Hey there guys, so yesterday I went to Worcester Regatta and I had two races. The first race was at 10:00 with my partner Ellen, during the race both us and the opponent were neck and neck so we had to keep pushing until the very end and when we finished no one knew who won! So we sat confused and asking everyone who won, and it turns out that it went to the opponent by less than 3 feet. So we lost that one. The next race I had was with Becky and that was at 13:15 in the J17 category where before I had raced J16 so I was racing a year above my age. We started and we soon found that the boat didn't feel to well and my blades kept getting stuck in the water and I thought that was it, we weren't going to win. But we kept going and kept persevering and the bell rang and I knew it was for us as I could see the opponent in front of me. I screamed "Yes!!" and it felt amazing!! Everyone was congratulating us and I've finally won a race! Me and Becky got through to the semi finals and were against Worcester and the girls were highly rated,a lot of nerves and pressure was on for this race and if we rowed like we did last time we'd have no chance! We lined up and the umpire said the calls (Way to quickly) and we were off and from that moment I knew it was gonna be like last time. My blades were getting stuck again and we were falling behind. We kept trying but it wasn't enough the other girls won by about 1 length and a half. And I had to do all these races with an infected hand!!
And today is the day I've been rowing for 1 whole year!! I'm so happy because I always wanted to win a race before my 1 year anniversary and I did so I'm delighted. I love rowing and racing it makes all the hard work worth it when you finally get that win! Sadly I'm having to have time off for my hand to heal and get better but I'll be out again soon hopefully.
That was just a little update on what I've been up to this weekend and let me know what your doing or have done this weekend. Thanks for reading guys, byyeee! x
Showing posts with label racing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racing. Show all posts
Sunday, 8 September 2013
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
Girls and Sport? ...
Hey there guys, now the other day I saw an advert or a segment of the news on the tv about girls around the ages of 13 - 18, i think it was, who don't participate in sport. I'm nearly 16 and I was thinking abut how much sport I do, those of you who have read my blog before know that I do a lot of Rowing and that is my main sport and passion within sport, but I also love swimming and play netball and rounders at school. When I was in year 7, so first year at high school, I really didn't want to take part in sport, but I found myself doing Judo and I did this for around 2 years and graded once as there were limited girls there and I felt uncomfortable "fighting" against lads that were much bigger and stronger than me. So I decided to give it up, but it was still a chapter in my life that I won't forget.
Now don't get me wrong I love doing my hair and looking all nice and fancy but honestly girls you don't have to look your best 24/7, it's not worth it. The other day I was walking home and I remembered when I was around 12 that I thought I had to wear jewelry all the time and I specifically remember a time when I was meeting my friend to just hang outside and I put all my nice clothes on just to walk around!! How crazy is that like to me now it's ridiculous and I'm a little embarrassed that I did that but that's what life is about I guess. But anyway getting back to the news story on telly, they were interviewing Jessica Ennis and asking her why she thought girls weren't doing enough sport and she said that when your younger you don't want to look all hot and sweaty and red faced at school especially if you have p.e in the morning you have to be like that all day, which is fair enough I mean I understand after all I am a girl.
They said that only 20% of girls aged between 13 -18 played sport! That to me seems incredibly low and I'm proud to say that I am part of that 20% because exercise is good for you, and I mean I hate running and football but I love other types of sports too, that's the great part is that there's so many different kinds of sports out there you just have to find which one suits you best. If I could say one thing to girls it would be " To not always care about looking your best and to find a sport that interests you and give it a go! Seriously it could change the way you see sport and sportsmen and women themselves and make you feel good about yourselves".
I have learned that as I got older I started to enjoy sport more, and when I was younger I felt like sport was just for smaller skinnier girls who could run fast and were built that way but I was so wrong and look at me now, competing for my club all around the country. If someone had told me last year that I'd be racing in Rowing I wouldn't of believed them but I've surprised myself so much in the last 10 months than I ever thought I would, and the thing that inspired me to join was the Olympics in London 2012. So there's the legacy they always talk about.
So anyway I'm gonna stop rambling on and go, thanks for reading this and I hope more young girls like myself try new sports and things and get involved, byyeee x
Now don't get me wrong I love doing my hair and looking all nice and fancy but honestly girls you don't have to look your best 24/7, it's not worth it. The other day I was walking home and I remembered when I was around 12 that I thought I had to wear jewelry all the time and I specifically remember a time when I was meeting my friend to just hang outside and I put all my nice clothes on just to walk around!! How crazy is that like to me now it's ridiculous and I'm a little embarrassed that I did that but that's what life is about I guess. But anyway getting back to the news story on telly, they were interviewing Jessica Ennis and asking her why she thought girls weren't doing enough sport and she said that when your younger you don't want to look all hot and sweaty and red faced at school especially if you have p.e in the morning you have to be like that all day, which is fair enough I mean I understand after all I am a girl.
They said that only 20% of girls aged between 13 -18 played sport! That to me seems incredibly low and I'm proud to say that I am part of that 20% because exercise is good for you, and I mean I hate running and football but I love other types of sports too, that's the great part is that there's so many different kinds of sports out there you just have to find which one suits you best. If I could say one thing to girls it would be " To not always care about looking your best and to find a sport that interests you and give it a go! Seriously it could change the way you see sport and sportsmen and women themselves and make you feel good about yourselves".
I have learned that as I got older I started to enjoy sport more, and when I was younger I felt like sport was just for smaller skinnier girls who could run fast and were built that way but I was so wrong and look at me now, competing for my club all around the country. If someone had told me last year that I'd be racing in Rowing I wouldn't of believed them but I've surprised myself so much in the last 10 months than I ever thought I would, and the thing that inspired me to join was the Olympics in London 2012. So there's the legacy they always talk about.
