August 30, 2007 - Adrian

Finally my life is complete.  As a near but post Cold War baby, I was indoctrinated from a young age to fear and despise Russians.  Today, I finally got to face them on the field of battle.  Just like Rocky Balboa avenging his fallen friend Apollo Creed, I was successful, vanquishing the Soviet spies to the B finals.

Okay, that was really just an excuse to reference Rocky.  Today’s race did include Russia, but we were much more concerned with Italy and Germany than the Great Bear.  Our goal was to beat Italy, who was in the lane directly beside us, and to ignore Germany.  It was a good strategy.

The race itself was not our best, but it was good enough.  We had to go all out the entire way, which was expected.  What wasn’t expected was the strong headwind that made the race last forever.  We led at the 500m mark, but finished second behind Germany.  We were all fully spent when we crossed the line.

The best part about advancing to the A final is that it gives us an automatic birth in the Paralympics next year.  In fact, all four of our adaptive boats qualified.  We are the only team with a boat in each category to qualify in all the events.

Saturday’s final will be tight.  I think that all six boats will finish within seconds of each other.  If we row our best, we could win the whole thing.  If we row poorly, we could easily finish in last position.  I think we are all pretty focused; we’ll just have to see what happens.

Honestly, I was a little worried about this afternoon’s race after my morning.  Somehow, Jesse and I missed each other in the hotel lobby and I got left behind at the hotel.  Though I am 99% confident that I know where the bus stop is, I feared taking a wrong turn or getting on the wrong bus, which would have spelled disaster.  Fortunately, I had my cell phone and I called Ryan to communicate the problematic situation.

After talking for a few minutes (at $1.29 each), my cell phone battery started to die.  I retreated to my room and tried calling again.  All circuits were busy.  Eventually, through a series of text messages (0.50 each), Ryan was able to tell me that Karen’s husband Frank was on his way to pick me up.  We had a fun ride over, hitting 200 kilometers per hour on the Autobahn.  We weren’t really in a rush, but why pass up a chance to go really fast.

Tomorrow I think we’ll try to see some more sites before our afternoon practice.  Then it will be all business until we finish up Saturday.  I don’t know what to expect, but I’m excited to still be in the tournament.