Women's Rowing Journal - Justine Bailey
3/23/2007 8:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
March 23, 2007
Spring Break 2007 couldn't come soon enough. The stresses of classes, midterms, and papers while juggling 6 a.m. crew practices had severely worn out my mind and body. Added on to this was having to deal with harsh snow storms and freezing cold winds that would leave my cheeks red for what seemed like hours. I needed a break! I needed nice weather! I needed warmth! I needed...Elberton, Georgia!
I was extremely excited to spend time with the girls on the novice team. Over the year, we had grown really close because we had to experience the highs and lows of learning a completely new sport together. I have to admit that I wasn't completely enthused that all of the novice girls would not be sharing a cabin together. Not really knowing anyone on the varsity team, I was nervous that they wouldn't accept or like me and that my spring break trip would be spent being miserable. I couldn't have been more wrong! The girls in my cabin were friendly, funny, and of course amazing rowers. I found myself looking forward to dinner every night, and not just because of the delicious food our cabin would prepare. We would find ourselves sitting around the dinner table for over an hour just swapping stories and laughing. I realized then that the varsity girls weren't scary after all. They were just normal, fun girls that I truly enjoyed getting to know. Now, not only do I love the novice crew girls but I also love the varsity crew girls!
Besides cabin life, most of our time was spent on Lake Russell. I cannot put into words how relieving and exciting it was to be back on the water after such a long, cold winter. No ergs for an entire week! At first, it was a little hard to adjust to being back on the water but soon we got back into the swing of things. The next day we were scheduled to race the University of Alabama and the entire novice team was on edge. Although full of nerves, we pulled through our first-ever races without any major catastrophes. What a relief. Throughout the next week, we focused on perfecting our rowing skills. We had numerous practices a day. One of our major focuses was on correcting our form so that we don't waste any of our strength. By the end of the week, we all saw drastic changes in our abilities that couldn't have been achieved anywhere else but Elberton, Georgia.
Our last night in Georgia was definitely my favorite night of the trip. Each cabin brought a dish to the pot luck, it was all delicious! And then the real fun began...the skits! The novice team had prepared a skit before Georgia that we were extremely excited about. It was a twist of Harry Potter and crew called Harry Potter and the Heart of Elberton. The skit went off with a bang. Besides our performance, all of the other skits were hilarious and entertaining. It was interesting and amusing to see how we had grown together as a team, both novice and varsity. All in all, my spring break training trip to Georgia couldn't have been better. I gained so much more knowledge about rowing while connecting with the team in a way I never had. It is certainly a week that I will never forget!
- Justine Bailey '10