Secret City Head Race

​My second regatta, the Secret City Head Race, was October 16th, and it was a great day for rowing!  The weather was nice, the scenery really green, and it doesn't hurt that I medaled either :)  Here's a bit about my weekend racing at Oak Ridge!  

​Unlike the Music City Head Race where we drove to Tennessee the same day as the race, this time we set out the day before and stayed at the team hotel.  But before heading there, we stopped by "Cinnaholic" in Knoxville to get some tasty vegan treats!  I had the "fluffer nutter" cinnamon roll, which I LOVED, a pizza roll (October's special!), and an amazing DOLE Whip!  I was stuffed!  At the hotel we simply went up to our room, watched Captain Marvel, and fell asleep.    

My little sister is on the left and I'm on the right

​Our day started early the next day, waking up at around 6am and heading out just a while later.  It was a short drive to the racing venue where our team had 2 tents set up.  One of them was by the trailer (close to the docks) where our team hung out and the other was by the finishing line where snacks were set up and our parents hung out.  It was a long walk between the trailers, so they were really making everyone work for their snacks!   

​The scenery around the river is really nice and green.  There were many trees along the way, and ducks just resting along the shore. 

​The team and I spent most of the day just chatting, and I don't know how it started but we came up with a very confusing family tree for us.  Someone was married to a plastic skeleton, someone was the daughter of her kid, and someone else filed for divorce...I'm not sure where I am in this anymore.  

When my turn to race finally came, my partner and I picked up our boat and took it down to the dock!

​We were in a boat called the "McDouble" which is also the boat we used at the Music City Head Race!  

​And we're off...

​...wait...no...not yet!  I accidentally put my oars on the wrong side, so we had to go back and fix them.  Luckily I managed to get that done quickly! 

​Now we're off! 

​To get to the starting line we had to row 5 kilometers upstream, against both the current and wind.  At least they'd be in our favor on the way back down to the finishing line.  When we got to the starting line we had a few minutes to rest and get some water before it was time to race.   

​It's leisure to row upstream but racing downstream is a completely different story.  We have to go fast and use a lot of pressure, and the 5K seam to be a lot longer than they did before.  I'm still pretty new at this sport, so I was super tired halfway through!  I still gave it my best and we managed to get 3rd place out of the 4 boats racing.  We beat the 4th place boat by over a minute, so that's good!  

Basically right after our race we had our lunch, and after that, my partner, Laney, still had one more race to do.  She was in a quad with 3 other girls from our team, and although they did face some obstacles along the way, I saw them cross the finishing line and they looked really good!  Even after catching a crab (that's what it's called when our oars get stuck in the water) that dented part of the rigger and with a 30 second penalty for hitting a buoy, they still got 6th place out of 8 boats!  

​After watching them cross the finishing line, I had to run back to the docks to help the quad. 

​I grabbed one of the oars to help pull them in...

​...and grabbed as many oars as I could carry.

​Then we all had to go help the eight that was coming in.  

​After a day of racing, our coaches gave us our medals, told us a bit about our next race, "The Head of the Hooch", and then we went back home!  I'm a bit nervous about the Head of the Hooch, the biggest regatta in all of North America, but I'm also excited about it!