It's All About Me...

Second Day at the Regional

I just got back to the hotel after our second day at the Regional. Yesterday, I got to the venue around 9 am to help take boats off the trailer. Throughout the day, I watched some of the races, read my book, listened to some music and helped with getting oars to and from races for other crews.

My first race was not until the end of the day. We were in a mixed eight and there was no heat for that event. We came 4th in a race with 7 boats and I don’t think we were even close to fighting for 3rd. We were disappointed, but that was how things worked out.

Our tent was next to the Green Lake Rowing Club’s and as I was sitting there (for the most of the day), I noticed that one of the rowers at that club looked very familiar. And sure enough, when I went up to her to check, she turned out to be one of Dan’s family friends, Javiera. Dan’s parents and the parents of Javiera (the Verdugos) have been very close friends; the Verdugo girls and the Kogan boys spent many summers and vacations together when they were growing up. In fact, we are in the process of coordinating with the Verdugos to have a get-together at our house since all of them live in the Seattle area. So that was a pleasant surprise.

Today, my first race was just after 8 am in one of the women’s four; there were 3 heats and the first 2 in each heat advanced to the final. We came last in our heat, so there was no advancement for us. We rowed that line-up once at practice and had a totally magical rowing experience once we got the kinks out. Unfortunately, we were unable to re-create that moment for the race.

My second race today was another mixed eight; it was a good line-up and we were very close to the boat in front of us. If we were able to move up a few more seats, we would have come 3rd; but no such luck. So we were 4th again in the event.
I have one more event tomorrow; the heat is before 8 am. If we advance, the final will be after 3pm; if not, I will be done will be done with all my races. I may just head home and then return to the boathouse to help unload tomorrow evening.

I am not too tired from the races at all, but the heat is something else! It will be way over 30˚C tomorrow… and I think it was quite close to that today. Thank goodness for the nice big tent and lots of water and Gatorade!

posted by Anne-Gigi @ 5:47 PM 0 comments

First Day at the Regional

I arrived in Vancouver, WA, yesterday evening for this year’s NW Masters Regional. This is the first time I attend the Regional, so I am a bit nervous. Everyone said that it is a lot of fun and one of the goals (besides winning) is to be in as many races as possible. I am in 4 events, a couple of which have heats. I thought that was quite a bit, but I guess not so: many people have 6 and some have quite a few more.

Last time I drove down to Portland, OR, it took me just over 2 hours; so I was quite surprised that it took me 4 hours to get here! The traffic on I-5 near Tacoma was a real drag!! I am staying at the Quality Inn like many other people from the club and despite the fact that it is an older hotel, the room is clean and HUGE! It is a studio apartment with a real fridge, stove and oven plus microwave!

My first race is not until the end of the day; in fact, it is the last race of the day! I guess I could have come this morning instead, but it is nice to relax a bit before the race. I have brought my book, iPod and my camping chair, so I can just park myself at the tent and help out as needed. I also met up with a few others for dinner last night and it was good to socialize with people I see 3 times a week and work together as a team. Time to head out for breakfast and then off to the grocery store to get a few things.

posted by Anne-Gigi @ 6:58 AM 0 comments

First Post After a Long Absence

Today would have been Pepper’s 15-year-old birthday if he were still with us. I can’t believe it has been almost 15 years since we welcome that ball of energy into our home in Hong Kong. In memory of him (I used to take Pepper to Buntzen Lake on the Mondays I had off) and also as part of my latest quest to explore local hiking trails (Issaquah is the Trailhead City after all!), I took Gander to the Talapus Lake Trail not too far off Exit 45 of I-90. I originally wanted to go all the way to Ollalie Lake as well, but soon after we left Talapus, the trail became less distinct, especially due to the snow on the ground; since I am not an experienced hiker and have a poor sense of direction (even though I know all I have to do if all else fails is to start heading down), we turned around and had a 2 ½-hour hike instead of a 4-hour hike. It was a fairly easy hike; in fact, at times, it felt more like a walk in the woods than a hike. The climb is pretty gradual and the trail was well-maintained. I was disappointed that there was no good access to the lake, but Gander managed to go for a dip in one of the streams flowing out of the lake, so he was happy. He also enjoyed a romp in the snow.

I recently started reviewing books for Armchair Interviews (http://www.armchairinterviews.com/) and am currently reading the third book they sent me. The first 2 books were not that great, but this one is quite good so far. I already received the 4th book in the mail the other day and instead of being a mystery/thriller which I prefer, I agreed to review what sounded like chiclit. As much as I hate to judge a book by it’s cover, the design is pretty tacky… I mean, there is chiclit and there is chiclit-wannabe. I won’t know until I have read it to decide which this one belongs to… I felt kind of bad that the first two books I read for AI got (at best) mediocre review, but the editor of the site was happy about them, and even asked me to write something about myself so that they could post it on their newsletter… So I guess being honest about crappy books works for me…

I will be attending my first Masters Regional later this month. I will be in 4 races…. With heats and, hopefully, finals, I will be pretty dead by the end of the weekend. But I am looking forward to that nonetheless.

Well, got to get on with the book…

posted by Anne-Gigi @ 4:32 PM 0 comments