NCAA Rowing Championships Blog: Day 2
5/27/2008 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
Michigan's first varsity eight earned an at-large bid to the 2008 NCAA Championships, which are being held May 30-June 1 in Sacramento, Calif. The Wolverines left for the West Coast on Saturday (May 24) to get in some advance training in the Northern California conditions that they will experience later this week.
Reporting on the team's travel exploits from Sacramento is junior Julia Nelson, who is an English and French major. Her second entry covers the team's Memorial Day trip to the Sacramento Zoo and preliminary preparations for the weekend's races.
TUESDAY | MAY 27, 2008
Our team is about ready to head off and do some laundry. We are waking up really early to try to acclimate ourselves for early racing this weekend, and our jet lag is quite conducive to that. However, I have learned that California warms up mid-day, so we're having to wear a few more longs than was anticipated. That's not unusual for us, though. We seem to have a knack to bring chilly weather wherever we go. I had to shake my head in disbelief yesterday when speaking to my dad, who's in Canada, because it was warmer there than it is here. Canada warmer than California! That's alright though, laundry is a good way to kill time between practices.
Yesterday some of us went to the Sacramento Zoo which was quite entertaining. I decided the personalities of our boat categorize themselves nicely with different animals. For instance, flamingos have very boisterous personalities, love to compete with each other, are very loyal, but very loud -- this sounds familiar from where I'm sitting in bow seat. We are a bunch of goofs, and there is for sure never a dull moment.
On our excursion Adrienne (Mecham) got her hands on one of those toys that shocks you when you hit a button, and being the gullible folk that we are, three of us did it before catching on! My highlight from yesterday was definitely a walk along Lake Natoma where we met a family with like five kids -- WOW -- and climbed over a bunch of rocks with beautiful cliffs around us. It was like a playground out of dinosaur times, and I'm way into that.
We have been introducing the locals here to rowers since we came so early, but we can expect some newcomers over the next few days. There are going to be five teams staying in our hotel specifically. The reality of the trip is starting to sink in, and I'm getting stoked to race. In our boat meeting after practice today (head coach) Mark (Rothstein) reminded us that we are here representing our team. There are only 11 of us here representing a collective group of almost 60 girls, and we should, and shall, seize every opportunity from now until the finish line on Sunday.
I'm so proud to be the first team here so the locals meet us first, so they join our bandwagon before meeting all of the other teams. They ask where we're from, and although only one of us is from Michigan, all of us say Michigan. We are here reppin' the Maize and Blue, and I'm itching to hear, 'Attention, go!' But first, team barbeque at the beach today. I'm way into barbeques, almost as much as I'm into beaches.
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