Yep, forgot about this again.

I suppose a good lot of you know that I'm a rower, and such, I row. Normally it's not such a heavy investment of my time, but due to multiple complications involving unfortunate timing, it's pretty much taken over my life for the past few weeks. But it's all about to come to a head.

It's time for the biggest championship amongst Division II and Division III schools. The Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia. More than a hundred teams will converge on Boathouse Row to do battle on a treacherous course full of current, curves, bridges, and geese. It's what we've been building to since last August.

As for the last few weeks, you see, the semester, and by extension my frosh year in college, finished up the third week of April. Sensible, albeit surprisingly early. That week everybody else but the fifty-sixty-odd rowers on the GVSU team left for the summer. I, on the otherhand, somehow ended up in the course of five hours on that week's Friday evacuating the entirety of my dorm room, plus or minus some perishable food, into my unfortunate Mercury, which is still loathing me for that to this day.

That was mostly my own fault through procrastination and poor timing, but the fact that A: I had to be checked out that day, B: My parents couldn't come up so I had to do all the moving myself, and C: The reason for the deadline was the crew team departing for the Indianapolis Invitational that same afternoon, didn't help. That sentence probably would've made my WRT150 professor engage me with a crowbar. But I digress.

Either way, fast forward a bit, I ended up moved into my head coach's spare bedroom for the duration of the few weeks left until this trip, while everyone else kind of scattered wherever there was space amongst the apartments. We took out Indianapolis, then tapered a bit for this past weekend's regatta here at home, the MACRA (Mid-American Collegiate Rowing Association) Championship, before prepping for this weekend.

I suppose I could mention how we've been doing competitively up to this point, since I'm pretty sure I rubbed my rower-ness in enough people's faces during the past year or so... I can't remember how we did in the fall races, but the spring races are all that really matter... From the beginning of the racing season, I believe our medal count goes as follows, out of six races so far, which includes races that didn't actually give us medals.

Gold: 2 / Silver: 4 / Bronze: 0

It should be noted that the two Golds were against a much less comparative field than the three main silvers (from the SIRA's, Indy Invite, and MACRA's) although Hobart (the other silver) was pretty decent too... We would've won that race if it hadn't been for those pesky kids if our six seat's oarlock hadn't decided to spontaneously open TWICE during the race... Also, silver doesn't really count as much when it's only a match race with two boats.

***

So I told you all that to get to this. I'm now back in bow seat of the Men's Novice 8, and we're seeded 2nd for this weekend, behind St. Joseph's University. I'm sick of silver medals and I'm out of betting shirts. We can... We WILL... pull this off.

I need to get to bed. Van leaves at 6A for a fifteen-hour drive. Wish me luck, I'll see all of you in a week or so.

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