USA Canoe/Kayak Trials weekend

Results can be found elsewhere.  Congratulations to the folks that I know/have heard made teams - Ross boys, Kaitlyn, Maggie, Farran, Alison, Austin, Ryan, and probably a couple of others!

My friends in Oklahoma City tell me the wind always blows there, but in the past few years of being down there, it hasn't been quite so noticeable, nor so obstinately across the course.  It made Toli's 2nd place dead heat with Gavin all the more impressive, since he's an international and gets stuck with lane 9 on the outside edge!

Murphy proved to have a ready hand again, hanging the actuator on lane 9 at the 200m line.  This meant no boats used the gates, and really put pressure on the officials to get the starts off quickly - which they really did. I've some small amount of experience as a starter in other sports, and I was impressed by the calm demeanor and great control on the line.

The announcer really needed to spend a little time with the Hawaiian contingent and learn pronunciation of names - including a number of mainlanders as well. But by and large, he did fine, and a couple of people probably have new nicknames as a result.

So lots of racing, lots of wind, and a fair amount of sun.  The left side of my face and neck is noticeably redder than the right side.  

One of the great things about this trip was that I had no real responsibilities.  One of my athletes was there, but since she was competing in the club races on Saturday instead of Trials, I had no pressure and could visit with people and pay attention to a lot of external things instead of focusing on my club, which can sometimes feel like you are this guy:

I did make a few excursions into the entertainment side of Oklahoma City.  A little setup is in order here.  OKC is the possibly the reddest city in the reddest state in the country.  Mostly it's conservative, and you'd figure there isn't a tax they generally wouldn't want to kill.  But, they have a civic pride that seems to have overcome the reluctance to be taxed for things like ballparks, convention centers, boathouses, rowing and kayaking venues, a whitewater park.  This stuff is all paid for before it's built!  So why does this matter to me?  20 years or so ago, I was in downtown OKC for a day - seemed a whole lot longer...  And I must say, I understand the imagery from Grapes of Wrath, Last Picture Show and other films get their inspiration.  Dusty, decaying and depressing.  But they have brought OKC around to where, while I don't want to live there, I do enjoy visiting!

Downtown has really done a job of rehabbing a lot of the old, and inbuilding new - preserving a lot of the character while still featuring the new and vibrant areas.  Bricktown has a feel very similar to San Antonio's River Walk - bars, restaurants and shops bordering a mile long promenade and canal (complete with tour boats).   There's a botanical garden/conservatory that has lots of street fest type vendors, all sorts of other goings on, and then there's the American Banjo Museum.  I know - lots of folks think *all* banjos should be in museums, but I like them.  I was blown away by the variety and particularly by the glitz that went into early 20th century instruments.  

Food was decidedly not part of my trip this time.  Cafe Kacao, which is _the_ spot for breakfast doesn't open until 8:00, and since we needed to be at the venue at 7:30...  Fuzzy's Tacos is always dependable, and Earl's BBQ isn't bad, but it's just OK.  Dinner was covered nicely by my friend's mom, who was in town to run the marathon on Sunday after trials.  Awesome cooking, Ms M!

And there I was - kidnapped by a bunch of pretty good looking paddlers, dragged off to a bar called Cowboys, which offered 25 cent domestics and bull riding shows at 11:00 and 12:30.  And dancing.  Well, some people danced.  My wife puts up with me, but she won't let me do two things in public - play basketball, and dance.  And there's a pretty good reason for it.  I mean really - N - sorry about the toes, but I did warn you I danced worse than this guy:

Thanks again to my good friends who let me couch surf, made me drink cheap beer and tried in vain to teach me to dance.  It was a pleasure and a fun weekend - we'll do it again.  Mi casa, su casa.

USA Canoe/Kayak Coaches Conference

Another year, another ski race missed due to the annual coaching conference!  Not a big deal.  I know my personal interests have shifted from coaching and racing XC to more single focus on coaching paddlers.

This year's conference was split into a coule of major areas for me: Paracanoe, Physiology/psychology of racing, and technique.  And some sessions on the what's going on with USA Canoe/Kayak, the OKC venue and such.  All good stuff, and well worth attending.  I only found a couple of sessions hard to stay focused, and that was more an issue with me fighting the back side of bad URI.

So to accentuate the positives:
The always impressive Dr Neil Fleming of Ireland and Indiana on energy systems and matching training for different events.  Neil is a great speaker, and understands paddling from an athlete's point of view.
Shaun Spanbauer, USOC nutritionist on eating for competition. Pretty basic nutritional stuff if you've been around coaching for a while, but it was nice to see his talk reinforce the same points Neil made - and Neil challenged him a couple of times as well - it made for really good dialog, not lively debate.  Bottom line - as a junior, supplements will do a lot less for you than focused training.
Good presentations by OKC staff strength coach and psychologist.

Best presentation of the conference for me was Megan Blunk, a paracanoe athlete who won two silver medals at Worlds last year.  Megan is a typical college student athlete, she just happens to be in a chair.  She plays hoops for Illinois (and Team USA), and paddles for Gig Harbor (and Team USA). She gave her first ever public speech to the group, and while certainly not a hostile crowd, it took a lot to get up there and essentially bare her soul to an audience.   I was moved to tears.  She is an amazing young woman.

And a big Mahalo to everyone who came, presented or helped set this up. It takes a lot of work to do so, and I'm glad to have been there.

Lowlights:
Having a hacking cough wears you out, so I passed on stepping out for drinks and socializing after work.  It was already late, and the noise level in Toby Keith's is absurd most of the time.

Airport food:
The good - Cheese Steak at Charley's Philly Grill - actually, quite good.  Well seasoned, cooked to order. Fries were perfect. Service was quick and friendly.
The bad - Salt Lick in OKC main terminal.  I've eaten at multiple Salt Lick locations over the years, including at the Austin airport.  Salt Lick does brisket and sausage pretty well, and pretty consistently.  This is definitely an outlier.  Warmish meat, limp fries, mediocre service.  I'll go to Schlotzky's next time.

OKC - I'll do a whole post sometime on how I became a huge booster of Oklahoma City.  Oklahoma is the reddest of the red, and yet they have levied civic improvement taxes on themselves 3 consecutive times.  This has built the convention center, arena, minor league ball park, downtown improvements, parks, the boathouse district - and all paid for the day each item breaks ground.
This year  permanent, retractable lane markers and buoys. Lighting and audio improvements, better scoreboard, improved access.  Lots of 'icing on the cake' items before Marathon Worlds in September.
Next year - opening of the Whitewater Center!!! Directly adjacent to the flatwater course, it'll be the only such venue in the world.  That will add a new restaurant, venue building, and other cool amenities.