So anyway I'm gonna stop rambling on and go, thanks for reading this and I hope more young girls like myself try new sports and things and get involved, byyeee x
Sunday, 23 June 2013
Going to watch The World Championships at Eton Dorney!! .....
Monday, 10 June 2013
Racing at Trentham!!! .....
So in my last post I mentioned that I was going to be racing, well yesterday was the day and I had such a blast! I had to leave my friends house at half past 7 in the morning to be there for 8 'o'clock. We were very very tired and I was very nervous, my race was at 10:29, I know very specific, but that meant that I had to register with all the other girls I was racing with. So we met up at the boats and had a walk around to see where we were and if we could find any of our coaches. At this point it was around half past 8 to 9 o'clock and we bumped into our coaches, we then went to registration and got our number, we were number 68 and Georgia had to have it on her back.
We then had a bit of time to kill so we walked up to watch some of the races and cheer on our fellow club members. The sun had started to come out and it had begun to get very hot! Some of the lads had won their races and we were going to be racing in the same boat that they had used so we were hoping for some luck :).
It was now time to go take our boat down to the water and get ready to paddle up to the starting line, we all got in with Me at Stroke, Chloe at 3, Ellen at 2 and Georgia at Bow. We had a Cox as well, Adam. So we said goodbye and our coaches and everyone wished us luck and we nervously started to paddle down when Adam wasn't sure which way to go and I didn't know either so we just guessed and went down a pathway. Then we felt a bump and was not moving anywhere anymore and then I realized that we had 'crashed' into the bank of sand. Adam didn't go the right way after all. We all tried to get ourselves out but it was no use we were well and truly wedged in. I turned round to find the launch boat very very slowly coming to rescue us. When they eventually got to us they through a rope and tried to pull us out, but we were too wedged in and we didn't move, so one of the men resulted to getting out and pulling us himself. This then meant that we were slightly late for our race and had to paddle faster than we would've liked. We were very grateful to the people who helped us!
When eventually got to the starting line we were told to line up but the umpire was talking through a megaphone and I couldn't hear a thing he was saying so it was very difficult and added to my already ton of nerves. We were lined up and ready to start, he shouted " Come forward, attention.... GO!" as soon as I heard that my nerves went and I was focused and ready to go, rowing as hard we could making sure our technique and rate was good we rowed down the course. Our opponent was in the lead which made me nervous and determined to beat them. The race was 750 meters but it felt like forever! One of our coaches was running down the side of the bank and I could hear him cheering us on, this helped me loads and I pushed as hard as I possibly could. You don't realize how fast it is and when you mess up it can cost you the race, luckily we didn't mess up but we weren't fast enough and our opponent won the race. We were 4 lengths behind but we didn't mind because it was our first ever race and we wanted to get experience, although it would've been nice to have won :).
When we finished we congratulated our opponent and paddled back the side to get out of the boat. My arms were really hurting and I was very tired, we'd raced so well and we were all very proud of ourselves and now we're more determined to win the next time we race. Sadly there weren't many pictures taken because I was so busy rowing and cheering everyone on that I forgot to take photos but I have one to show you guys what we looked like :)
Thank you so much for reading this, I had such an amazing day yesterday and although we didn't win We were all very proud :) bye x
We then had a bit of time to kill so we walked up to watch some of the races and cheer on our fellow club members. The sun had started to come out and it had begun to get very hot! Some of the lads had won their races and we were going to be racing in the same boat that they had used so we were hoping for some luck :).
It was now time to go take our boat down to the water and get ready to paddle up to the starting line, we all got in with Me at Stroke, Chloe at 3, Ellen at 2 and Georgia at Bow. We had a Cox as well, Adam. So we said goodbye and our coaches and everyone wished us luck and we nervously started to paddle down when Adam wasn't sure which way to go and I didn't know either so we just guessed and went down a pathway. Then we felt a bump and was not moving anywhere anymore and then I realized that we had 'crashed' into the bank of sand. Adam didn't go the right way after all. We all tried to get ourselves out but it was no use we were well and truly wedged in. I turned round to find the launch boat very very slowly coming to rescue us. When they eventually got to us they through a rope and tried to pull us out, but we were too wedged in and we didn't move, so one of the men resulted to getting out and pulling us himself. This then meant that we were slightly late for our race and had to paddle faster than we would've liked. We were very grateful to the people who helped us!
When eventually got to the starting line we were told to line up but the umpire was talking through a megaphone and I couldn't hear a thing he was saying so it was very difficult and added to my already ton of nerves. We were lined up and ready to start, he shouted " Come forward, attention.... GO!" as soon as I heard that my nerves went and I was focused and ready to go, rowing as hard we could making sure our technique and rate was good we rowed down the course. Our opponent was in the lead which made me nervous and determined to beat them. The race was 750 meters but it felt like forever! One of our coaches was running down the side of the bank and I could hear him cheering us on, this helped me loads and I pushed as hard as I possibly could. You don't realize how fast it is and when you mess up it can cost you the race, luckily we didn't mess up but we weren't fast enough and our opponent won the race. We were 4 lengths behind but we didn't mind because it was our first ever race and we wanted to get experience, although it would've been nice to have won :).
When we finished we congratulated our opponent and paddled back the side to get out of the boat. My arms were really hurting and I was very tired, we'd raced so well and we were all very proud of ourselves and now we're more determined to win the next time we race. Sadly there weren't many pictures taken because I was so busy rowing and cheering everyone on that I forgot to take photos but I have one to show you guys what we looked like :)
Thank you so much for reading this, I had such an amazing day yesterday and although we didn't win We were all very proud :) bye x
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