Music City Head Race

​Just a few months ago I started rowing and made the competitive team.  Last Sunday, October 3rd, I attended my very first race, and although it wasn't exactly how I'd expected, I still had a blast!    

My family and I got to the Nissan Stadium early in the morning where I looked for my team trailer in the parking lot.  They were unloading a few of the boats and preparing them to race, so I helped out.  The quad was the first to launch, then the eight, so when they were out of the way, my partner and I unloaded our double and set it up.   There was still some time before we'd race, so we waited in the tent, playing games such as "Hangman".

​After a while, we decided to go over to the pedestrian bridge to watch some of the boats come down the river.  While we were up there, it started to drizzle, and after a few minutes the rain came down harder so we started heading back down.  By the time we made it back to our tent, we were really wet!  The guys' eight docked so most of us went over to help get it out of the water and carry it back to the trailer.  Since there was so much water stored up in the boat, it all poured down on us as we flipped it over, and as we walked it over to the trailer, we also walked through several large puddles!  

​A flash of lightning postponed the races, but once the sun came back out we started up again!  After lunch, it was my time to race!  We grabbed our boat, walked it up to the dock, and started rowing upstream 5 kilometers to the starting line.  

​The race itself was really tiring, and we didn't finish in the top 10 like we'd hoped, but we did manage to get 13th place which was really good for my first time doing a 5K!  I can't wait for my next race!