Nov. 14, 2007

I have never seen a group of 30 girls so excited for something in my entire life. Leading up to The Head of the Occoquan, I really don't think we talked about anything else other than the race. We wanted to know all about it. We asked our coaches so many questions: "Define Regatta." "How many boats are we racing against?" "Are you sure we're ready for this?" What we didn't realize was that no matter how much information our coaches gave us, we really wouldn't know what it would be like to race until we did it.

When we got to Virginia, it finally sank in. Seeing all of the different teams there, with everyone unloading their trailers and rigging their boats made me realize that we were actually racing. What we had been working towards since the end of August was finally there. It felt so good to be a part of a team again. When I came to Bucknell, I thought that team camaraderie was something that I would have to give up since I wasn't planning on playing a sport. I feel so lucky to be a part of novice crew. Representing my school with a team that I love was an experience that I will never forget, and cannot wait to repeat.

The race went so well, better than any of us could have imagined when we first stepped into boats at the end of August. Back then, rowing in fours seemed an incredibly daunting task. If you had told us then that in a couple of months we would not only be rowing with all eight together, but be racing (and beating) other boats, we would have never believed you.

The race itself was awesome. After the initial chaos and confusion of the starting line, we began rowing and settled into our groove. Hearing the intensity in our coxswain's voice, I could feel all of the girls in my boat rowing with focus and rowing for each other, and it was so cool to be a part of that. Together we powered to the finish and once we were done, immediately passed high fives back to the bow and back up to the stern. When we were carrying our boat back up to the trailer we found out that we had placed third out of 21 boats. That awesome feeling got even better when back at the trailer we found out that our other two boats had placed sixth and eighth...pretty amazing for our first race ever!

- Sarah O'Laughlin '11