Crew Classic Part II
The race turned out to go a lot more smoothly and a lot more stress free then planned. I got to both races around 20 minutes before the start and made a good impression with the volunteers for the race, and backed into the lane safe and sound. I managed to keep a straight course for the most part - the first race it was straight until I veered off into Cal's lane in the finish, but they beat us by a lot, I think their time was 6:08 - we were 6:44, so it didn't really matter. In the second race I managed to stay in our lane the entire time. Equipment stopped working for me second race, which was really frustrating because I couldn't cox the boys in the bow but at least the 4 boys in the stern could hear a portion of what I was saying. However, the cox box started working in the last 250, so I managed to squeeze some calls out that got the boys going - I clearly remember saying, "Row this last piece for Andrew (our coach, who I will miss like no other). We managed to come 4th in Men's Collegiate Novice at 10:20, then 5th in the Men's Collegiate Novice Petite Final on the same day - we beat USC by 0.06 seconds. I have no idea how they were able to catch that, but it was great that we won. I saw the disappointment on my stroke's face when we crossed the line - he was so mad that we lost. But afterwards we found out that we didn't lose, so it was all good.
It was incredibly emotional for me knowing that this was our last race as a crew together. I know most of the boys in my crew will go to JV, but there's still a bit of sadness inside. All the boys are pretty different from who I am and I can honestly say that I don't necessarily click with them - I often really have nothing funny to contribute to the conversation - but at the end of the day, I truly love them all. I remember there were a few times in the boat where I finally understood why I was doing this. Before our last race, I told them all I loved them, and they all told me they loved me back. Whether it was silly or not, it still hit me in a great way. One of the women who were volunteering on the boat directing crews to go to the start line said to our crew and another early crew, "Thank these ladies for bringing you here in a timely manner, you're the first (UBC) today to do so. Take care of these women, they're the women of your life." This probably didn't mean as much to the men but I really cherished that comment and secretly hope they remember that moment.
So today is our last full day at San Diego. This weekend was definitely memorable and I'll take a lot from this experience and carry it on to next year. I'll hopefully be able to decide soon whether or not I will truly want to continue coxing (which is likely).