Party Time!

To get past our disappointment of our final’s row we all did something different! Henry went with his parents back to the course to watch the Aussie Men’s Eight row in the B Final. Pete took the bus back to watch, but us women, well we went and did a bit of retail therapy!

First stop was the most amazing deli I have ever been into. They had the biggest and best chocolate section we had ever seen! I think Lisa and I thought we had died and gone to heaven! Next section was the wine…yes for me! I was able to buy a bottle of Jacob’s Creek Cab/Merlot (yes I know I should have gone for the Polish wine, but I wanted something I knew I would enjoy!), then it was the fresh fruit section where Lisa and Alex bought the most beautiful raspberries.

Then it was on to all the other shops in the mall, spending more money on clothing and shoes! Why is it that you always feel better after spending money on stuff that you probably don’t really need?

We headed back to our hotel room, cracked open the red and had ourselves a little happy hour!

We had all decided to meet at 6pm to go and have some dinner as we were trying to meet up with the Canadians and Irish Adaptive rowers in the town square at 7:30pm for drinks. We found a place and had a wonderful meal…no pork!

As you can see from the picture not much was left on the plates. We also had a few drinks to go with the food.

We were unable to find the other rowers so after walking around looking for them plopped ourselves down at a bar with Adrian the Kiwi coach and his rower Robyn. Then the Italians found us and another round of drinks were purchased! It wasn’t a very late night and we were back in the hotel around 11:30.

The last day of racing Australian had the women’s lightweight double and the men’s quad. The entire team headed to the course to watch the racing and do some trading of team gear! Both crews had huge tailwinds to deal with again during racing and against an incredibly strong field the women were 5th. Then it was time for the men…what an incredible race. Our men got away really well and were leading right up to the 1000m mark, then the fight was on. Poland has been world champions in this event for the last 5 years! I don’ think I have yelled so loud! Our men ended up second with Poland retaining the title. For us Aussie’s this was a great way to finish the regatta!

We had a reception to attend for the Australian athletes and supporters just behind the course and when I got there I couldn’t believe how many supporters had been in the stands. Heaps of parents, brothers, sisters, girlfriends, boyfriends! It was amazing. We had a few speeches from David Crawshay, Pat McNamara (president of Rowing Australia) and then Andrew Matheson to wrap up. One gesture which I was happy to see was that each of the coaches who had a crew win a medal was presented with the medal that is awarded to the federation. I thought this was fantastic as the coaches do as much work as the athlete (albeit in a different way).

The day ended with all of us (our crew) heading to the town square again for a bite to eat and along the way we picked up a number of the parents to join us at the restaurant. We had the best meal I have had here and I know that I said I wouldn’t touch pork again but ….yes I had pork, well a huge rack of ribs!

Henry’s mom and dad were also in the group of parents and Tim (Henry’s dad) decided that he was buying our drinks…then he got us started on Vodka shots! Not just any old Vodka off the shelf, but true original Polish Vodka. I must say it was nice and went down very smoothly, although I could feel it go down!

Oh that burns all the way down!!!

We were seeing rowers everywhere as there were a number of after parties. A lot of them were dressed up and definitely looking for a good party! I on the other hand had just about had enough and was looking to put my feet up. We walked around for a little while chatting with a number of different people we met along the way and eventually Lisa took off to one of the parties, then Henry went with a couple of the guys from the men’s eight, Pete, Alex and I decided to head home. I know we were probably party poopers but I was happy with my night and my body was screaming for some rest!

It is now very early on our last day in Poznan as I write this. Today we have a debrief day, which is going to take a while and then we are hoping to head out for a bit more sightseeing. This has been a wonderful experience! I have met so many new and wonderful people, seen some amazing parts of Europe and got to row with the world’s best…What more could I ask for!

I am now ready to head home, have a few days rest, relaxation and introduce myself to my husband Russ and dog Kimba! I have been away a bit this year and Russ has been a wonderful support in this campaign, so time to give back! Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all those people who have been there for all of us, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Look out World, the Australian LTA4+ crew is here to stay and we will only get stronger and faster! See you in New Zealand for the next World Rowing Championships in November 2010.

Race Day - A Final

Well what can I say? I think our race was the worst that we have ever done. But saying that here is what happened.

We headed up to the start of the course and on the way up against a huge headwind we realised that it would be a massive tailwind for us on the course. We had just had two races against this huge headwind and were very used to it but hadn’t done anything in a tailwind like we were to expect. Come to think of it I don’t think I have ever rowed in a tailwind like this! I asked Alex and she had never either.

We had a really good warm up, it felt good, we had good run on the boat and we were ready. We were in lane one and it was good at the start as it was almost a direct tailwind so we didn’t have to keep the boat in line too much.

