new arrivals, nature walk, the draw, and a bit of rowing

This morning was our last opportunity to row the entire race course at full pressure. Our workout was two full trips down the course rowing at 26spm and we kind of dropped the ball on both. The focus wasn't there and we let the Cornell lightweight 8, with whom we were doing the pieces, walk all over us (in addition to a harmless run in with the boom). Coach Lamb talked to us after the workout about what we needed to do to win the regatta: "Be ourselves". So without giving it more thought than it needed we decided not to dwell on the practice and go about our day.
We decided that it was time to take a nice nature walk and find a secret field that some mount girls had told us about, located right off of the Coleman's road. We ventured along a wooded trail until we emerged into a huge sloping hill of grass overlooking a small town and other such hills. Straight out of The Sound of Music, we started to frolic and run about the hill, watching the cows grazing not too far away (evidence of their presence in the feild can be seen on Kyle's shoe).
After going back to the house, Kyle, Jim and John Votta decided that their thirst for nature was not yet quenched. Fitted with jeans and a bucket they decided to trek down to the very bottom of the Coleman's backyard and crawl and forage through bushes and bramble-almost emerging onto the very active cricket pitch- for rogue golfballs hit from the nearby driving range. Their valiant effort was rewarded by a huge bucket filled with what had to be over 200 balls. We spent some time hitting these balls right back to where they had found them with a wooden baseball bat before heading off to watch the draw.
After a pleasant walk through town, we arrived at the town hall, where it seemed everyone from the boat tents had packed in and were watching carefully as names were being pulled out of a cup. We were chosen as one of the top seeds and drew Cheltenham for the first round. After we left town hall we took a walk down to the ice cream stand by the river and sat and enjoyed a frozen treat. Then we went back to the Coleman's for a delicious dinner of porkchops, carrots and potatoes followed by trays of brownies. Croquet followed, and soon we were off to bed.

sincerely,
the prep V8

The prep v8 is currently listening to:
Kate Nash- Foundations
Lily Allen- Smile
The Streets- Fit but you know it