Painting for the USA Canoe/Kayak Auction

USA Canoe/Kayak is hosting an auction this Friday to raise money for the national team. I painted this for the event. I found a little time around my mid-day training naps :) This image was originally posted in a newspaper shortly after the 1984 Olympic team trials. In it is Jay Kearney, Jim Terrel, - and my own dad, Rod McLain, is the guy jumping the start on the left.

Driving out to Oklahoma City with the Team

We all drove out to Oklahoma in two cars. Had to play a few car games and make some fun pit stops along the way - like 'walking in Memphis.' It's great to have such an awesome team/family!

Getting Ready for National Team Trials

It's been a long winter of training. We just finished about a month of speed work to get us ready for the national team trials in Oklahoma City in a couple weeks. That will be the first big race of the season, and our results there will let each of us know what our summer will look like. From there we might be invited to big international competitions over the summer including World Cups, PanAmerican games, and World Championships. I'm excited for the season to start!

Huge thanks to Zach Wilkinson, for coming out the other day and taking pictures. This guy is great! He takes all his pics on his Phone6, and they are impressive photos.

Check him out:
twitter/instagram - @zswilkinson

New Boat

Hello world, meet my new boat! Time to start Spring training with a new Nelo Quatro - I named her Frelsi.

Heading Home from PanAms

We had a great regatta at PanAm Championships, Mexico City. Now I'm headed home. I competed in a bunch of races (K1 1000m, K2 1000m, K4 500m, K2 200m, K1 5000m) and I'm thankful for all of the experience I earned from this regatta. Thanks to all my teammates, coach, as well as the Mexican team and new friends for their support.

 

PanAm 1000m K1 Champ!

Bright and Early Saturday morning, I won gold in the 1000m singles race! It was an experience like no other, this is my first international win, and I'm stoked to have been able to accomplish such a big result at such a big regatta.

How it went: This was my first race of the day which usually means I still have the extra nerves. It's always nice to have a heat or smaller race earlier in the day to slop off your jitters. Not my luck. My best choice was to go out for a hard warm up prior to the race. I had a decent start. Everyone at this level is a great sprinter. I got off the line in about the same position as Canada and Mexico (these are great women on and off the water). As always, I knew my strength would be my middle speed. Coming from my marathon background, I tend to rely on my endurance and steady middle pace to get me ahead. After we each transitioned out of our hard starts and into our middle speeds, I could feel my competitors dropping back. I had my coach riding next to the course on a bike shouting the whole way: my support system and my set of eyes. In the race, there's no time or energy available for looking right or left. I relied on his shouts to indicate how my position looked on the field and where I should do my pick ups. I gave it all I had left for the finish, crossed the line, and then felt all of the energy of the win. It was such a rewarding experience.

My favorite part? The anthem. There is nothing like standing on the highest block of the podium, watching your coach award the medals, listening to your nation's anthem. It's an honor. I was so thankful for the opportunity to compete in this race for the USA.

The next step: This was not the biggest race in the world, but it was a big step for me. It's back to training in the hopes of getting faster at even shorter sprints: the 500m and the 200m distances. I'll do a good bit of distance training this fall, and in three weeks I'll compete at the Marathon World Championships conveniently hosted in Oklahoma, USA. Then it's back to a sprint mindset.