We had a pretty good start, going out fairly slowly (or at least we thought) at a stroke rate of 38. Now for those of you who are not rowers, for us 38 is really, really high. I don’t think that we have ever gone that fast! Our first 250 wasn’t too bad and leading into the second 250 we did a leg drive. Overall we had the fastest 500m that we have ever had by more than a few seconds! However just about 100m past the 500, it was getting a bit messy (this was due to the massive tailwind) and Pete in 3 seat crabbed. For those of you who don’t understand this is when the oar gets caught on a wave and pulled under. It was so big that it wrenched the oar right out of his hands, threw him backwards almost into my lap and stopped the boat completely! It took us about 20 seconds to actually get the boat back into the proper lane (it had thrown us into lane 2) and back up and rowing.

We were now in the last 250m and just wanted to finish on a good note and actually look like we knew what we were doing. After we stopped I was worried that Pete’s neck had been hurt during the crab, but he was okay. If I am honest I have to say that I was mad. I was so angry I couldn’t be upset. I know that Pete and Alex had a few tears while we headed to the cool down lake, but I couldn’t (this is unusual for me).

We had our cool down and all I could think of was looking good past the grandstand as there were a number of Aussie’s yelling congratulations at us. I couldn’t accept congratulations at that point…why…we had rowed badly!

We pulled into the pontoon and our coach Pedro was there. Not a lot was said at that point, we just got the boat out, racked the boat and then had a meeting. Pedro put everything into perspective. He said he was proud of us and what we had done. We had made the A final, when a lot of people wouldn’t have expected us to make it. We had done the best that we could. Things happen during races and we can’t change that fact. We had the fastest first 500m we had ever had, even if it was messy. Everyone else was messy and dealing with the same conditions. We had to keep in mind that we were now 6th fastest in the World!

In the end it was Great Britain (in a new world record), Italy, Germany, Canada, Ukraine and Australia.

So it is now a few hours after the race, we got back to the hotel. I went over to the shopping centre, bought some wine, did some retail therapy in the form of shoes and a top and we are getting ready to go out and have non hotel food! Then meeting with the Canadians and Irish for a night of drinks! Hopefully I will be able to write a blog tomorrow and tell you about our night.

Hey we are ranked 6th in the WORLD!!!

Eve of the A Final

Well we have just had our last training row. All the hard work of the last 3 ½ months is about to come to a head! This is it…the A Final of the LTA4+ at the World Rowing Championships. I still get goose bumps when I say it because I still don’t think that most of us really believe that we are here!

There is nothing more that we can do to prepare for tomorrow except have a good night’s sleep. All the work has been done that can be done and we just have to go out there and give it everything we have. Actually more than everything we have.

We go in as the underdogs in this race. We are in Lane 1 and hopefully oblivious to every other crew in that race. We have to go into this race believing in ourselves and our abilities and I am pretty sure that every one of us in this crew do!

There is nothing to lose in this race. We know that it will hurt like hell, but it is only just over 3 minutes of pain…then it is all over!

We have had so many messages of support and you have no idea how much that has contributed to our belief. Whatever the outcome we will know that we have given it our all!

Two Days to the A Final!

The last couple of days have been interesting. Right after our race in the Rep’s on Tuesday, as soon as we finished, Pete yelled out in pain. His trap muscle had gone into spasm to protect his neck which had been a bit sore. Needless to say we wanted to get off the water right away and get him to the doctor and physio.

I am happy to say that he has recovered pretty well and after not rowing on the water Wednesday, some good muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory drugs, we were able to get out on the water today. That of course was after watching 3 of our crew’s row in their semi-finals.

So far the Australian team has done a bloody good job. Wednesday was probably the most disappointing day for some of our rowers. The men’s Eight was taking part in the Repechage and unfortunately did not qualify for the A Final. They are however in the B final. Not where they wanted to be but considering they have an average age of 21!, yes I said 21, they have done a bloody good job and if they stay together for the next 3 years…well look out world! It is sad because you never know what to say to anyone. Their goal was the A Final and they sadly didn’t reach it. What they have to do now is go out in the B Final and kick some butt. Prove that they should have been there. The other team going to a B Final is the light weight men’s 4. They have been plagued with injury and even as early as Varese had to replace one of the rowers with Tom Bertrand who had been on the under 23 team. So to get to where they did and how they finished yesterday was a huge achievement. But both boats are probably not feeling that way right now.

Thursday was a better day for the Aussie’s, with three boats qualifying for the A Finals. The Women’s double, the women’s pair and the men’s four. The double and pair both coming 2nd in their semi-finals and men absolutely blitzing the field in the four. It was really fantastic to be able to be in the stands and cheer for each of the crews.

On our down time we have (other than training) been able to have a little look around and I must say I think that my first impressions were way off! Poznan is a beautiful city with some amazing architecture. Most of the people are very friendly especially if you try to say hello or thank you in Polish. These I must say are the only two words that I actually know and can remember. It is definitely one of the most difficult languages I have ever tried!

