Women's Rowing Journal - Betsy Schneider
4/16/2007 8:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
April 16, 2007
At this moment in time, I am feeling pretty privileged. I am part of a successful team that is "doing things that it has never done before." Right now we are in the full swing of racing season, and time is not slowing down - but neither are we. When I look back to the beginning of the year I was pretty unsuspecting as to what my first collegiate rowing year would entail. Now, I am in awe of myself, my teammates, and our perseverance, drive, focus, and spirit. I never would have imagined the capacity to which I could be pushed not only physically but also mentally. The past couple of weeks have been tough. According to Coach, we have only had two practices where the weather has been above freezing, we are lifting weights to the time of an incessant metronome for up to 60 repetitions, we are pushing through our second semester of exams, papers, and oral presentations. What is amazing to me is, even with all this, we push harder, we stay positive and focused, and we continue to move as fast as we can with each coming race.
The past two weekends competing against URI and Boston College and, more recently, William Smith, we have experienced two very different kinds of races. Up against URI and BC, we didn't really know what to expect competing against some fast crews. After a long, six-hour bus ride on the minibuses - packed to capacity with orange bags, food, coxswains and rowers, we finally made it to the great state of Rhode Island. We had a good short practice on the URI racecourse and headed off to Kate's house for some homemade cooking - amazing! After a restful night in the Holiday Inn, we woke bright and early and ready to race. Rowing down the racecourse to the starting line, I had an unusual amount of jitters and nerves. This was a big race not only for us, but also for Coach Kish because he was returning to Rhode Island after coaching there for some time. We wanted to demonstrate and prove to these two crews (who probably underestimated us), our speed, dedication, and hard work. The race flew by in an instant. We pulled ahead pretty early in the race and rowed together with a rhythm that we had never experienced before. The feeling of pulling through the finish line, gasping for breath, was one of accomplishment and pride.
The races this past weekend, against William Smith were very different. It being a home race, we had early morning 5:45 a.m. practice before in which we worked on our "rhythm of power." This practice proved to be beneficial because we rowed the race with that relaxed "rhythm of power" that we need to build on in order to continue to gain speed. Hopefully this next week approaching the race against Princeton, Dartmouth and Penn, we will continue to push and build on everything we have accomplished so far this year, to continue to contribute to the legacy of Bucknell Women's Rowing.
- Betsy Schneider '10