Thanks for posting that, DJ. Quite an inspiring show. I was fortunate to meet him briefly in a practice room and share a picture. But I missed his race. The 2races that I did get a great view of were the M junior, won at 6:02.x - a mighty impressive time for a junior, and the M 40+ masters. The winner of that was a real machine, each stroke exactly like the previous one until the last couple of hundred meters, when he took it up in a sprint. Up to that point he showed no sign of stress. Then came the sprint and he really emptied the tanks.
Added in edit: It was Tinpusher in the 40+ race, David, from Canada, with a long last name with a few vowels missing.
My coach, Dr. Fuentes, was trying to hold me to a consistency like that, saying to repeat that stroke when I was on target and saying no 2:09s when I went a bit too hard and no 2:13s when I lost it a bit. It was a real team effort and he was right on top of the game, keeping me focused when I strayed from the path. It was much the same at Long Beach, with Rob Perrot doing the coxing chores. Of course, it was even more crucial there, since I couldn't see the numbers for myself. I did have a much more solid game plan at Boston, since I had a much better idea of what could be a reasonable goal. It was probably rather idiotic to have spent Thursday and Friday doing three time trials, with nothing on Saturday instead of doing a proper taper for those last three days. Ironically, the final results of those time trials turned out to be just season bests and nothing more.
Bob S.