The only bad thing that has happened in the last couple of days is that I have been robbed of money from my wallet! There had been a number of thefts from the rowing course, so we decided that we would leave our valuables in our hotel rooms. I even hid my stuff in my suitcase under clothes! (No safes in the rooms!) If I hadn’t gone into my wallet to grab some money for a coffee I would never have known. They got away with 90 Polish dollars (I am not even going to try and type the word for the money!), 5 EURO and 20 Australian. They kindly left me 5 EURO and 40 Australian! So I had to report it to the reception and they in turn called the police.

Well I must say that was an interesting experience! Me telling a reception girl in English everything, her trying to translate to the Police officer who didn’t speak a word of English! We finally got through it and I am hoping that the insurance will cover the cost. It works out to only about $70 Australian but it is the principle of the whole thing! At least they didn’t take my passport, phone or credit cards!

I got to spend some time with Alex and her parents, Kingsley and Kim. We walked around the Poznan Town Square and I am told that it is absolutely beautiful at night. So hopefully when we are finished racing we can go out for dinner.

In the picture is Alex with her parents.

Tomorrow is the B Final of our event, but we won’t be going to watch. It is supposed to be 31 degrees here tomorrow and as most people know the heat affects me. We will head down for a small training row so that we can be well rested for Saturday!

In closing I just want to add to this blog an email that Alex got from a friend of hers. What was written in it was something that a cox had once said to their crew before a huge final. To me it made me believe that something special can happen on Saturday. We may be the underdogs going it, but hey so was Steven Bradbury in the ice speed skating, and look what happened to him. So I will leave you with this and please excuse the language as I am putting it in, in its entirety:

“Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives. All comes down to today, and either, we heal as a team, or we're gonna crumble. Inch by inch, play by play. Until we're finished. We're in hell right now, believe me. And, we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell... one inch at a time. ....

You find out life's this game of inches, so is rowing. Because in either game - life or rowing- the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when add up all those inches, that's gonna make the fucking difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying! I'll tell you this, in any fight it's the guy whose willing to die whose gonna win that inch. And I know, if I'm gonna have any life anymore it's because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch, because that's what living is, the six inches in front of your face. Now I can't make you do it. You've got to look at the guy next to you, look into his eyes. Now I think ya going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. Your gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team, because he knows when it comes down to it your gonna do the same for him. That's a team, women and either, we heal, now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's rowing guys, that's all it is. Now, what are you gonna do? “

Let The Games Begin by Henry Macphillamy

Well, as a crew we have trained long and hard for this moment, and now we’re here, ready and revving to get down to the business end of things. I think that a good performance in the heat on Monday was crucial for us. We knew how well we can row together in training and in time trials. Racing at the world championships on the other hand, with all the pressure and excitement they entail is a whole new ball game entirely.

For me it was my first real race in the four. During every other time trial we have done it has just been us and the clock. A clock is a fixed inanimate object that you can neither touch hear or see. In the heat and repechage you could hear the incoherent screeches of the other Cox’s and the thud of powerful strokes in the lanes adjacent to you. You know that these crews are doing everything they possibly can to mow you down with every stroke they take. You can let their presence intimidate you, or you can use them to enhance your own performance.

For the best part of the last four months, the five of us have worked together as a crew. Our times got progressively faster and faster until we (and others) considered ourselves worthy of representing our country. It hasn’t been easy for any of us, and in not just in terms of training sessions! As we head in to the last few days and training rows before our final race here, I think back to all the work which we have done to get to this point.

Not only the work we have put in as a crew, but also those who have supported and encouraged us. If someone had told me that I would be in the a final at the rowing world championships this time last year, I probably would have laughed at them! There have been many times in my life that I haven’t backed myself where others have, and nowhere could this be truer than in rowing. I’ve been lucky in meeting coaches like Simon, Tony, Linda, Stuart and Sue who have given up their time and shared their experience and passion for the sport with me. I’ve got an awesome family who have done everything from giving me lifts to training (both in peak hour and stupidly early hours of the morning), travelling half way around the world to support me (and take in the sites), walk and feed my mongrel of a dog while I’m away, send me ‘harden the f**k up messages, and of course, get laughs out of the numerous Facebook photos I have found myself in throughout the adventure. Relatives, all my mates, and I could go on and on!

Now is the time to back ourselves and each other as a crew. We have put in the work, and we know that we are more than capable of racing a good race. Of course I want to win a medal here as I’m sure we all do. The most satisfying feeling however will come from finishing that race, and knowing that we could not have possibly put more in to it than we did. I can’t wait for Saturday to arrive, and I can’t wait to celebrate with a very cold beer (or ten).
Four out

Race Day – Repechage

Well today was probably the most important row of all our short careers! We had to place 1st or 2nd in our Rep in order to race in the A Final. No one wanted to row in the B Final we wanted to be in that A Final no matter what!

