You win some, you lose some.
So on Saturday, our rowing team had our first races where we actually raced another team. Our first race, we had a false start, but then we won by a lot. We got way ahead of the other team, which was University College’s A team. And then they seemed to sort of give up. It was awesome. Our coaches just had us slow down at the end because there was no way they would catch up and they said we shouldn’t make ourselves tired. Before the race, we had been on the water for well over an hour, just waiting. They told us to go out early, and then all the races were behind. And I didn’t get any of the warm clothes, so I was freezing. The next race I got to borrow a gilet, which kept me warm. So we were really happy.
We came back to the boat houses, ate lunch, and cheered on our boys, who also won their first race. Then we got back on the water for our second race. Right at the beginning one of the girls caught a huge crab and we almost ran into the bank, just like had happened at our time trial. So we had to almost completely stop and then start again. We almost caught up, too. We were at least 2 lengths behind the other crew when we started again, and by the end, we were at the most 1 length behind. They had to keep rowing hard to beat us, and if the race had been longer, we might have had a chance. We felt sure we would have beat them if we hadn’t made that one mistake, which made it so frustrating. Even their coach told us we did really well. But we were so disappointed. The guys lost their second race too. But at least we weren’t out in the first one.
Our first race for Christ Church, the regatta that really matters, is against the C team of the college that we raced first at this mini-regatta, so we feel pretty confident we can beat them. As long as we don’t make any mistakes and we don’t get over-confident. I hope we do well and can avoid mistakes. I’ve never really been a part of a good team where I actually contributed to the outcome of the competition. Our soccer team won a lot, but I was mostly a bench warmer. It’s even more disappointing when you don’t win, but it’s more exciting when you win. I’m really enjoying rowing, even though the races are so hard. They’re not long, but we push so hard. It’s exhausting. Mike, one of the guys who coached us on Saturday (which means he rides his bike along a path on the bank and tells us what to do while we’re rowing), said that the crab we caught was huge, and that is so rare to catch one that big. So he was saying it won’t happen again, but then I pointed out to him that that was the second time it happened to us. Hopefully that means it’s out of our system, but I really just wish we could recover from them better, but there’s not really a way to practice that.
So I have practice today and then our first Christ Church race is Wednesday. Cheer for us over there! This week is going to be crazy busy, but I’ll try to write in here. At least I only have one essay.