Back in Canada

Thank you everyone for all your support and kind words while I was racing! It means a lot to me and keeps me energized! I am now back in Canada and very happy to be with my London family and my friends. It was a great trip with lots of training and great racing! So proud to be a part of this great team and be able to make history together in Lucerne. Being the first Canadian women's 8+ to win a gold in Lucerne is very special as well as bringing Leslie Thompson-Willie her first gold here in 34 years. Here is a link to the race http://www.worldrowing.com/photos-videos/videos/2014-world-rowing-cup-iii-116134 if you missed it.

Our Canadian team had a great weekend of racing coming home with 4 medals. Gold for the eight, silver for the women's quad, bronze for both the lightweight women's double and the men's four. Fantastic job Canada! This link has the highlights from the racing. http://www.cbc.ca/player/Sports/Top+Stories/ID/2473459369/

                                            These photos are from the worldrowing website.

Final Race

Today was an incredible race! We had a plan and executed it and came out on top! This is the first time that Canada has won gold in the women's eight here in Lucerne. I am so proud to be able to be a part of this crew! After a night of celebration we are traveling back to Canada to get back to business and prepare for World Championships in Amsterdam at the end of August.

I am looking forward to going back home and seeing my friends and sleeping in my own bed!

Thank you so much for all your support during this trip. I really appreciate it!

5% Chance of No Rain in Lucerne

This years weather in Lucerne has been very wet. The joke here is that there is a 5% chance of no rain. The compound where all the boats are has become a huge mud pit. It has come to the point where wearing shoes is useless and my flip flops just get stuck in the mud so I'm now walking around bare foot.

Today was the first day of racing for the regatta. Our first race is tomorrow, so we had a couple training sessions working around the racing schedule. We were able to cheer on some our teammates this afternoon. It was a successful day of racing for our country with every crew advancing directly to the A final or to the A/B semifinals. Great start for Canada!

 

This afternoon I had a little bit of free time to explore Lucerne. There was a unique outdoor shopping  area with several buildings that were painted with some cool artwork and a very cool statue. Despite the rain, this city is really pretty and always bustling with tourists. 

Site seeing is over now, time to race! Our race for lanes is tomorrow at 11:42am local time (5:42am EST; 2:42am PST). There is no live video for this race but you can follow the live tracker on the worldrowing website. http://www.worldrowing.com/events/2014-world-rowing-cup-iii/ Just click on the event you want to follow. It's shows the progression of the race with each countries flag moving down the course. My event is the W8+.

Thanks for all your support! We feel the love over here! Go Canada!

The Europe Tour Continues

Our training camp in Italy has come to an end and we have traveled on to Lucerne, Switzerland were we will be racing World Cup III. Racing begins on Friday but our first race in the 8+ is on Saturday which will be a race for lanes, and then the final is on Sunday.

Training went well in Italy despite a little injury that took me off the water for a few practices. I am happy to say that I am healthy again and ready to race! While we were in Italy we had a day off and some of us took the train into Milan and explored the city for a few hours. We went to the Duomo which is a gorgeous European Catholic church. Milan is also big for fashion and the shopping there was crazy. I was too overwhelmed with the crowds and lineups I didn't actually buy anything. When we got back to our hotel we went to the lake and cooled off for a bit. Here are some pictures from the day.
(Photos courtesy of Jennifer Martins)

                                                        

 

On our final day in Italy, there was a really big storm that rolled into town. Great cracks of thunder with lots of lightning! It was really incredible to watch the storm develop and roll in. A teammate of mine, Kristin Bauder, was able to capture a photo of a lightning bolt hitting the lake. 

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!