I just finished up with marathon worlds. The course was beautiful; there is something very cool about paddling on the narrow Tibet River... You know, that river you heard about all year in your 6th grade ancient history class. Yet, I saw no one in a toga so that was disappointing.
The opening ceremony was a lot of fun! They piled all of the athletes and coaches onto buses and toured us the long way through town past the colosseum, pantheon, Vatican, etc. We had police escorts and ran all the red lights. We felt like celebrities in a country where paddling is actually a top sport. The ceramonies were held outside on the steps of what looked like an important building (not sure which). Each team assigned an athlete to parade their nations' flag at the event and the rest of us took a seat.
While sitting there waiting for the program to begin, I was approached by the president of Italian canoe/kayak. He asked me if I would get up on stage during the ceramony and read the athlete oath. I gladly excepted! I read it in English and a male athlete from the Italian team read it in Italian. It was a crazy experience getting up and reading in front of all the other athletes... Especially since I'm dislexic! I read it about 15 times in the few minutes I had to practice before it was my turn at the mike. It was really really cool!
Otherwise, the week was all about paddling and getting ready for the races. The course was about a 5k loop, the start/finish/portage was all in the middle of the course and there was a left hand buoy turn on each far ends of the loop. The portage was challenging. We watched the masters races on the first day who suffered through the very steep ramps in the rain! One woman slipped and broke her hip that day, another man was carried off in an ambulance.
We practiced in our boats for the first time shortly after their races that day, also in the rain. We were forced to be quite cautious on the portages and most athletes took them a bit slower than they would have liked to protect themselves and their boats. Nelo, plastex, and elio watched all week as their boats got bashed against the ramps on the portage bank. The price of renting boats went steadily up as the week progressed!
On Friday, I had my under 23 k1 race; this was my last year to do the u23 category. I had a start that I personally still can't believe happened. At the start line, i was sandwiched between two Hungarian girls (each country may enter two boats in each race) near the far side of the starting line and thankfully, on the inside of the upcoming turn. Our other American racer, Emily House, was positioned near the opposite side of the start line. Right before the start, the Hungarian girl next to me fell into the water; i think her boat holder might have had something to do with this. They asked me to move forward so that she had room to get back into her boat. They start us so close together that she otherwise had no room to get to her cockpit on the dock. I pulled about half a boat forward from the line, thinking that if the starter decided to call the start without the Hungarian woman, I'd have a half a boat on the rest of the field. The Hungarian woman got back in the boat, I backed up, and the starter fired the gun with very little notice.
We were off, I dropped behind the two Hungarian girls but caught their stern wash as we took the slight right hand turn down to the first buoy turn. About 500m in, I looked around to see I was still in the front of the field. That's the moment I realized how much all of my sprint work of the past year has really payed off. I give a quick personal smile, felt my confidence grow, and drowned out the shouts from the angry Italian girl on my left wash. It was a good start.
I dropped back a little as the wash groups began to form and I ended up doing about three laps trading wash with a french girl. It's crazy how half the race is won in the first 1000m of the race (total distance: 21.5km). After that, the pace dramatically slows, and groups mostly focus on sticking together, while on occation, testing each others strength and smarts. As much as we hate our opponents, we go slowest when we are alone. In marathon, we need each other.
So the French woman and I switched off watch equally and without much "testing" because there were only two of us. However, it became obvious too me quickly that I was much more comfortable than her on lead pulls and on wash riding. I felt confident and knew I could out sprint her on the last lap. Otherwise, there was no one around us; everyone else was either far ahead or far behind, so I enjoyed my rides and cruised along with her at a comfortable pace. At about lap 4 the top men C1 paddlers caught us (they started a few minutes after our start). I thought it a good opportunity to jump on their wash and cruise away from my French opponent. There was some yelling in French, as I flew away from her and headed for the 4th of 5 portages. For the next lap I followed the stern wakes of the top C1 men and cruised into the finish about a minute ahead of the French girl.
I was very happy with my race. I was the faster of the two American racers and I beat both Canadian women making me the top woman from our continent. Yet I still have a lot of training to do to before I can knock off the top European racers.
Two days later, Sunday, I raced k2 with my teammate, Macy Dwyer. This race did not go as well for us. I was grateful for the day off in between races, but i still felt a little sore. We finished the race but I was a bit upset with our performance. However it was another great experience, and another killer workout. After the race we did some sight seeing around Rome, and the following morning I said good bye to my teammates who headed back to the states.
This is our last big competition for the summer season so now begins a two week break from workouts. When planning my trip, I figured what better way to get a mental and physical break then by backpacking through northern Italy! So I'll be staying in Italy for the next two weeks roaming around and experiencing more of the country. I'm really excited; more to come on those experiences.
