repechage ~ a rowing update

in less than a week, my good friend (and hero!) isolda, will be leaving with her family in tow (wonderful husband, and three adorable children) to begin training with the national team in london, ontario, in preparation for the 2008 olympics in beijing. as was inscribed in the card we fellow krc rowers gave her at her going-away barbecue, isolda has only two things on her agenda once she gets to london. she needs to: 1) kick ass, 2) take names.

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this past weekend, as i was training with the rest of my 4+ crew for our sunday race in ottawa at head of the rideau, i was shot at. yes, you read that correctly. shot. as in SHOT shot. by a duck hunter. by a man i think is probably dick cheney's distant canadian cousin. as our 4+ made its way up the course back to the krc boathouse we were startled by the sound of gun shots overhead and even more surprised when we looked out over the starboard side of the boat to see a duck fall from the sky and land with a splash in the water not 500 ft. from our boat. though we hauled ass back to the boathouse, i'd like to think that we were too fast to really be a suitable moving target.

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on sunday, my lovely housemate and i competed at the annual head of the rideau regatta in ottawa and brought home our first gold medal in the 2x. we rowed "long and strong", and even in the face of a recurring library injury (stop laughing! a month ago i strained a muscle in my left shoulder lifting a bag of library books in an awkward way -- there are downsides to this scholar-athlete gig!), we managed to hold off the competition on our way down the course. i'm proud to say that i pulled a 3-banana race (read: it took my eating three bananas to fully recover in time for my next race in the 4+) and we're hoping to repeat if not the result then definitely the effort in our next race this coming saturday in peterborough at the head of the trent.