Today we were racing against Canada, Poland, Russia and Ireland. We knew that we could beat Poland and Russia as we had done this yesterday. But you never know what a crew can have up their sleeve. Canada I knew was very strong. They had made the final at the Beijing Paralympics so we had our work cut out for us. Ireland we weren’t sure of. They hadn’t fared very well yesterday, but they were in a tough heat. The only thing we knew of them was the race they had earlier in the season in Munich at the first World Cup race and I knew that they had come 3rd. So they were also potentially a threat.

The day dawned very sunny but again with the wind! We got to the course and found that it was a headwind again with a slight crosswind added to it and even stronger than yesterday! Not really what we wanted but the only consolation was that every boat had to deal with the same wind!

At the start Alex and I had to continue rowing the boat, me taking a stroke and Alex backing it just to stay in line, I was almost exhausted before the race. Once the race was underway we were able to stay in touch with Canada until about the 300 mark and then they just seemed to pull away. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Russia on my right and Ireland on my left. We continued to gain on Russia, just like we had done yesterday, with Lisa calling exactly where we were in relation to their boat.

Yesterday we had let ourselves down in the 3rd 250m so our game plan was to start to do a push at the 450m mark. At this point Lisa told us to sit up take 3 breaths in time with each stroke of the oar and then she called the push. Driving as hard as we could with the legs for ten strokes, then concentrating on our finishes for 10, then making sure we were getting clean sharp catches. By this point we were into our last 250m and we knew that we just had to hold this. Lisa asked again for us to dig even deeper.

I think we surprised the Russians as we pushed so early but we got a good distance over them, but then the Irish pushed and made some water back up. We dug deeper in the last 150m and were able to pull away and cross the line in 2nd place.

I don’t think my body has ever hurt so much; the burn in the leg muscles was unbelievable. But “WE DID IT” we had made the A Final at the World Rowing Championships! All I could think of at this point was getting air into my lungs and water into my mouth!

We had a cool down and were able to watch our women’s four race for lanes. They did well coming 3rd. Just before our race our Arms/Shoulders male rower Ben Houlison raced in his repechage and won by a whopping 8 seconds. So all in all it was a brilliant day for Australian rowing.

We now don’t race until Saturday the 29th of August, so we will be doing training rows each day. We are so excited and happy to be here that making the A final is icing on the cake. Look out world Australian Adaptive rowing is here to stay!

Race Day - Heats

We were up bright and early today, having breakfast and then heading down to the course on the 8 a.m. bus. Our heat was at 10:20 a.m. so we put hands on the boat at just after 9:30 a.m. In our heat was us, Italy, Poland, Russia, France and the USA. We were situated in lane 4 between Poland on our left and Russia on our right.

After our warm up we were called on to the course and due to the very strong head wind they moved all the boats over one spot so we were now in lane 5. The official started calling out the names of the countries, so we sat ready and were then told to sit easy as there was a technical fault. A few seconds later he started saying the country names again, we sat forward, the lights came on and the buzzer went. We were off.

It probably wasn’t the best start we had ever had, but it certainly wasn’t bad! The Italians just took off with the most amazing start. Now let me clarify that all this info has come to me from Lisa our Cox because I did the right thing and kept my “eyes in the boat”. No other crew mattered except what we were doing together in our boat.

We got a great jump on the Polish and Russian teams and at about 250m Lisa told us that she was even with 3 seat of the Russian boat, then every 10-20 strokes she told us how we were moving away from them. At 500m the Italians and our boat had pulled past all the other boats in the field. I felt that we let ourselves down in the third 250 as the power in the boat dropped. Unfortunately this has been a problem for us in the past. At the 750m mark, Lisa yelled to “drive with the legs” to “get the power on and stay long in the wind”. The USA and the Russians had made up some ground on us, so working together we picked the boat speed up and drove through the wind. We were able to pull away a bit more and before we knew it we had crossed the finish line.

To be honest I had no idea where we had placed as I didn’t see any of the other boats other than Poland who had dropped back significantly. Lisa had to tell us that we were second to Italy. Really not too bad considering it was the first “ever” race we have done and we had just come second to the Paralympic Gold Medallists!

We rowed down past the grandstand and then on to our cool down. We had a number of people tell us from the side that we had done well and yelling “well done Aussie’s”, so that was really a good feeling. After our cool down we were back at the landing and pulling the boat out of the water.

We now have to race tomorrow morning in the Repechage. This will mean that we must come 1st or 2nd in our race to proceed to the A Final on Saturday. We are all feeling very confident that this will be possible, due to our race today.