Previous postcards from the Sarasota series
• Ingrid Erickson -- Tuesday, May 24
• Audrey Rekedal -- Wednesday, May 25
• Natalie Korolenko -- Thursday, May 26
• Hannah Miller -- Friday, May 27
• Practice Day Photo Gallery (May 26)
• Heats & Reps Photo Gallery (May 27)
• Finals Day Photo Gallery (May 28)
Hello again one last time from Sarasota!
Today was our final day of racing, and for me and my fellow seniors (JJ, Danielle, and Avalon) it was our last race as SPU Falcons. We woke up to a delay notification, meaning races were pushed back 30 minutes due to weather. So we had a little more chill time at the hotel.
SPU rowers congregate during the weather delay
We left for the course and when we arrived I headed to the coxswain weigh-in tent. Coxswains do not do any of the physical exertion of moving the boat down the course, which makes us essentially dead weight. There is a minimum weight limit for coxswains so that it is fair for every crew. If we are under that weight minimum, we have to carry a bag of sand heavy enough for us to make weight. In this tent, officials make sure we meet the minimum and give us a cool bracelet to show that we are good to go.
Unfortunately, we had another weather delay for possible lightning that lasted roughly 45 minutes. During that time, we took shelter on the 4th floor of the finish line tower where we had a beautiful view of the course and got to chat with some of the officials. Races picked back up and we headed to our tent to get warmed up and ready to go. We're a pretty easy going team so the delay didn't impact us much.
There was a really strong cross wind at the start line, but we got into our lane and attached to the stake boat the fastest we had all weekend. There are always some pre-race jitters that happen at the start line, but I felt nothing but happiness and excitement that my last race got to happen at NCAAs with that specific set of young women. We held hands down the boat and took some deep breaths, then set off down the course.
LeeAnn and Danielle Johnson share a moment after their final race
Upon crossing the finish line, I couldn't hold my happy tears back. I was so proud of our team and our accomplishments this year, no matter the end result.
Because of the delays, we had to bolt to the bus as soon as we could and head to the airport to catch our flight back to Seattle. With less than a mile left to the airport, our bus shut down. This wasn't the first time we've had a bus malfunction on a trip, and we all thought it was kind of funny. The bus started back up, and we rolled all the way to the drop off zone on pure downhill momentum. We made it on time and boarded our plane.
We'll be spending the next 7 hours traveling home, and we are all very tired and excited to get there. This long trip home holds significance to me, as it has been a long 4 years of hard work to reach NCAAs and I couldn't imagine a better way to close out my season.
See ya soon, Seattle,
LeeAnn
This is the fifth and final entry in a series of daily "Postcards from Sarasota"
