Post Race Wrap: The heat & how we scored

As I lay back here on my bed I am awash with feelings and thoughts. Our heat went well and yet I am strangely dissatisfied. I can't really explain why but I think its got to do with knowing the battles that lay ahead. Its the challenge of the Games to stay with the moment as everything and everyone keeps pulling your attention forward to the next moments. I guess I know whats ahead in terms of effort required and of intensity of racing. Its hard not to think about the days ahead but again all the matters is what we do now. So I lay here in bed and pen a few words as I find it brings me back and helps me reflect before moving on again.

The heat went well. We didn't start initially fast, but were good from 200m to 700m. Actually a huge cross wind hit us about 4 strokes in and I thought we were going to be blown out of our lane it was amazing. The crews around us jumped well as we expected but the good thing was we stayed clear and worked our boat speed and rhythm. The conditions were challenging with cross tail wind but its what we expected. Once we got clear it was great to be able to get a feel for the course under race conditions with the crowd. The energy is amazing and quiet uplifting. Our place in the heat has us go straight through to the semi finals on Thur which is great. The back end of the race was nothing special as we just worked to hold speed will doing it easier. When we cross it felt great as now we can really enjoy whats ahead as semi racing can often be the closest of the event.

Post race we check out result sheets and a bit of video. We have discussed our perspectives on the performance and to me its clear we we need to improve and the gains which we have to lock into. As for our competitors obviously the other crew directly though to the semis went well. A few surprises with some up and some down but as we expected GB are looking very sharp winning heat 2. The USA looked polished too and very comfortable as the other winners in heat 3. 

Today I think we raced well and dealt with the event atmosphere well. It only gets bigger from here and I feel we are all looking forward to the build up to the peak. For now I will rest and we will go about our preparations as we have planned. Its exciting to have our first race down and tonight I am sure I will sleep well after this first hit out. 

**Interesting thing to note today

Today Josh scored.. Let me explain. At the start a bottle in the water blew across into our lane. Will in the bow skilfully scooped it up with his blade and slide his shaft in until he could reach the bottle from his tip. He then did a flick pass to Chappo, who then kicked in on to me and I set Josh up with a great assist. He then did his best Andrew Gaze impression from out at the three point line to hit only net as the boat hold held our boat and net on a stick to enable him to drill his shot. All this just moments before we started. No wonder we were slow in the first 10 strokes we were all basking in the glory of our team effort and obvious score board pressure before the buzzer sounded.