As it draws nearer to the day, let´s hear from stroke Henry Macphillamy about his thoughts as the final approaches:

Well, as a crew we have trained long and hard for this moment, and now we’re here, ready and revving to get down to the business end of things. I think that a good performance in the heat on Monday was crucial for us. We knew how well we can row together in training and in time trials. Racing at the world championships on the other hand, with all the pressure and excitement they entail is a whole new ball game entirely.

For me it was my first real race in the four. During every other time trial we have done it has just been us and the clock. A clock is a fixed inanimate object that you can neither touch hear or see. In the heat and repechage you could hear the incoherent screeches of the other Cox’s and the thud of powerful strokes in the lanes adjacent to you. You know that these crews are doing everything they possibly can to mow you down with every stroke they take. You can let their presence intimidate you, or you can use them to enhance your own performance.

For the best part of the last four months, the five of us have worked together as a crew. Our times got progressively faster and faster until we (and others) considered ourselves worthy of representing our country. It hasn’t been easy for any of us, and in not just in terms of training sessions! As we head in to the last few days and training rows before our final race here, I think back to all the work which we have done to get to this point.

Not only the work we have put in as a crew, but also those who have supported and encouraged us. If someone had told me that I would be in the a final at the rowing world championships this time last year, I probably would have laughed at them! There have been many times in my life that I haven’t backed myself where others have, and nowhere could this be truer than in rowing. I’ve been lucky in meeting coaches like Simon, Tony, Linda, Stuart and Sue who have given up their time and shared their experience and passion for the sport with me. I’ve got an awesome family who have done everything from giving me lifts to training (both in peak hour and stupidly early hours of the morning), travelling half way around the world to support me (and take in the sites), walk and feed my mongrel of a dog while I’m away, send me ‘harden the f**k up messages, and of course, get laughs out of the numerous Facebook photos I have found myself in throughout the adventure. Relatives, all my mates, and I could go on and on!

Now is the time to back ourselves and each other as a crew. We have put in the work, and we know that we are more than capable of racing a good race. Of course I want to win a medal here as I’m sure we all do. The most satisfying feeling however will come from finishing that race, and knowing that we could not have possibly put more in to it than we did. I can’t wait for Saturday to arrive, and I can’t wait to celebrate with a very cold beer (or ten).

You can watch the action of the world rowing championships, complete with live streaming, at www.worldrowing.com. Watch out for the LTA4 final with our very own green and gold.

As we follow Carol Cooke’s personal journey, and following on from our previous post ‘When five become one‘ Carol shares with us a little about her motivation and how she has spent the past 11 years, believing in the impossible.

For the past few days I have been running around like “a chook with its head cut off”! Trying to get things done before we head to Penrith for our staging camp.

Now that I am sitting down to catch my breath it has really hit me…this is really happening! It has been months coming and it is really a bit surreal. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to realize that I am actually a member of the Australian Rowing Team!

Just over 11 years ago, April 23rd, 1998 to be exact, I had a neurologist tell me that my life as I knew it was over, to go home and get my affairs in order before I became incapacitated and that because I had Multiple Sclerosis I would never do any sport or exercise again. There are times when I just shake my head and think “If he could see me now”, oh how wrong he was!

On that fateful day, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that my life would take the direction it has. When I am talking to groups I always ask them “What would you attempt to do if you knew that you could not fail?” I have always headed into situations not really thinking about whether or not I would fail and with this challenge, at this point, we have more than surpassed my expectations. We can only get better from here on in and I have great hopes for this crew. What we have accomplished in the last couple of months is extraordinary!

After our last campaign, attempting to qualify for the Beijing Paralympics, I really didn’t know if I would get another shot at representing my country. Lets face it, I am probably the oldest person to ever make the Australian team. At 47, well 48 next week, this was not what I envisaged for myself at this point in my life. But I have to say that my life has been ingrained with that great Aussie expression “she’ll be right mate”. This has shaped who I am.

I guess my greatest tool is my ability to believe in myself and my capabilities. I believe that you should live your life to the fullest, laugh, cry, scream, shout, whatever you want to do – just get out there and do it. If you don’t see yourself abseiling, caving or evening rowing for that matter – find that one thing you have never thought you could do and give it a try.

A friend of mine gave me one good piece of advice and that was “to live life without fear, confront all obstacles and know that you can overcome them. Nothing is impossible if we dare to face our fears and believe in ourselves.” Thanks for inspiring me Warren.

So I go into this next phase of this adventure with no fear and expecting the best. I have no doubt that the rest of crew will be thinking the same!

If we went into every day expecting the best, with no fear and belief in ourselves, imagine what we could achieve. What’s holding you back?

Carol along with Pete Siri, Henry Macphillamy, Alex Green and Lisa Brown, have recently been selected to race for Australia in the LT4 adaptive  rowing world championships in Poland.

As this site is as much about the inner journey as to why we travel and how it inspires us, we are privileged to be able to follow the team’s progress through the eyes, ears and spirit of this remarkable team.

So let’s hear from Carol as we start from the beginning and journey with the team on the race that gained them selection.

We arrived at SIRC just before 7am for our warm up training session. Everyone was pretty keen to get on the water and have the second last row for the weekend. It was a beautiful morning, flat water, a bit chilly but the sunrise was fantastic. We were only doing one lap of the course, concentrating on really becoming one, every movement in time with one another. This may sound really easy but when you have four people, all different sizes and all with different disabilities, well it isn’t that easy!

When we did get back to the shed that is when the hugging and emotion all came out! But we definitely came back to earth as we realized that now the even harder work begins. We have another camp in a weeks time in Sydney, then a week home, then back to Sydney where the staging camp will be held before we head to Europe. But we know that we are going which puts our heads in a better place because we know what we can accomplish. In just three short camps we have really come together as a crew…We Can Row as ONE!

