Wednesday, August 19, 2009

DAY 1 IN POLAND

The day has finally arrived. We flew from Varese to Poznan via Munich in the early hours of this morning, arriving just after lunch. Sat in the hotel preparing to go for my athlete accreditation and first paddle on the Worlds race course. All seems a lot more real now and I'm sure after going to the course the nerves will start to kick in. So far I've been so relaxed I've surprised myself but I get the feeling that might be denial rather than keeping my cool! My guess would be that I'll be calm until I see the other nations' athletes - that's when it'll finally sink in what I've signed up for!

I'm sharing a room with Elaine Johnstone - the girl I won Women's Henley in the Elite Lwt 2x with earlier this summer. She's racing the Lwt 1x at the Worlds after finally being told yesterday GB consider her fast enough (she's our crew spare so could have had to sit on the bank - rubbish!). They've really dragged her through it. Despite not knowing each other (other than eyeballing each other at races incl. GB trials for the last 2 yrs but never actually speaking!) prior to being invited to the doubles matrix in April, I would now consider her one of my best friends out here. Being in a room with her will be a welcome break from the rest of my crew (I was sharing a room with two of my crew in Varese) and will certainly help me relax. As the 2 new fish to the lwt women's squad, she knows exactly what I'm going through as a first-timer. We've just been asked to race the European Championships together in the lwt 2x so we're really excited about getting together again in that boat class to kick some international ass... however, before that we need to think about the World Championships. 7 days and counting.

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