Race Day and beyond

Race day had finally arrived! We headed to the course at 7:45 a.m. as our race was to be held at 9:30 a.m. When we got there we noticed that the wind had picked up more so than any other day. Usually it was pretty calm in the mornings and then got worse in the afternoon, but this morning was more like the afternoon wind and it was a direct head wind.

We had a team chat about our race plan. We always seem to loose it in the third 250m, so the idea was to have a great start and hold a rating of around 36 for the first 250m. We knew we could do this as the adrenaline would be pumping. We were to then go long, drive hard and hold a rating of 32 for the second 250m. On the third 250m we were to drive and pull the rating back up as we wanted this 250m to be our fastest. Then if need be to try and pick up the rating even further for the last 150m.

The start of the race was delayed because one of the Arms only women broke her chest strap, so we had a bit of a wait which we used to our advantage by practicing more starts. The time had finally arrived to head to the start (about 15 minutes late) and get ready for the race of our life.
I certainly give Lisa (our cox) credit for being able to have the boat held straight as the wind was huge. My heart was beating faster than normal, but the nerves had disappeared during warm up. I guess I just knew what I had to do and once we had started our warm up the head took over.

I felt that our start wasn't too bad. We were all engaged with the water and no one missed any water during this start. But we were still slower than the other crews and at 100m were in 4th place. We followed the plan to a "T". Lisa's calls were brilliant and by the 500m mark we were neck in neck with Denmark. China was out in front and I don't think anyone would have caught them.

It was now time for the third 250m and we have been told by the coaches that you could see us engage and at this point we pulled away from all the crews except China. The others held back just a fraction longer. With 150m to go we were still ahead of South Africa and Denmark but with about 50m to go the Danes were able to pull ahead...just! It was almost a blanket finish for 2nd, 3rd and 4th and unfortunately we ended up 4th. I have to say that the last 50m I don't remember much except the pain!

Needless to say it was not the outcome that we wanted. I think the pain of not making it to Beijing was worse than the physical pain. When we got back to the landing I was physically wrecked as were my other crew members. It took me almost 30min to actually be able to walk, my body had completely stopped and all I could think about was that the dream was over. It was extremely hard to stop the tears from flowing, thank god for sunglasses!

Noel Donaldson and a few of the other coaches from Rowing Australia stated that they felt Adaptive rowing had come of age during that race. They said it was one of the best races they had seen, tactically, by every crew, in the wind, in Adaptive rowing. David was extremely please with us and how we had rowed the race. We had followed the plan exactly but just didn't have enough in the last 50m. We had given it our all.

Each one of us in the crew spent some time on our own in order to deal with the disappointment of not finishing in the top two, but eventually we were able to come together, discuss the race, look at the positives and talk about where to now.

We did meet up with the Danish team later to congratulate them and I was able to trade a zootie and have a bit of bubbly with them to celebrate. When they told me that they had been training together since December 7 times a week I realized that we had done alright. We have been together since the end of February (basically two months) and because we live so far apart from one another, did not have alot of time together. So if there is one thing that comes out of this is that we have the ability over time to be right up there with the best.

It was then time to de-rig the boat so that it could be sent back to the Italians, pack up our belongings and head back to the hotel. But I tell you we all still had heavy hearts! I think the hardest thing I had to do was send text messages back home to tell family and friends that we hadn't succeeded in securing a spot. Everyone from home have been so amazing in their love and support that I felt like I had let them down.

The dream is over and where to from here is unknown, but I do know that I have made some amazing friendships over the last year in the rowing community and more so in the last 3 months with my crew members. So thank you everyone for that. But stay tuned, you never know what could happen in the future!