The Gang's All Here!

The Rotsee was jam-packed today. Nearly every crew racing this weekend has arrived at the course for a few laps--thankfully with few mishaps. It's always interesting, though, with the different protocols one can see and experience out on the water. With so many athletes, boat sizes, and different workout instructions, the stop-and-go is definitely a test of nerves. Yesterday, my outing in the pair with teammate Kady Glessner had us spending time in every one of the six practice lanes during our two laps!

The weather has been great. It's a little on the hot side, but on a course that has seen rain, wind, and hail over the last few years, sunshine is a welcome forecast.

One of the other interesting parts of being in Switzerland at the moment is the World Cup madness. Although Switzerland has been out of the Cup for a couple of rounds, there are still many rabid fans following the games. Last night, the Netherlands defeated Uruguay 3-1, and the festivities that we could hear from the hotel were pretty wild (especially since Switzerland seems to otherwise be very reserved). I'm writing this with Spain up 1-0 over Germany...should be very exciting if they can pull off the upset!

Today I logged a few meters on one of the RowPerfect machines USRowing brought to the World Cup. The venue has a tent with ergs, but I'm doing some of my workouts on the RowPerfects, too. While I was doing my workout, athletes from several other federations came up and looked at the machines--some athletes and coaches even took them for a spin! There are also several great runs around the city and lake that I've been on. Plenty of hills (not my forte!) but the views and trails are incredible.

We had this afternoon off, so my roommate Sarah and I took the bus over to take a quick peek at the farmer's market that was going on along Lake Lucerne near the stop Schwannenplatz. There are so many amazing shops in Lucerne, but we were hoping the vendors were a bit more in our price range! We didn't have too much luck with the vendors, but we did run into my friend Robert Lucken, who's racing in the Dutch M8+. Robert and his crew from Nereus came to Boston to race at the Head of the Charles in 2005 and, through a crazy six-degrees-of-separation, ended up staying with my Radcliffe teammates and I for the race weekend! We've kept in touch, and have now ended up racing in our respective countries' eights at the last two Lucerne World Cups. It seems that, even internationally, the rowing world is so small!

Off to bed now for the all-important night-before-the-night-before-racing good night's sleep. So excited to start racing Friday!