Head of the Miss Regatta - Minneapolis, MN

We left for Minneapolis at 5:30 in the morning. We had to wait for a while before our boats got there since Susan's dad was pulling them. Then we got them ready and I went to the cox meeting. I was super nervious because these were going to be my first races ever!!! That also means that I should be thrown in the river today as well, so that's also keeping me on pins and needles. After my parents got there it was time for my first race, the Women's Open 4. We launched on time and headed up river. It is a lot harder to stear in a river but I got the hang of it after a while. We got to the start with plenty of time and headed for the starting line, and then we were off! The girls did a good job of staying together and keeping the boat set (very important for a crew boat.) It was a beautiful day and I was actually quite hot will all of the layers I had on. The girls finished the race strong and then we got the boat back into the shore. My next race was suppose to be the Men's Open 8, but we had a broken boat so we couldn't race two 8s at the same time so I was coxing a Novice Mixed 8 in the Men's race. I was suppose to launch almost right away so I ducted behind an SUV and got rid of all of my extra layers and went down to my uniform and jacket, much better in the head! This was going to be an interesting race because six of my eight rowers had never rowed in a race before let alone all 8 during practice, so that was interesting. Aaron was my stroke seat which helped because he could tell me what to do since he has rowed a lot before and even with Boston College. My cox box actually went out before the race started which could have been a huge problem, but it was working again just in time. These guys did pretty well too, but didn't react to my commands and comments as well as the girls did, which sort of because a problem because we were getting a lot closer to bouys in the river than we should have. Needless to say that we didn't hit any of the bouys and finished the race. They were a lot more tired than the girls and I felt bad for Aaron for having to row with them since is he definatly an open rower. It was only 2 or so, but everyone was exhausted! Ok, so here's the deal, when a cox coxes their first race there are suppose to be thrown in by their crew after the race but, I was not thrown in the river here because it was really gross and people were busy putting away everything, but I think it might be coming sometime this week at practice. Then I headed home with my parents and we ate out at Houlihan's, which was really good! Then I spent the night at home.