Sylph Angel

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Heyyyyy I haven't blogged in e-years... Disgusting. Haha I've been trying to sleep early... Notice my eyebags? Well, they're still there. =P

I feel I need to talk about the race. Just to clarify some things, Brandon and I made some goals for the A finals. One, get a medal. Two, at least get under 1min50s. Also, since we're in A finals, we are effecively the fastest 6 pairs, so we can laugh at anyone in B or C finals no matter what place we get. XD

Note that when I row, things come and go in a flash. I don't have the luxury of long, deep conversations with myself. It's only some time after the race, when I digest my memories, that I can come up with the long descriptions.

Before a race, there is a feeling of extreme pressure. I feel like going to the toilet. I feel like sleeping. I feel like doing anything but race, for I know the pain that comes with racing... My body desperately wants to avoid it! But I have to push past all of it... I know I have to. I know all these feelings will dissapear once I line up, and my body knows there's no escape.

Our starts for the race today was plain sad. We missed the first stroke (not exactly, but the boat moved so little we might as well have missed it), but after that we were whacking hard, after 100m I was hyperventilating. Our race plan was - starting burst as fast as we can, keep it up all the way to the end. Haha we were pacing the national team boat for 200m (it was a 500m race) with our crazy burst, then we started faltering... Until my stroke rate became very slow. I knew the race was more or less a goner by then, we really needed a lot of luck to win anything.

After 300m I attempted to start my final burst. My arms we're already dying and I was really focusing very hard just to keep my stokes up, but I needed to try. Guess what I met with? My arms jammed and there was a sharp strain through my arms (I think it's called cramps), caused me to fail a stroke... After that I decided to just keep my strokes up, don't stop. I shut off my mind from everything else, focused only on pushing on. When we were at the last 25 meters, I was blanking out already - moved right, nearly went out of lane... I couldn't help it... Then suddenly, it was over. I remember my arms were still tensed up and stunned for some time after the race.

Well, we got fourth. 1st and 2nd timed 1min42s. 3rd timed 1min45s. We timed min49s. *sigh*... At least we met goal number two haha. And we're better than all the B, C final medalists! Haha.

I need to sleep now. Gym tomorrow morning.

BYebye.

vεﯠαחƒőχ @ 9:19:00 PM.