American Lake Regatta

Kylie's fall season of Crew has only two regattas, the first was last Saturday at American Lake in Tacoma and Brad and I were finally able to go to one together.  We had to be in Tacoma at 7:00 AM, which meant leaving the house by 5:45.  Once we got there, Kylie had to help rig the boats.  Then we found out she wasn't racing until 11:00, so there wasn't much for Brad and I to do.  We hung out in the car for a bit, (it was COLD outside!) and then drove around the area for a little while.  (I had considered going on a walk, until I saw what kind of neighborhood we were in and decided my safety was more important than a little exercise!) 

We watched some of the other races for an hour or so, then it was finally time for Kylie's race.  This was a "head" race, which means 6K instead of the 2K they do in the spring.  Each boat starts about 30 seconds apart and their final time determines who wins, so it's not a sprint to the finish, exciting race like Lake Vancouver , and sometimes you don't know who won until hours after the race, but it's still fun to watch. 

Kylie's team's pep-talk before the race

Getting into the boat...they "hot-seated" the boat, which means another set of girls had just used the boat for a race and they got right into it after them, so they didn't have to carry it down to the water.

Rowing out to the start...which was too far away for us to see.  The race was all the way around the whole lake, so we couldn't really see them for most of it.

 Here they are across the lake; this picture was taken at 50x zoom on my camera...Kylie is the 3rd from the left, or "3 seat" in crew-talk, in the boat on the right.  They are rowing towards the left.  If you can even tell that those are boats with people in them...

This shot is a little better, they've come around the bend and are making their way to the finish,so now Kylie is 3rd from the right (or bow), and they're rowing towards the right.  They started latest in their heat, but passed everyone and won their race!

Here they are crossing the finish line, not a dramatic finish to watch, since they crossed alone, (the boat behind them had all ready finished) but still great to see them pulling so hard!

Kylie was happy with their efforts.  It's about a 20 minute race and they're giving it their all the whole time. 

They didn't have to put the boat in the water, but they were the last race of the day, so they had to bring it back up. 

I'm so glad we were able to go support Kylie and see her working so hard, doing something she loves.  Her goal is to be in the Varsity 8 boat, right now she's in the JV boat, and I have no doubt she'll make it soon. She is very determined and gives 125% to everything she is passionate about.