Funferal

Another Year Over

The minute you finish your last race of the season, a huge anti climax sets in. We spent weeks talking about the fun we’d have after the race, no dieting, no routine, late nights and sleep-ins..a bit of chilling out… but as soon as we crossed the line, and the initial pain dissolved myself and Sinead could only talk about next year. We discovered that the A Final is the only place to be at the Worlds…but I reckon the other end of it is a whole lot better!
It shouldn’t be like that, maybe, but the whole race just felt like a scramble. We are not the most technical rowers in the world (yet), so the fast conditions we got yesterday totally exposed us!!! We were off the pace in the first 500m which you can grind back in a slower race, but the gap was too big. We put a good squeeze on for our mid pace, but we had been dropped too much. The race was won in record times (which are not being allowed, as there is too much flow in the river). So we never found our rhythm….God we have a whole lot of work to do…. I just want to get stuck into it.
The Lightweight Four, on the other hand, put in an awesome performance. Like us, a headwind suits their racing a bit more, but they never lost touch with the French, who rowed a blinder.. in the last 500m Griff up the rating and they started reeling it back…how exciting to watch…inching their way up the field, closing on France all the time. But the French really held them well, Richard let out a yell in the last 10 strokes and they threw everything they had at the field which won them the silver medal, with Italy third.
Man it was a great race…and they now have the top Irish result ever!! I think between us we represented the country pretty well… but we are all definitely going home to memorise the words of the national anthem for next year… It’s good to have such a deadly support system, and such faith in our coaches… exciting times really, despite the disappointment to not hold any titles this year..
So today we are taking care of ourselves, after a saki fuelled night…the Japanese have really gone all out to make this the best World Championships any of us have been to. We spent the night in a little bar (seriously little..) dressed in kimonos (extremely warm…) singing our Irish songs…
I think I have lost my passion for sushi… maybe overdid it a bit!!! And I never want to do another SuDoku puzzle… I have worked my way through too many in just two weeks… On the other hand I have grown accustomed to my hour long naps in the day… I don’t know how my workmates in Bank of Ireland will appreciate me nodding off like that when I go home…