First one in the books...

The 1V finished third in a heat of seven boats to qualify for tomorrow's petite final. One of the newest D 1 programs, the University of Oklahoma finished 1st while St. Joe's finished about 4 seconds up on us. There were some positives from the piece and it was the first collegiate race for two of our 8 rowers...always good to get six boat racing experience. And perhaps most importantly, we learned a lot about what we can improve upon and how to spend our energy more effectively.

The 2V is coming up in about 2.5 hours...They'll have a challenging time as there was a late addition to our heat of Villanova. That will mean a heat of six boats with 2 to go through to tomorrow's grand final. Thank you to all of you who are watching live online and have sent awesome messages of support for the athletes!

San Diego Crew Classic Day 1

Heading to the course now with the 1V - they're finishing up breakfast and then we'll go over our prerace checklist. California radio stations are really excellent...a ton of variety.

Heats Tomorrow - It's finally here!

We returned to the hotel after a great dinner at the Fashion Valley mall - beautiful area and a great atmosphere. Some of the athletes who have family in the area or who traveled out to watch the races went out to dinner with them - I was really happy that they get to spend some time together. Chicken piccata for dinner...great flavor, tender chicken, but a little on the cool side. Very fast service...

The practices this afternoon were solid and both crews felt like they gained some familiarity with their new shells and the conditions. In my mind, it's really important for us to remain focused on the mechanics of what we do and not get too caught up in evaluating our results as they happen. We have a lot to learn on both the 1V and 2V levels and so I hope we can use this race experience to identify some of our reactions, strengths, and weaknesses. Good luck to all of the competitors racing tomorrow!

In Between Rows...

What are the quintessential California trip stops? The 2V rowed this morning right away and had a solid practice where they began to feel the length that should serve them well as we get into racing. They were smart about bringing their own shoes and were logistically very quick to get things finished. We had a little bit of trouble getting the rigging correct on the 1V shell and so they didn't launch until quite a bit later but many thanks to John Tytus of Pocock Racing Shells for helping get everything in order. The conditions (stiff crosswind) are a little bit challenging but aren't anything that we should be surprised by tomorrow. A quick lunch from In N Out and back to the hotel for a little rest before this afternoon's paddle...Even though everyone knows about the secret menu at In N Out I thought I would link to it here just so you have it when you want customized food. Check out the Five Guys versus In N Out discussion thread on chowhound.com - people REALLY care about their burgers.

Sunset Pizza

It turns out that we had a very short stopover in Baltimore and flew right out to San Diego arriving nearly 20 minutes early! Fantastic because it did allow us to get our gear and over to the ZLAC boathouse (the oldest women's rowing club originally founded in 1892 www.zlac.org)

We did a trip of Mission Bay just to get sorted out in our new shells and we have a few adjustments to make for tomorrow but that's to be totally expected. In one of those "this is really awesome I can't believe it's true" moments, the team ended up having a bonfire hosted by the Pool family on Kellogg Beach in La Jolla and enjoyed the sunset, pizza, and a whole lot of digital photography.

Regular start time today to let the bodies rest a little more and then we'll do two short rows to get reacclimitized for tomorrow's racing. The venue looks well set up with enclosures, organized boat areas, and it will likely be packed by midday today.

Flying to San Diego

Through security and about ready to board our flight to San Diego with two eights of athletes ready to race it up for the first time in 2010. The selection process was long and I thought the group handled the pressure well...and while we've been able to get a fair amount of water time the conditions on the river have made gauging speed challenging. We've tried to give the athletes a nice mix of consistency and variety and the mechanics of the stroke have been steadily improving.

The varsity will be racing in the Women's Varsity Cal Cup and they are in heat 3 at 8:20 AM on Saturday morning while the second varsity will be racing in the Open 8+ event and will be in heat 1 at 1:30 PM in the afternoon.

It's particularly exciting because the team has a great mix of youth and experience. Six of the nine current varsity eight athletes have been to the NCAAs on multiple occasions while seven of the nine second varsity eight athletes have raced or been spares at the NCAAs. And from a youth standpoint we will have two seniors coxswains and three senior rowers in between the two hulls...

More to come from Baltimore and hopefully I'll be able to upload pictures from my Blackberry.