Wrapping Up

What a trip! We made it safely back to Boston on Monday night after another full 26+ hours of travel, although traveling east meant that we landed in Boston approximately 2 hours later than we took off (according to the date/time of day).

So my previous post was written the night before our final. In terms of the racing itself, I have mixed feelings about it. It's natural to want a better result/performance, so in that sense I can't deny my disappointment. There weren't lofty medal expectations placed upon us by anyone else, or even ourselves (of course it's a goal, however), but we did have intentions of being in the hunt with a good piece. So, our 6th place (of 6) placement isn't a huge shock, but I expected and wanted to be closer to the field. In hindsight, there are certainly aspects of our preparation and planning that could've been improved, but I would not call them excuses as every athlete/team could improve something. Had everything gone perfectly for us from Trials through Worlds, we likely could've been around Brasil (5th place), but no better than that. It was a class field, and if you had told me before the race that we could beat the Italians (reigning World Champs and holders of 18 of 20 all time titles in this event) and STILL not medal, I would've laughed. So, I'm leaving not quite satisfied but with a clear conscience knowing we did what we could do on the day. All credit to the Germans who won the LM4x. It's also worth noting that almost every athlete (save for 1 member of the LM2- who still finished 5th in the A final) of the men/women German lwt squad won at least 1 medal in NZ. Phew!

After the racing, I joined Brian and our fan club who traveled across the Pacific to watch us race for a home-cooked meal (that we prepared ourselves!). The next morning (Sunday), I went tubing underground in the Waitomo Caves before catching finals in the afternoon. The trading pit formed in the boat yard sometime in the afternoon, and even though I arrived late, there were a few interesting items I picked up despite the seemingly flooded stock of US gear in the market. There was an athletes party in downtown Hamilton on Sunday evening, which seemed to start in several bars and gravitated towards "The Outback" in the center of town - it had a cowboy theme but the stages, tables, lighting, and dance music all suggested full tilt party.

On Monday, we drove up to Auckland to check out the Viaduct Harbor area (similar to Boston's Faneuil Hall, except bigger) before catching our 7:30pm flight back to LAX.

Thank you to everyone at RBC, friends & family, teammates, co-workers, chat board stalkers, who supported this trip and followed me and the fellas during our time in NZ. It was the experience of a lifetime, and I'm forever grateful. This blog helped me feel connected to folks back home, and made the experience richer and more enjoyable...not to mention it killed a bunch of time and prevented boredom from becoming a disease. I look forward to following your stories in the future!

Pete

Photos in this post:

- Outside the Wyndham Hotel in Princeton, before US Trials. That seems so long ago.

- An America's Cup Yacht from 1987 (NZ lost to the USA that year)

- Riverside Lane: road sign on the walk from the course, over the dam (Karapiro is man made in the sense that it's created because of the dam), to the B&B where the fan club of the Moms, Lib, and Pam stayed.

- View from the dam down to the hydroelectric power plant below.

- Some kid watching racing on her Dad's shoulders

- In the Auckland airport, I temporarily lost Brian and Matt, and snapped this shot from afar of them blowing the last of their NZ dollars on chocolate. Fitting.

Videos:

- From the afterparty!