Finally!

After several hours in city hall, my plates are finally renewed! I spent a fair bit of time here, back in the days when my life revolved around city politics. It was a little strange and bittersweet to be wandering the same halls. I can vividly remember pacing outside the mayor's office, nervously smoothing the front of my suit for the thousandth time, and wondering just how obvious it was that I was only 22. I think I miss that life more than I realize.

video from Colorado

Joel threw together some footage of me working on a ferry in Salida, CO:

http://www.joelmccune.com/node/118

This was about halfway through the trip. When I show up in the blue C1, it is my first time ever in that boat. Getting our love / hate relationahip off to a great start, I ended up with several bruises from the seat which did not fit.

I have actually written a trip report from colorado (including some great pictures) but my laptop hasn't been connected to the interent since I've returned to St. Louis. Hopefully by the end of the week it will all be posted!

get off your stern and paddle

When I am racing slalom, my reaction to instability gets me into trouble. When I feel out of control, I tense up and wait for the boat to stabilize before I continue. The problem is, slalom boats aren't happy when they are going slower than the water. My habit only makes things worse; the water grabs the edges and I loose momentum. What I need to do when I feel unstable is paddle aggressively forward. Getting on the bow, building up speed, and driving ahead will stabilize the boat almost instantly. That needs to become my habit, my gut reaction.

I was thinking about this as I waited in the St. Louis County Department of Revenue office today -- studying the other folks in the room, clutching a little slip printed with "247," which told me I only had 6 people in front of me. My friends know that I have a remarkable ability to procrastinate, often on the things that are most important to me. I think here I also "wait and see" -- when I feel out of control or overwhelmed, my habit is to shy away from the action until I feel better. This doesn't mean I won't jump headlong into big challenges, it just means that sometimes I'm caught sitting back on my stern when things get pushy.

And that's not okay. I don't want to be a "wait and see" boater and I certainly don't want to live my life that way. When things get unstable, I need to be on my bow, looking ahead & driving forward.

Today was rough. I tend to function well when my life is very full, but not *this* full. My to-do list has about 30 pretty urgent things on it. I can get some done online, but no internet at my new house yet. Plus, my laptop needs a new battery, and won't function without the powercord, which is in my car, which is in the shop. Just after fixing the left headlight and blinker, the right goes out, getting me pulled over so the cop can also see my plates are expired. So I spent hours and hours today getting sent from office to office because apparently moving from the county to the city and back while trying to pay personal property taxes is a very dumb idea. And everything I own is still packed in boxes, making the search for my car’s title a small archeological expedition. And my boat leaks. And my shoulders hurt and this really scares me because I’m putting other parts of my life on hold for a sport in which my butt is still getting whooped by 14 year-olds.

Okay, done whining. I needed to vent, and more importantly, crush my blog's image as a "upbeat school newsletter" (Hi, Dave!). Life is actually quite fabulous. Once I am unpacked and get a few nights with a full 8 hours of sleep, constantly-optimistic Laura should be back in full force.

it just doesn't get any better than this

too much to do to spend time typing!

colorado

I made it! Seeing mountains again is incredible.

The course will be challenging for me (two swims today) but a great place to push myself this week.

I'm exhausted & need sleep. But I will have daily internet access, so hopefully race updates won't take to long to post.

Photos from Age Group Nationals!

Thanks to Joel Ness, my clean lines, mistakes, and swims are all well-documented:

• Focusing in on gate 11
• A young C2 team digs together
• Scott and his new Loco head down the course
• and I'm out of the boat
• Hailey launches into 210 drop
• Ready with a right brace
• Hailey plants a graceful bow draw
• My green boat gets a rescue
• the C2 women fire it up
• power through the up
• ready to punch 210 drop
• a good line down tongue drop

View all the photos from the weekend

got those Corolla blues

So my car is well overdue for a new belt and tensioner. Therefore, of course, the part is on back-order nationwide. There is one in Ohio; that's about it.

It should get here and be installed just in time for my drive west, but until then I won't have a car. But I am supposed to be moving to a new house this weekend! And training on the lake out in west county. And helping with sales set-up at REI.

