Longer (more boring) Trials Report!

For some background information; Matt Lihou wrote a brilliant article, pre Trials, for the Guernsey Press which can be seen here if you are interested.  Very accurate, well written and researched!



Post Trials:  for all you boatie geeks out there, here is my version of my weekend at trials!

We arrived at the lake at 8am Saturday for our pre paddle, with briefing at 09.45.  At the briefing we were informed that due to bad weather forecasts for the Sunday, all racing would take place of the Saturday, instead of being spread over the two days. 
First thought: "do I have enough kit to race in!?"
Second thought: "Yes!! That means racing in a tail wind"  (it was forecast to be a pretty nasty cross head wind on Sunday)
Third thought: "so will the post trials dinner I've been invited to on Sunday night be moved to tonight?!" (food is never far from my mind!)

So, my aim in the 1900m time trial was to go out and hit it hard from the beginning.  I felt like I did this well, but consequently 'died' a bit and had no sort of a finish to my race.  However, I completely emptied the tank and I felt I executed my race plan exactly.  After seeing the results, it was clear that I did go out very hard! It shows rankings at each 500m mark, and at the first mark I was in 3rd place, after Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger - the top two British women! Pleasing to know the speed is there anyway :) Looking at the rest of the times; I faded to 9th place by the 1k mark, 13th by 1500m and finally finished 16th (out of 63).  In doing so, I beat 4 of the GB senior women's heavyweight team, and a few more of their lightweights.

My time trial result put me into the C/D semi finals and I had a tough line up of Debbie Flood, Annie Vernon, Jo Cook, Laura Greenhalgh and Kathryn Twyman.  Annie and Debbie qualified for the C final comfortably.  I was not expecting to get through but after trailing Laura for the first km I started to move through her in the third 500m.  Despite a mad dash for the line, I managed to hold her off to secure third place and my spot in the C final. The conditions had worsened from the time trial, and rather than the tailwind we had enjoyed, this was more of a cross wind with slight tail.

Racing again hardly seemed viable in the state I was after two flat out races, but after my post race warm down I was able to sit down for literally five minutes before I had to go and get boated again for the C final.  I had Debbie and Annie again in my final, and also Heather Stanning, Lou Reeve and Liv Whitlam.  A full GB squad line up and me!  By this time in the day the sun was almost setting and the wind had completely died down so conditions on the lake were great.  I had a good race, but it was hardly side by side racing! I was in lane 6, Heather was in lane 1 and the other four girls were in the middle of us. I hardly got a glimpse of the four in the middle, but Heather and I were more closely matched yet as she was the other side of the lake it was hard to race her! However, we got a good sprint to the line and I finished a respectable half second behind.

It was an exhausting day, filled with exciting and cut throat races.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and relished the opportunity to race on the London 2012 course.  At April Trials, final assessment, we get the opportunity to race either our singles or in pairs, and I will be deciding in the next couple of weeks what I will do for that.

Also coming up soon in March is our 2k ergo test for April trials and women's Eights Head on the Thames in London.

I'll try and keep you updated!

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