Chamonix, France

On Monday, the day after the regatta, we traveled back to Corgeno, Italy. On our way we stopped at a small town called Chamonix which is in the French Alps. We took a gondola to the top of L'Aiguille du Midi. This mountain is 3842m and there is 45% less oxygen on top. From that peak you can see Mont Blanc which is the highest mountain in western Europe. I could really feel the lack of oxygen as walking around and climbing the few stairs there were was challenging. It was a wonderful side trip, and to see God's beauty was spectacular. Now back to business and training for the next two weeks.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves from the day in Chamonix.

Day 3 of Racing

Today we raced the final. It was a tough battle on the water against the Americans. We put up a good fight getting out in the lead fast and holding on. Unfortunately, their finish was stronger than ours and they beat us by 1.1 secs.

                                              Photo taken by Steve van Knotsenburg

Tomorrow we are traveling back to Corgeno, Italy to continue training and preparing for World Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland in three weeks.

Thank you for all your support this weekend! God Bless!

Day 2 of Racing

Today consisted of lots of racing for team Canada. I did not have a race but was at the course doing a workout and cheering on my teammates. We had many crews racing well today with six crews advancing to the A finals tomorrow and three crews in the B final. A really great showing today!

Our race tomorrow is at 1:33pm local time (7:33am EST; 4:33am PST). There will be live video feed of the racing tomorrow, and you can find the link at www.worldrowing.com 
We will be in lane 3, racing against; Germany, China, Great Britain and the USA. Going to be a great race!

Thank for all your support! Go Canada!

Day 1 of Racing

Today was a successful day of racing. The time trial went well and we posted the fasted time at 6:03. This places us in the middle lane, lane 3, for the final on Sunday. I now have a day to recover and prepare to put down our best race.

Our post race recovery today included some time in the lake. The water was chilly but quite refreshing, and the water was so clear that you could see some fish swimming around.

If you like to see some pictures from the racing take a look at the row2k website: http://www.row2k.com/gallery/pf_gal.cfm?dir=2014Summer/WC2/0620HeatsBigBoats&start=227&label=World%20Cup%20II%20-%20Heats%20-%20Fours,%20Quads,%20Eights&hi=yes#.U6R4QiiMZEM

Thanks for all your prayers and cheers! I can hear them over here!

Let the racing begin!

Tomorrow is the first day of racing! Preparation has been going well and we are all pumped and ready to light the course on fire!

Our time trial race is at 1:05pm local time (7:05am EST; 4:05am PST). Because this race is a time trial, there is no live feed of the race online, results will be posted on the website though.
You can find them here: http://www.worldrowing.com/events/2014-worldcup-2/schedule-results
 (my event is listed as W8+)

Rowing Canada has published a great article in preparation for this weekend listing all the crews racing including the men. I am very honoured to be a part of this great team and representing my country!
Go Canada!
You can find it here: http://rowingcanada.org/news-events/news/canadian-crews-set-go-battle-france

Lake d'Aiguebelette

We are now in Chambery France.  Chambery is five and half hours south east of Paris, close to the Italian and Switzerland border. It is a beautiful town with lots of mountains in the area. Lake d'Aiguebelette, were we race, is about 15 minutes from our hotel. I have not been to this venue before so I am looking forward to exploring a new area. Racing begins on Friday with a time trial (one boat after another in set time intervals, so you're basically racing the clock) to determine who gets which lane for the final which will be raced on Sunday. I will be racing in the women's eight for World Cup II where there are currently 4 other countries entered. China, Germany, Great Britain, and the USA. Should be some great racing! I am really excited to put all the winter training to the test.


photo courtesy of the internet

Our first day on the lake was wonderful. The first row had fantastic flat water conditions with the sun shinning! We took the opportunity to take in the sites of the course and then get to work and focus on preparing for racing. The afternoons row was adventurous as a storm rolled through while we were on the water. The wind picked up so quickly the water started coming in and swamping our boat as waves were crashing over the side. There was a stroke where I got a face full of water from the wave crashing into my rigger. We stayed in good spirits though and were having fun surfing the waves. We also had some laughs with a Chinese men's pair as they were struggling just as much as we were. It was so crazy that we were all just laughing. I was glad I wasn't in a single though, trying to stay upright in that water was a challenge.

Just want to thank everyone for your continued support in my rowing journey! I wouldn't be here if I didn't have all your support and cheers.

First trip of the year!

Hello friends and family,

Summer has arrived which means racing season is here! We left Canada yesterday, June 14th, to go test our speed against the world in France and Switzerland! We are currently in Italy for a couple days to acclimatize and then we go to Lake Aiguebelette, France to race World Cup II. 

We are training in a little town called Corgeno, which is close to Milan. I was here last summer, so it's nice to come back to something familiar. There is not much to do in Corgeno so there are very few distractions which allows us to stay focused on our training. Don't worry though, we can get local gelato! Delicious! We eat our meals at a local restaurant and it was great to see the owners again and use my Italian. The one word I know, Ciao!

Here are a couple pictures of Corgeno and the lake we train on.