Concept2 Forum

Last year I did the Petaluama River Half Marathon in a double and had a really great race. Been looking forward to doing the full marathon ever since. Then it was canceled, but enough people wanted to do it and they got a few volunteers so it is informally back on-- not entry fee, no red tape, few if any prizes. My double partner hurt his elbow, so he was drafted in to doing the timing, and I'm stuck doing it in a single. Kind of a bummer because we had a really good shot at beating all the other boats, including the 8s and quads. This is really a great race. The river really is extraordinarily pretty. And in a race this long you actually get to see it. Anyway it is Sunday Aug 31: http://petalumarivermarathon.blogspot.com/

So this morning I did 43K in my single. My first marathon. Was just going to do about 34K but after a while I figured I should just go for it. Briefly stopped after 34K to get more water, then the next lap I thought I was getting tired because I started having trouble getting my oars out of the water and my technique seemed to get a lot worse. After struggling for 1500m I realized some screws were loose and my riggers were coming off. Hand tightned them to get back to the dock. Took a while to find an allen wrench that fit. Had a about a 15 minute break, and felt really fresh for the the last lap (4.3K). Kept it around 2:15 pace for the last lap except for a few sharp turns. Pretty happy with the row. Solid workout but not debilitating. Blisters on my hands but the seat didn't bother me at all. Back a bit sore between the shoulder blades but lower back is good. I seemed to do best at about a 23 rating. Caught myself letting the rating drift up several times and my speed would drop, especially at the beginning. Good to have that under my belt before the race.

Nosmo,

Have you ever entered the open water race in SF bay? This year's was a a few weeks back.

Won the bay course in a 2x. All the good racers did the championship course so there wasn't much competition. Knew we had it won after about 30 strokes. To those who row open water, the bay course was pretty flat but to me it was very rough. I really have no idea how to row in rough water.

I'll probably do the open water race out of South End rowing club on September 14th. Again in a 2x. Don't trust my self in the bay in a single yet.

Did the marathon. Tides were favorable--with me in both directions--so I was hoping to break the course record of just over 3 hours. However the wind was really bad on the second half and the water was very rough. Had a few wave soak my back and they were constantly hitting my oars. I was rowing stronger on the second half but it took 10 minutes longer to get back then to go out. Won it in 3:11:38. Next boat was actually a Kayak 16 minutes back. He looked really impressive. He even beat the woman's 4x by about a minute. Turnout was low. Only 6 boats did the full marathon, and 7 the half marathon. Makes 4 wins and one second place out of 5 races for the year.

Really fun race. Everyone had a good time and we had a good potluck BBQ afterward. Drank a bit less then 3 liters of water and ate 2.5 cliff bars. My pacing was good. Steering was atrocious especially at first. The river is really beautiful but it is often really hard to see where it goes. I started up a side stream at one point and was bouncing from one side to the other. It would have really helped to row the course a head of time. My stroke coach said I was about 2 minutes faster then the official time which means I was stopped for 2 minutes total. A little of that was the turnaround and eating drinking but the vast majority was stopping from motor boat wakes. I tried to row though one of them but took on too much water and had to stop and bail.
I actually should have done a bit of a warm up, just because the start was twisty and I had a hard time paying attention to my rowing when I was constantly looking over my shoulder and worried about where I was going. After about 5K I settled in and my technique got better and my steering improved somewhat.
My body held up pretty well. Mostly I was really tired. No problem with my butt. Blisters not much worse then normal. Back was fine. Next day I felt it mostly in my legs. A few minor friction burns here and there. I also found out what happens when you drop half a cliff bar in the bottom of a boat that has taken on some water.

Overall, happy with almost everything except my technique on the first 5K and my steering on most of it.