelly than rowing in the Licking / Ohio River, must take pictures soon to share with you.
• I'm not sure if I'm ready to have blistered and bloody hands again.  That is the worst part of this sport.
• Why did I ever stop wearing spandex?

I'm hoping I'll meet some nice people through this.  It's SO much cheaper than a gym membership and I could definitely use a little workout inspiration.  In high school I rowed so much I was like 20 pounds lighter.

Dear God,

Will I ever be high school skinny again?

I know that wouldn't make me totally happy, 

and I promise I won't wear skirts so short you can see my undies ever again.

You're right, that wasn't a good look for me,

but maybe I could be skinny and dress modestly now that I'm an adult?

I would certainly appreciate it.

Thanks for your consideration,

Kelly

Oh and friends, since join a team is number 31 on my bucket list, do you think I can cross it off?  How long do you think is an acceptable amount of time to be on a team before it really counts?