Boston: back from. Did well - Rudder came in 13 of 55, and just barely squeaked in to next year's race at 4.97% behind the winner - 5% and under gets you an automatic entry to next year. (Clear? I mean, his time was 1.0497 times the winning time.) Local clubs: one came in 11 of 40 or so - the first time they've actually justified their coach's prerace comments, but in general it's a much nicer crew than last year so I'm glad. The other local women's boat didn't do as well but it's their first time there. The local junior crew didn't do too well at all - third from last, and one of the boats behind them had massive penalties and another scratched.
My boat? Did I ever write the story of that? Someone we sat by on the plane out of Masters Nationals last summer turned out to row for Rocky Mountain, where we know a few other people - Rudder and She-Hulk (Dammit, I thought I came up with a better nom for her but I can't remember it - once again I should stress she's not *that* big, but was rowing with a bunch of us tiny people at the time) - anyway, they have rowed composite boats with people from Rocky Mountain at several races and will again in Atlanta in two weeks. Anyway, there on the plane this woman asked me to cox her crew at the Charles. She didn't end up going but mentioned the idea to other women at her club, the ones who we knew anyway, and they recruited me in, so that's who I coxed for. We did OK - just 10 of 15, but I don't think they trained all that hard this year. And the boat we borrowed is a heavy one, an older one with a lot of wood bracing. (Newer boats are all fiberglass). But it felt good, they rowed hard, and they actually gained a couple of places in the last half. And since I may as well not pretend to modesty in my own diary, I can say that I NAILED that course. I deviated from a perfect course in only two places I know of: once unavoidably, where we had just passed another crew and I had to allow them some room (interference penalties were fierce this year) and once wher I decided to take the right arch of a bridge rather than the center one. The right arch is just as god a path; it's just that I decided a tiny bit later than I should have. Not too much later, though, because we beat the 22th place crew by only 0.08 seconds in a fifteen-minute race. I would have been annoyed with myself if they had beat us by that amount.
My crew was very happy with me right after they saw the race, which is what counts. I hope they still were after seeing the results.
Chilly weekend. Wndy, too - they decided to use the short course, so we only raced 2.3 miles instead of 3, to spare us rough water in the usual starting area. Actually, it wasn't bad when I saw it Sunday, but I suppose they have to decide early. This has only been done a few times in the regatta's forty years. And incidentally, how cool is that, to be racing in the fortieth anniversary race?
I'm kind of glad I did it, I guess. I was very nervous - there are a lot of cautions given to coxswains about this race and we saw one horrible wreck against a bridge abutment - but it went well. Still, it was hectic and we had no time for sightseeing this year. On Friday, I had a Coxswain's Course Tour in the afternoon and then the Clinic (given by former Olympic cox Yaz Farooq, whom you have probably heard announcing rowing events at the last few Olympics) in the evening. Then we had Rudder's race Saturday and mine Sunday. It was fun to be there, though, with the whole city ecstatic over their Red Sox.
And now back home and to the new job tomorrow. Coherent? Not yet, obviously.
Posted by dichroic at October 25, 2004 03:59 PMHey, I didn't think of it until just now, but I was in Boston at the same time as you! My best friend was in a play last weekend and I was there to see her. :)
Posted by: bafleyanne at October 27, 2004 06:29 AM