We had a good row and the timing wasn’t too bad, we were finally getting some “send” on the boat. In other words we were finally letting the boat do the work for us. This was something that Pedro (who is coaching us since Tara had left) had been saying to us since day one, “Let the boat do the work, drive with the legs and really build the stroke to the chest, send the boat”. It made perfect sense to us but getting us all to do it together and exactly together has been the tough part. But this morning that came together.

After our row, we headed back to the motel, to pack up, check out and then head back for our final time trial. We all knew we had to do better on this time trial than any of the previous ones. We had to show the selectors that we were improving and deserved to be part of the team heading to Poland. On the way back to the course in the car it was very quite. I think that everyone was really getting into their “zones”, thinking about what they each needed to do individually to come together as “ONE”.

We all did our own land warm up and at 10:30 a.m. it was “hands on”. With the boat on the water and all of us in our seats we headed out for our warm up. We did a bit longer warm up than the day before and then headed out to the course. Once invited on to the course by the officials we took our position in lane 5 and Lisa had us do one practice start. Wow! what a start it was, the best we had ever done. We backed the boat into the finger and awaited the officials to start us off. Unfortunately we had a bad start! But we were able to correct quickly and we were off.

Lisa called the race brilliantly, she had us lengthen out once the boat was moving and from there had us work each stroke. Not think about the entire race but to concentrate on perfecting each individual stroke. The boat felt good, I know I felt good and the row felt strong and engaged with the water. Before I knew it Lisa was yelling that we had only 250 metres to go. It was incredible, I thought we were only about half way, but we were almost there. She wanted us to dig deeper than we had done before and with 100 metres to go asked for more. I didn’t think I had anymore but incredibly I found some and before we knew it Lisa said to slow it down to steady state.

I don’t think that anything has hurt more than that last 250 metres and I am sure the rest of the crew felt the same. We had finished and we had done the best that we could, now it was up to the selectors. As we rowed past the viewing stands, the crowd were clapping and at that point Lisa said to us “That’s for us” and I must say it felt good. Now all we had to do was wait for the verdict.

When we got back to the landing, Pedro was there waiting for us and congratulated each one of us. We had a few supporters there, Henry’s parents and guide dog Billy, Pam, Pedro’s wife and Kathryn Ross another adaptive rower, who congratulated us and told us it was a good row…but to all of us was it good enough?

We sat around for a while hoping that one of the selectors would come and speak with us, but we were getting cold and decided to have showers and change. Once we were back at the shed we were told that we were to attend a meeting with the rest of the Senior team. I think we were all on pins and needles hoping that this was when we would be given the nod. But no the meeting was about how well everyone had done over the weekend and to wish the Under 23 representatives good luck, as they were leaving for Europe the next day. Then Andrew Mathieson said he wanted the LTA crew to stay so he could speak with us. Well I can tell you a few things went through my head! And most of them were negative!

When Andrew did finally come over to us, he stated that he was happy with how we had progressed over the weekend and that as far as he and other selectors we concerned they were going to put our names forward to the Rowing Australia board for inclusion on the Australian Team for the World Championships in Poland. Well I think everything else went off in my head! We were going! And to be honest the relief was overwhelming. I don’t think there was much of a reaction from any of us right away and I am sure Andrew was a bit miffed about why we weren’t jumping for joy. I think it had been such a tough slog and mentally tough that it took a while for it to sink in. I know that walking back to the shed it hit me and I actually became quite emotional. All the hard work had paid off.

Carol Cooke is an inspiration to all who meet her. Attitude, perseverance, and commitment personify this engaging woman as she works relentlessly to help others live their dream.

I first met Carol through my work at the MS Society. While researching for the MS Show, I was inspired by Carol’s commitment to helping others with MS. With an incredible volunteer team, Carol developed and runs the 24 hour Mega Swim each year, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Go for Gold Scholarship program.

Having spent 24 hours, and more, at the pool with Carol and the team was an extremely rewarding experience. As every tick of the Fitzroy Pool clock went by, the cheers, comaraderie, support, smiles and generosity of all involved was evident. As I surrendered to the fact that I’d never sleep, I slipped into the warm water at 2am and revelled in the emotions and solitude that making a difference… even at 2am, can bring. And I wasn’t alone. The pool was filled with swimmers as they lifted their arms, and their hearts, to help others with MS.  

I was honoured to be MC at the inaugural 2007 awards evening with scholarships being awarded in the areas of art, education, music, travel, employment and sport. The atmosphere in the ballroom was one of thanks and celebration, and I will never forget the tears of appreciation as two special awards were granted for outstanding applications. The ability to be able to make real the dreams of others is a privilege, and I would encourage anyone interested to participate in this fabulous event.

Visit www.megaswim.com for more information, donations or to sign up for the 2008 events in Victoria, NSW and SA.

Carol’s outstanding contribution to assisting others was recognised in 2006 when she won a Pride of Australia medal in the role model category. That year, she also won Victorian Masters Athlete of the Year. With a plethora of sporting medals gracing her albums, she has also recently been awarded a Victorian Institute of Sport adaptive rowing scholarship as she aims for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.

Having only taken up rowing in December 2006, Carol has already broken numerous national titles and exemplifies the meaning of dedication, commitment and living one’s dreams in everything she does. If you are interested in supporting Carol in her race for Paralympic gold, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

In Carol’s words, “I might have MS, but MS doesn’t have me” and despite all obstacles “nothing is impossible if you dare to face your fears and believe in yourself”.

An inspiration to all, I am glad I have had the privilege to meet this incredible woman, who not only inspires, but makes a difference in the lives of so many.

I am proud to call her my friend.

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