This is not going to be a fun week.

now we're rollin'

Jojo waded into the Carlton reservoir to hold my paddle as I practiced my hipsnaps. About 15 minutes later, I was coming up on my own. I think my brain had reverted back to a kayak roll torso movement, and the c1 is totally different.

While I can get myself up in a lake, trying the roll in whitewater wasn't successful. I think I fight the water too much as I try to set up for the roll -- pushing my paddle and the boat through the current in order to get into the position I am used to starting in. Hopefully I can tune this up over the next week before I head to Colorado.

Here's some video a friend took of me this morning. This one was pretty smooth:




But this try wasn't as successful. You can see how much my boat moves on the water as I set up. When my rolling motion isn't strong and clean, I end up bracing my paddle very deep to get enough leverage to get up:

Age Group Nationals

1st place - C1W (I was the only one in the class)
2nd place - K1W overall (1st in my age group)

On Thursday and Friday, I only trained in my kayak. I never quite got comfortable on the larger drops, and I assumed I'd swim out of my C1 at least once. I thought I would put it off until the milder Buttercup race on Sunday.

Then, Friday night, I had a thought. I was paddling way out on the reservoir, chilling out with the loons and watching the sunset. Registration was closed, and no other women had registered for C1! If I could just make it down the course, I would win the event. I had nothing to loose. If I swam, so be it.



The next morning, I spoke with the race director, Randy, and added C1 to my registration. I am so glad that I did. This felt like my first "real" slalom race. Big, pushy water, really amazing athletes, sexy new composite boats. I am so glad that I pushed myself -- it means I will be one step father along when I get to Golden in a couple of weeks.

Everyday got better -- over the weekend, the water somehow morphed from terrifying to exhilarating; the gates went from impossible to wonderfully challenging. At the Buttercup race on Sunday, Hailey (an amazing 13 year-old from Wisconsin) had a great run in her glass C1, and in our excitement we decided to run C2. We borrowed Pete and Susan's glass C2 and headed back up to the top. We splashed, laughed, and dug deep all the way down the course. Again, I find myself more focused when I am in a boat with another paddler than when I am alone. We cleaned the final drop easily (something I was never able to do in my glass C1) and paddled backwards across the finish line after blowing the last upstream gate. It was a fun run, and we were the only C2W all weekend!

I am inspired. I want this.


A few pictures:

My blue helmet cleans gate 20
Hailey heads towards an upstream gate
The Saint Louis River is a stunning place to paddle
The blue C2 was a little fiesty
The bruising on my right foot showed up again
The UMD training site was a great resource and made me quite jealous
My sleek's toothy grin launched down the river

saint louis, the river

Today was a fun, invigorating, and humbling day.

I ran the upper St. Louis River with three friends in my sleek. It is that north shore, ice-tea colored water. Several big class II wave trains (200 feet of 4 foot waves). Fun to punch through. I played, flipped, and rolled comfortably and consistently. I finally feel like I have the skill base in a kayak to really push myself & have fun (instead of using 90% of my brain to worry about staying right-side up). If only I was at this point in a C1. In someways, I feel like I am starting from the beginning again.

After we took out, Ryan and I hiked down to the put-in for the lower (below the dam) to run the race course. The release was only 600 cfs today; the race will be run at 850-950 cfs. I wonder how much that will change the river features.

I did fine. I leaned forward, paddled hard and blasted cleanly through the hydraulic... and, of course, right by most of the gates. This water is fast and getting to these gates will be a challenge for me in a kayak, much less in my C1. I still don't have my C1 roll, by the way.


Video of the first drop:



I've been watching a lot of C1 slalom video recently. It excites me and I am learning from it -- I can identify good moves and bad moves and explain why some line choices work better than others. Watching these guys (some video here) move through the course with precision and strength almost makes it seem easy. I can visualize myself making those same moves.

And then I get on the lower St. Louis - fast current, deep holes, big waves - and suddenly I am amazed that anyone can do a clean run through these gates. I feel uncoordinated, weak, and overwhelmed. I have so much work to do.

But I know what is possible, even if I am a long way off from it. I may not make all of the gates in my C1 this week, but I have four days to try hard. And I will leave this race as a better paddler. One more step towards where I want to be.

No internet access over the weekend, I'll post race reports on tuesday!