The Eve Before Henley

We are in the final countdown to start time for the big event.  Women's Henley commences tomorrow at 10AM with a variety of qualifying rounds.  Fortunately we do not have a qualifier and are scheduled to compete in the Senior 4 and Senior 8 tomorrow at 12:40 and 1:10 respectively.  We have all earned enormous respect for the quality of the crews that we mingle with each day.  Adjacent to our boat rack is the Princeton Varsity, winner of the V8 at this year's NCAA DI Championship and the the British U23 National Team 8.  The learning opportunity has been valuable, but tomorrow it is time to demonstrate how much progress has been made.  We face Thames Rowing Club in the 8 and York City Rowing in the 4, two strong programs that will demand our best performances.  I will update you tomorrow!

I will let Gabby Demac share a bit about our race preparation day.

GABBY DEMAC, Class of 2014

They say “if you don’t like the weather in New England, wait a minute.” Well, if you don’t like the weather here in England then that is just too bad because here, as we continued to experience today, the weather went from rainy and cold to beautiful and sunny then back to pouring. Conveniently though, it only decided to rain while we had practice so it didn’t spoil our free time in which most of us spent napping…inside. Before we returned to the house for our routine snack and nap, we stopped at the farmers market (or as I called it, the fish market) that had come to town to look at fun souvenirs and buy some tasty bakery treats.
There isn’t much else to say about today’s events. We had very successful and productive rows in preparation for our big weekend followed by a delicious team dinner we cooked ourselves. Now, as I finish up here, all 14 girls are relaxing, reading, and preparing for the races. We’ve progressed so much over the course of this year and season alone and I couldn’t be happier to be on such a strong, motivated and amazing team! Wish us luck!