Stay in the Moment
It’s August already, and Boston’s black at 5:30 a.m. as we gather for morning practices. Soon, it will be dark when we leave afternoon practices, too, and that feels appropriate. Mother Nature is closing the curtains on another racing season.
Three weeks till the World Championships, and we’re tapering now. Our training volume has been halved and we’re emphasizing intensity and focus,
“Stay in the moment.”
Our coach reminds us not to think about the race results, or the world of friends and relatives watching us, from the motorboats today and from the grandstands and online in Munich. Just focus on taking each stroke one at a time as best as you can. That’s all you have to do. That’s all you can do.
Coach is right, and it’s good practice for Worlds, where a single chain of two hundred strokes will serve to define an entire season’s work.
Of course, off the water, all I can do is think about results and reflect on what the guys have done already to get to the starting line at Worlds. It’s been three years of incredible group effort building up this program of athletes, equipment, and funding at Riverside Boat Club.
When our coach started in 2005, our eight had yet to even win the Head of the Charles Regatta, raced on our home waters in front of our club’s own dock. That year we won, and the program has just kept building. This season we had three-dozen rowers gather from across the country to join the effort. That means a lot to everyone involved.
Today, our second eight won at Canadian Henley. That’s the third year straight for our program’s second boat. That means a lot to me, personally.
And now, on September 1, our top boat has a chance to win a medal at the World Championships. That would be so great to help keep the program building, for everyone here now and for everyone who’ll join the effort in the future.
Moments are defined by their context. For us, that is all the strokes already taken, and all the strokes yet to come. It is hard for me not to think about that. It’s hard for me to black those out.
Riverside’s winning eight at Canadian Henley was stroked by Cameron Booth, and included Andrew Trevor Braasch, Andrew Hashway, John Dise, William Garthwaite, Peter Morelli, Niles Kuronen, Sean Wolf, coxswain Maria Jose Telleria, assistant coach Miranda Paris, and videographer-extraordinaire, Emma Bast.