August 31, 2007 - Go Time

Well, it’s that time of year again: the time when I get less than 4:00 minutes to justify 365 days of training, preparing, and visualizing.  I really hate these last several hours and just wish that I could spin the clock up until our 2:00 PM race time.

One thing I’ve learned between last year and this year is that emotional pumpedness—I coined that word myself so don’t use it without citing, please—doesn’t have much to do with success or failure.  Mental focus is important, of course, as is psychological soundness.  Most important, though, is preparation. 

This year I am not as psyched about the finals as I was last year, but that actually makes me feel more prepared.  In a way, this is the ultimate test of the transformation in thought that I have espoused for the past several months.  I am confident that I really have matured because I know, regardless of the events of tomorrow, that I will be satisfied with my effort and glad for the growth I’ve achieved over the last year of training.

Still, I want to win.  Bringing back a medal would be an incredible honor.  There are between 120 and 140 strokes between the starting blocks and the finish line, though, and those are what should command my attention, not the few seconds I might spend on the medal stand. 

The race is inevitable; winning is not.  The race, then, is my goal.  I want to row beautifully and powerfully.  I want to spill out all my energy and cross the line with my last strength.  I want to be confident that the effort I give was the best I could have mustered.  If I do that, it will be enough.  It would still hurt to come away empty handed, but I won’t feel truly empty, in the deeper and more important sense, if I row as I intend.

Pray for me to have lungs, legs, hands, and, most importantly, heart.  I will need it.

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.

August 28, 2007 - A Few Nice Days

Well, this is frustrating.  I wrote out a nice post and lost the document without saving.  Here are some bullet points:

*  We easily finished 2nd in our first heat and move on to face Brazil, Russia, Germany, Italy, and Japen in Thursday's semifinal round at 2:00 PM Germany time.  It will be a tough race, but we should be able to claim one of the top 3 spots and advance to the finals.

*  Today we went into the actual city for the morning.  It was awesome.  I had a chocolate mousse tort and a bratwurst.  It was very authentic and very delicious.

*  One of the LW's from the senior team got me a uni that actually fits.  The XL that I had was way too big and looked pretty silly on me.  Thanks a ton to Greg Ruckman!

*  All of our boats advanced out of the first heats.  Laura made it into the finals wtih a tremendous effort in today's reppechage round.  She got 2nd place by 0.28 seconds.  Also, Kendra won the erg race set up for the spare rowers from all the adaptive teams.  It was her first ever 1k on the erg, so we were very proud.

*  I'm glad to be here, but also very ready to come home.