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Everyone eventually sets goals for themselves. A little less than a year ago I set one for myself; to see how many races I can enter in a span of 18 months. That was back in October of 2008 and so far I have raced at the Head of the Marina, 4 of the 5 Long Beach Bay Series, the Crash B’s in Long Beach, the Desert Sprints, the LB Spring Regatta, SW Regionals and most recently Master’s Nationals. To hell with winning any of them. I already have a shoe box full of medals at home. All I wanted to do is see how many I could enter (am I giving you a hint as to how I did?).
It just so happen that my vacation to visit the family in Richmond Va. coincided with the dates of the race in Camden, NJ. Joining me was my son Nathan. My original flight plans were from Burbank to NY with a connecting flight to Richmond. Deciding to change the plans to enter the races was an easy one. All the other logistics of renting a boat, transporting oars, finding a place to stay, etc. wasn’t so easy. So, the plan was to cancel my connecting flight to Richmond, meet my friend Gerry in NY, spend the day touring, after which we would grab the NJ transit train to Camden for the races at the Cooper River Lake. From there my sister would meet up with us at the races after which she would drive us the rest of the way to Richmond for the rest of our vacation.
I was fortunate enough to be able to rent a boat from Dave Trond from Vespoli and have my oars transported by A.C. Dupont of LB Rowing Association. The boat I was rowing was a Vespoli M27XL (205-260), a little too large for me but all they had at the time. Gerry made arrangements for us to stay in a residence hall at Rutgers University in Camden. This wasn’t your typical dorm room. It was a two bedroom suite with a full kitchen and living room. All for $75 bucks a night!
After meeting up with Dave Trond and rigging the boat I set off for a practice. The row was actually pretty good considering I hit a couple of logs submerged just below the surface of the water (oops, sorry Dave). The next day was my first race, the Men’s D 1x.
There were 21 entrants in this race requiring 4 heats. I was in the last heat with 6 boats, lane 2. Clearly my starts were of the greatest concern so I decided to take it real slow building up the rate throughout the start. I had no real start strategy, just keeping the boat set. While I was last out of the start I quickly pulled up to 2nd place in the first 250m. I and kept that position to the 500m mark. I had a tendency in past races to tense up, trying to pull ahead and then tiring myselfbut forced myself to keep the pace to the 750m mark. Doing this caused me to fall to 3rd place. But at the 750m mark I brought the rate up, started cranking on the oar and went from 3rd to 1st, winning my heat. The crowd went wild (Or at least my son, sister and friend did). I was totally drained but made it to semi finals which were less than an hour later.
Needless to say Semi’s didn’t go as well. It seemed I was good for only one race. Ended up 5th out of 6 boats but made an effort at least. We spent the rest of the day touring a haunted prison in Philadelphia and visiting the residence of Edgar Allen Poe.
The next day was Men’s C 1x. I wasn’t expecting much in this race. There were 23 entrants with 4 heats. I was in the first heat lane 2. Used the same strategy but just didn’t have enough to make the semi’s. Not much to say here except I didn’t come in last and that’s always a good thing.
It was a great two days of rowing. We met rowers from all over the country. Share experiences, cursed the hot, humid weather of the east coast and pigged out on chili dogs after the race. My son seeing the excitement of racing decided to give it a try. He’ll be joining the next LTR class. It was an honor representing our club at Master’s Nationals.
See you on the water!
