The lead in to...

After years of anticipation we are just days away from the beginning of the biggest athletic event of my life. Everyone has been asking, “are you excited”& “what’s it like”?

First let me take you back a few weeks. Al Morrow, our coach, has been to seven Olympic games and has had numerous successful crews along the way, so I have total faith in our program and his ability to lead us to a peak performance. I mentioned in my last e-mail that we were reaching a point where all the hard work was done and we were entering the fine tuning phase. Okay, I may have been wrong about the hard work thing…little did I know then that we were about to enter another loading (aka. Killer) phase…never the less, I am happy to report that we survived! One by 2000m will be easy after what we've just been through in practices.

Aside from the workouts, I have to say that Al was brilliant in his approach to our mental preparation & getting us ready for what we are about to experience here in Beijing . A few times a week the three of us (Mel, Al and I) would sit down at the breakfast table and have a round table discussion. It was during these breakfast talks that the excitement began to mount for me; topics included beliefs (about ourselves & our competitors), incentives, and how to maintain the positive energy and keep it fun (one of my favorites)! It never failed….after every meeting my step was a little lighter….and I became more and more excited about heading to the start line.

Fast forward; we’ve made it! We have settled into our hotel; we aren’t staying in the village as our venue is an hour drive outside of the city. Since we arrived early we’ve been able to create an environment at the venue where it feels like our home turf. So already we feel very comfortable in our surroundings and its back to business as usual! Despite being removed from the “main hub” in the city we made the trek into the village on Sunday, so we were able to experience a bit of the magic that makes the Olympics different from any other regatta….but that is a story for tomorrow.

Have a great day! Cheers, Tracy