Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Women's Rowing Journal - Emily Ralen
1/30/2012 7:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
Jan. 30, 2012
As a senior, this year has been full of many "lasts" and since this was my final trip down to Elberton, Georgia, I tried to soak up every minute of it. As we neared the place that would be our home for the next 10 days, some upperclassmen remarked how it looked like we were in the middle of nowhere, so we must be close. When we pulled in to the state park, the familiar sight of the river, cabins, and Georgia sunshine welcomed us after a long bus ride.
After the first night, we settled into our schedule of three practices a day, two in the morning and one later after a longer break for lunch and the occasional nap. Halfway though we even got a chance to invade a local Dairy Queen and fill our stomachs with delicious ice cream. With such a big team this year, this trip was a great opportunity for me to get to know some of the new freshmen. Each night in our cabin we cooked dinner and sat around the table swapping stories about our different practices, crazy rowing experiences, and even how we ended up at Bucknell. We laughed at the thought of going from shorts and a T-shirt to more pieces of clothing than you could count on your hand, all in one trip. But as rowers, we came prepared for any and all weather. This variability in temperature and water conditions was good experience, since we won't be back on the water until spring break.
Our last practice to finish off the trip involved the whole team rowing together on the buoyed course. It was great to see all of the boats out there together, as a full team with the 8s filling six lanes across. The coaches briefly explained how the boats would be started in a staggered fashion, and then we were off. Immediately that familiar rush of racing came back to me. After many days of technical and highly focused rowing, it was a great feeling to just let loose and put together everything we had worked on. It was awesome to see how fast each of us had become, and it was still only January. As the coaches mentioned, each boat did a lot of hard work over our 10 training days and made huge improvements, but we cannot assume that we don't have some tough competition and other schools aren't doing the same. So we raced a few short pieces, head to head, to awaken our competitive side and get the adrenaline flowing for the coming spring.
Winter training is one of the harder parts of the year for most rowers because we are away from what we love; the water. I tend to miss the feeling of being in a boat in these cold months, so training trips like this are a great way to get back out there and remind ourselves what we are working towards.
- Emily Ralen '12
