First off I would like to congratulate everyone who competed at the trials. Great work everyone! I only hope that this regatta has inspired you, like it inspired me four years ago to follow your dreams and always have fun!
Congratulations to Ben Barger, who has worked ten years to get here!
Next, I would like to thank all of you who have supported my campaign. Your support, advice, and cheers was exactly what I needed to complete this goal. I couldn't have done it without you! THANK YOU ALL!
Thank you Beth and Greg Winkler for being my mentors, supporters, friends and most importantly for believing in me.
Thanks to ABYC who pulled off a great regatta as always.
Thanks to all the girls in the fleet for cheering me on and being great friends. You really pushed me to do well, and put in a good fight!
Special thanks to Aimee Whalen (for those who don't know Jimi Sobeck's mom) for being my good friend but also my sponsor for the event, providing me with a room and board during the trials.
Now that I am home it has finally sunk in. I won my trials! I have dreamed of this for the past four years. It’s been tough, but it has also been fun. It's great to see that hard work pays off. Trials reminds me that succeeding is only accomplished by learning from your mistakes. Overall I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity. I am happy with my results and my racing. I learned a lot at trials that I will be able to use in training and racing and I am just happy to share this with everyone.
As I look back at racing everyday, the best decisions were made after the first four days of racing. Clearing my head on the rest day allowed me to push myself to get to the top. Reviewing my races daily helped me focus on the good decisions made and mistakes to be prevented.
Now, one half of the work is done, the other half has just begun.
Looking at the calendar I begin planning training days, gym days, rest days, competition days, travel days, fund raising days, all that fun stuff.
My next goal is to qualifying the country for the Games at the Worlds in New Zealand , January 2008.So let the training begin!
