2008 Lucerne World Cup
I have a few minutes on my hands before I have to begin preparations for departing from Lucerne. I wanted to post a quick entry to report on a fabulous weekend of racing here at the Rotsee in Lucerne. The USA crews in attendance put forth powerful performances producing medals in the men's and women's quads, the women's eight, the men's four, and twice over in the women's pairs. GO USA!!! Ellen and I missed medaling by 1.5 seconds for a fourth place finish in the women's double, but on the flipside of that coin, a fourth place finish is what we needed to complete our qualification process for the U.S. Olympic Team.
I cannot emphasize enough how wonderful this trip has been in terms of gaining experience for our crew. The steps that we have taken from our races in Munich to our races here in Lucerne have been so great for us to find more boat speed and confidence. I can say that we've run the gamut of conditions, from head wind to pouring rain to thunder to tail wind to glass (sometimes all of the above over the course of one race); we've been in boots; we've survived some crazy warm up pits (barely); we've dealt with nerves, blisters, insect stings, and bruised egos; we've punctured and repaired our boat (twice); we've had great moments of success and some very educational moments of failure.
We are anticipating that the coming weeks leading up to the team's departure for Beijing are going to be even more challenging and push us to become even fitter, stronger, faster, and hopefully wiser. I had a great time during my month-long European racing and training adventure, especially during the past few days in Lucerne. I am incredibly proud of how far we have come as a crew, and am very excited for all of the USA athletes who competed here this weekend, as well as my friends from other teams (CAN, AUS, RSA).
And now, finally as unrelated aside, a question I've been pondering for the past few days (when not racing or practicing of course): Does anyone know if Mahe Drysdale is married?
See you out there,
--MK