Sylph Angel

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Hello people. Welcome back to me. Haha I guess I'll just describe races now... And everything before... Yea.

It all started a few months back, when we did the 500m time trails. I didn't get a very good timing, but it was okay enough to get me an event (k2 1km with LT). Okay, I didn't really think about it much back then, because the race was still far away. But then I realized LT and I weren't particularly fast, and I was getting quite demoralized with all those rumours of strong competitors going around. Horse and Tortoise (and their adopted dog XD) wanted to take our place, so we had a 1km k2 time trail. They won by almost 10s, so they took our place. However, it turns out you can't change the initial lineup (against the rules). -.-"

I had brief period of happiness about being eventless. I mean, it spares me like 8 minutes of torture! 12mins if I don't get straight finals. There was also a feeling of guilt, for not doing my part, but the freedom from an event overwrites that. Besides, if I did take that event, I may not do well (it's a very real chance), and if I didn't do well, I'd be letting everyone down.

Guess how I felt when I found I had to go after all... I was... crushed... I was hoping something would happen, which will interupt make me eventless again, but each day as the competition grew nearer, I became more and more nervous, and in a way, hopeless. LT really wanted a medal. Horse and Tortoise (+ their dog) wanted our event (you see, they WILL win). What did I want? I wanted to NOT race. I couldn't believe it was happening, like it was some nightmare I would soon wake up from. A few days before the competition, I started preparing my mind for the fact that I may have to race after all. I promised myself - as long as I do my best, I will be satisfied.

On the day of the heats, I was hoping LT would be sick or something and not be able to race (sorry =[). Of course, I knew the chances of him falling sick were like, 0.000001%, but it gave me hope. When I found he wasn't sick, I felt quite... bad. I started visualizing the race in my head, a 1km starting burst... Haha when we went down on the water to warm up. I wondered - how am I supposed to do it? Our starts (taking off) were... bad. I was getting really tired after each one, and it's only roughly 100m each... I really had no idea how I was supposed to keep it up for 1km (which was our only chance).

About half an hour to our race, Brandy offered me some NRG powder (thanks). I thought it was like milo powder, so I pour it into my mouth. Guess what? It expanded in my mouth and I choked on it. Urgh. So I spat our half of it and poured some water into my mouth to dilute it. I made a mess of the place. The stuff I spat out was yellow semi-solid foam, quite disgusting. And after I swallowed the stuff in my mouth I tried eating the gunk on my hand too... Very gruesome affair... There was yellow slime everywhere, my mouth, my hand, the floor, my shirt (but luckily it was yellow too...), but I had to rush off to race, so I didn't really care.

At the starting line, LT and I saw a potential competitor in our heats. It was an SJI boat, a real threat. This was the deciding race. If we could beat that boat and get straight finals (1st from heats to finals, 2nd and 3rd to semifinals), we would stand a fighting chance to get a medal. Also, I didn't want to end up in semifinals (top 3 from semifinals go finals), because that would mean one extra race, four more minutes of torture. We did one more practice starting burst. It felt good. The NRG was giving me energy. I could smell it in my breath (it has a multivitamin flavour =P)... It was powering my arms, didn't feel tired at all.

"Start within 10 seconds... *airhorn*"

*boom...boom...boom..boom.boom.boom.boom.boom...* The sound of a start, unforgettable.

The NRG was giving me a crazy start. All the boats except the SJI one had dissapeared (fell very far behind). However, after 300m I could feel my arms starting to get fatigued, the NRG was running out. I thought of giving up, but the thought of losing to SJI and ending up with one extra race to row forced me to continue. I really didn't want to torture myself one more time... So I kept going... and going... After about 500m, SJI slowed down. We gained a lead which we maintained up till the end. My arms felt paralyzed (I shouldn't use "felt"... didn't feel them at all) I was dead tired, but it was good. The SJI boat was about 4 seconds behind. Not a very comfortable lead, but it was a lead nonetheless. I felt my morale rise, just a little.

Three days to the finals. I guess I was sort of counting down. After this amount of time, it will be over... I admit I was still hoping something would happen to disrupt, but it was less now. It was a battle between 2nd, 3rd and 4th place. 1st was sort of confirmed to be the other ACS boat. The next three places, a battle between between two SJI boats and us. I felt nervous, naturally. But that glimmer of hope pushed me on.

Three days later... It was time. I took NRG again, but this time I mixed it with water before taking it =P (thanks again) Before long...

"Start within 10 seconds... *airhorn*"

Same start... Just that this time there was backwash from the other ACS boat (haha tell me if you want to be named). They shot in front, but not that far (supposedly slacking eh?) LT and I were on par with the two SJI boats. My arms started to die again at about 300m like last time, but my race plan was 1km starting burst, so I kept going (it's not easy, trust me). True enough, both of the starting slowing down by about 500m again. However, one didn't fall very far behind. I realize that the SJI race plan might me something like mine (1km starting burst)... just that like me, they die out, but LT doesn't die out for some reason... So we keep going. At the last hundred meters, we were ahead (second, the other ACS boat was about 30m in front). Then I heard a "BURST!" coming from the SJI boat. I was dead tired... My arms were defying my mind... I just... Couldn't do it anymore. They slowly overtook us... And then... It was over. 3rd.

So how did I feel after that race? For one thing, I was dead tired... My arms felt paralyzed, again. My stomach was churning, I felt totally drained, but it wasn't a relaxed feeling. I was in pain. After the thing... I just went under some tree in a remote spot and just lay there. The first thought that came to me was - "It is done". I wasn't happy, actually, just relieved that it was over.

That's it. One week's worth of posts.

Byebye.

vεﯠαחƒőχ @ 9:34:00 AM.