1. What inspired you to go to your first rowing practice; was there anything memorable about it?
My friends inspired me to go to my first rowing practice. Sure, watching rowers row down the river into the sunset on my first visit to Michigan was inspiring, but it is the people on the team which brought me in.
First practice: Memorable yes, out of the ordinary, probably not, I was amazed at how low to the water we were, how tippy the boat was, and how I wanted to feather the blade, but wasn't allowed. Not being allowed to feather was a real killer as I wanted to go fast so badly and row like I had seen the varsity guys doing.
2. Was there a practice, race or other event when you fell in love with the sport, or when you knew you might not be too bad at rowing? When you thought you could make the national team?
I didn't like the actual sport of rowing until my sophomore year at the ECAC finals. Until then, I strangely enjoyed erging the most. But now, we were in contention for a medal, there were six boats across, the sun was out and the boat was running quickly. When we finshed the race I thought, "Yeah, that was fun."
I started to think I could make the national team in January of my freshman year. I pulled 6:18 on my very first erg piece and thought I could make it. I was so naive at the time....
3. Best race/practice, worst race/practice?
Worst practice had to be my junior year of college. I had just gotten a new camel back hydration system on Friday night and was excited about being able to drink water all day during class on Monday. Little did I know that over the weekend my roomate filled it with Vodka and took it partying. Well, he left a good portion of vodka in the bladder and I topped it off with water Monday morning, unaware. During the middle of the day I started to drink out of it and spit the first mouthful out. It tasted aweful. However, after some terrible reasoning I decided that it must taste so bad because it is new and the plastic just made the water taste funny. After all I had a 3x4k AT workout on the erg that afternoon and needed to stay hydrated. I finished my backpack of vodka/water during my last class, stood up to go to practice and then it hit me, I'm intoxicated. Never the less I had to go to practice and it was awful.
4. Best/Anything you've done in the sport no one knows about?
I beat Jamie Schroeder on a 2k my freshman year of college in Elkhart, Indiana.
5. Any/Most important advice for young rowers?
Pulling hard is over rated. Row smart, not hard, and you'll go fast.
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07/23/2008 7:43:21 AM