Lightweight Eats

When I left off, we were just headed into the finals on Saturday morning.

Our 7:14AM race time meant the weigh-in window began at 5:14AM. I was incredibly thankful to not be worried about weight—I heard of others waking up in the 3's to sweat down to 130 pounds for the weigh-in.

Everything went according to plan, and the six rowers in the B final took off down the course more or less together. It was great racing—the field was really tight the whole way. The early leaders, Mary Foster and Emily Schmieg, ended up in first and second, with my teammate Sarah Giancola coming in third. Lauren Ayers and I were head to head the whole course, but she opened up about a second lead in the last 400m to take fourth. I came in fifth, followed by Morgan McGovern in sixth.

This was a much closer racing experience than last year's NSR1, despite not going through the full progression of racing. It will be fun to see how all of the lightweight women stack up when we pair off into doubles for the next regatta—the second national selection regatta.

This weekend, Sarah and I will be headed up to Boston to do some informal racing in doubles with some of the girls from Riverside Boat Club. It will be a good chance to connect with more of the lightweights training around the country—we are so dispersed that I regularly race people I've never met!!

Over the next few weeks, I will also be losing weight—what fun! For the single, at NSR1, all competitors are required to be under 59kg (130lbs). For the double, the average weight of the crew must be 57kg or under—four pounds lighter!

Based on results from my DEXA scan and previous experience, I've planned on getting down to a bit under 57kg for NSR2. This is fairly light for me, but I know I don't lose as much strength as many other lightweights as I drop in weight. I never imagined myself as a "weight maker" but I'm glad to have the option—my erg scores aren't fast enough yet for anything else!

Did you race at the first NSR? What did you think? What are your plans for the rest of spring and summer racing?

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