European trials and some thank you's!

Last week we moved training over to my favourite place, Caversham lake.  For those of you who don’t know Caversham (aka Cav/the place where your soul dies) it is a purpose built lake and boat house especially to house GB Rowing.  On the other side of the lake it is also home to a sailing club.  Last week was a good week for the sailing club.   Not so good for us….

We were due to do race at European and U23 trials over the weekend but due to a terrible weather forecast racing was moved a day forward.  However when it came to the semis and finals the wind was really strong and I was dreading a 9 minute race!

My semi went to plan, I managed to get out ahead in the first 500m and sit on my lead the rest of the way down the course.  I did have one ‘Oh S***’ moment when I had wound it down at the end and was so engrossed in the tight race for the remaining spots, that I didn’t realise how quickly they were coming at me!  All I could think was I’m gonna look like right idiot if I have to sprint to the line after paddling in at rate 20! Luckily the line came just in time to save face!

I decided to go with the same plan for the final, get a good start and lead the race from the front.  Sat on the stake boat I was just praying I could get a clean start.  I didn’t….. it was probably one of my worst starts.  However I guess it could have been worse.  One of my competitors in the lane next to me came over into my lane off the start.  All I was thinking was…..s***, I better get the hell out of here before she hits me!! I think this probably gave me a bit of an edge and I had clear water over the field at the 500.  The rest of the race went as I’d hoped and I managed to hold a clear water lead and fend off any pushes from the girls behind me.  I came through to win the race by 7seconds ahead of Georgie Hazell of Reading RC, who put in a good last 500m to just take 2^nd ahead of Pippa Whittaker of Nottingham RC.  You can read some more professional race reports from the weekend here.

On my way to the start at Euro trials with my new lucky visor courtesy of Headsweats :)

As a result of the trials I have been selected to represent GB at the European trials in a double with Erica Bodman, one of my fellow Leander girlies.  We have hit the sponsorship requests hard and have found lots and lots of kind people who have generously donated products to help with our training. 

Many thanks to Hunter Boots, Headsweats, Buff, Solar Sport and Faith in Nature for their support.

Like a kid at Christmas.  Hunter's new union jack wellies :)

Can't wait until winter and I can test all the warm weather gear from Buff

I have also been on a personal mission to find sponsorship.  I am looking for some dollar to help me buy a new boat of the new Olympiad.  Although I have not been lucky finding any money yet I have had lots of support in other ways….and every little bit definitely does help.

Many thanks to TCL Sports, Eat Natural, Sigvaris Sports, Power the machine and Ocado.

feet up resting between races in my Sigvaris Sports compression socks

Lastly a massive thank you to my big bro who has given up his time to build a website for me! It is still not 100% done but www.kstiller.co.uk is live!! Woooo!  So thank you Matt I massively appreciate it!    

The first encounter

So here goes my first blog! I can honestly say that I never saw myself doing this, but then again I can say that about a lot of other things….. "I’ll never wear lycra”, “I’ll never own a pair of crocs”, “I never want to row, it’s so boring!”  Evidently people change.

My Dad and I racing together (both in sunnies).  

My first encounters with rowing do not bring happy memories.  In fact the best word I can use to describe how I remember it, is ‘wet’.  This may seem obvious as rowing is a water sport, however I spent the first couple of years of my ‘rowing life’ on the bank.  It was my brother who took to the sport first.  I was dragged each weekend, by my parents, to a different river bank to stand in the rain and watch the boys thrash past for a few seconds and disappear into the distance.  I never understood (and still don’t) the spectator appeal of a head race.  Evidently my parents were a little more enthusiastic, so much so that they decided to join in and join our local club, Tees RC.  This soon caught on with the other parents and by the summer, every weekend was like another sports day complete with the mothers and fathers race.  Meanwhile, muggins here was left on the bank making daisy chains. 

me and my bro

Eventually I began to feel left out that I was the only household member without a ‘lycra drawer’ and couldn’t join in the conversations about popping blisters and share the devastation of ‘catching a crab’.  I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go.  Luckily all the watching had paid off and I took to it pretty quickly.  In case you are wondering, yes, there has been a full family outing.  But no, there are no photos of it...the evidence has been burnt.

Myself (left), Hannah and Arthur (crouched)

At the beginning of 2003 I won my first race at the junior interregional regatta in a pair.  Later that year I moved to St. Peter’s School, York for my A-levels.  This is where I met Arthur.

Arthur was my first coach.  If I had to describe him in 3 words…..small, welsh, eccentric and welsh.  I have many Arthur stories and will probably refer back to him in future blogs.  But I will share one quick one now though, to illustrate why I think he was the key to my rowing successes....

Arthur was never one to claim he was a technical expert when it came to rowing.  However, he did know how to work us hard!  One afternoon whilst out on the river we were out doing some long race pieces.  Once up to speed, Arthur removed his favourite green fleece (see right) and tied it round the throttle on the launch so it wouldn't move.  He then told me he would keep the launch pointed at the stern of my boat.  I had no doubt he was being deadly serious, if I slowed down I would be crushed!

After leaving school I went on to study at Nottingham University where I rowed at Notts County RA, now known as Nottingham RC.

After one medal at the Junior World Championships and 3 at the U23 world Championships I was selected to be the reserve athlete at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.   I then went on to join the women’s eight at the 2009 World Championships where we finished 5^th. 

Unfortunately I had been suffering with back problems since I was 17 years old and at the end of 2009 they became so bad that I had to take 18 months away from the sport.  I enjoyed my time away from the sport but it wasn’t long before I realised that I was clinically insane.  I missed early mornings, cold weather and long ergos too much. 

I have been back in a boat a year now.  I started training at Leander Club and I have been shocked at how quickly I was able to get back to my old self.  Unfortunately it wasn’t soon enough for this Olympics but I am gunning for Rio, a gold medal and some fiestas!!

Now you know a little about me and where I’ve come from and where I’m hoping to go, I hope you will join me on the rest of my blogging journey!