21097m Handicap Poll 2nd Place

[old] MarkPayton · Post by **[old] MarkPayton** » January 12th, 2005, 9:20 pm

Wow - nice times Sir Pirate! If your 80min time was at low rating, I would think you could push it and go after your PB. But it really depends on whether you feel the PB is truly within reach. 3 mins is a pretty big span. My own season best was 84:59 during Le Tour back in the autumn. Prior to that, my best HM was 84:45 in October 2002. Since I shattered my hour PB a couple months back, I feel confident the PB is within reach. So 84:45 will be my target, and I may set the target slightly below that (targeting better than PB - what new lunacy is this? ). Well, at least it will remove all suspicion of sandbagging! Given your comments, I suspect you could probably do close to your PB if not better. You with me? Remember, misery loves company !

[old] captain · Post by **[old] captain** » January 12th, 2005, 11:16 pm

Mark I won't be able to participate this Saturday, I am working hopefully I will be able to join in next time.

[old] Christine · Post by **[old] Christine** » January 13th, 2005, 4:19 am

Hei, on Saturday my kids are competing in speed skating and I have to drive them. Unfortunately the winter is gone around Oslo, and the competition is moved to another place, which is far more to drive. So I am not shure, when I return to home. If I can make it , I join the HM, but don't wait for me. Don't calculate my handicap. If I am rowing, I start with the slowest. Regards Christine

[old] Sir Pirate · Post by **[old] Sir Pirate** » January 13th, 2005, 4:43 am

Well in for a penny in for a pound as we say over here. To be honest, I would like to try and beat my PB, I would love to row one at 1:49 pace, this won't be easy, so I will put by target time as my PB. If I start of aiming for a 1:49 split I feel I may blow.............BIG TIME!! Sir Pirate

[old] MarkPayton · Post by **[old] MarkPayton** » January 13th, 2005, 3:05 pm

Okay - race is up on the e-row server. Please sign in with your name and target time. (I conservatively signed up for PB -15seconds - so Sir Pirate we can commiserate afterwards!) See you all on Saturday,

[old] eparizeau · Post by **[old] eparizeau** » January 13th, 2005, 4:45 pm

Mark & al, Unfortuneately the kids' hockey schedule conflicts with the HM & I am the chauffeur. Wish I could join you. Hopefully next time. Best, Ernie

[old] MarkPayton · Post by **[old] MarkPayton** » January 14th, 2005, 1:38 pm

Alain and Ernie, sorry we'll miss you (and perhaps Christine too) - but I'm sure we'll have more opportunities. Yikes! Looks like I'll be the sharkbait this time - right now it's just me, Sir Pirate and Cees. Is it possible to equip a C2 with a protective cage? [Actually given the weather forecast for my area, my protective shield will be a layer of ice (erg is in an unheated garage). Perhaps its time to move the erg indoors? Nah, then I wouldn't be able to whine about the cold before and after the race! ] Plenty of space left in the handicap half marathon folks!

[old] whp4 · Post by **[old] whp4** » January 14th, 2005, 10:00 pm

Actually, Mark, that nice cool garage ought to help you get a better time on a longer row like the HM. Be sure to get warmed up well before you start, of course! Do your 250 watts for an hour and a third and I bet you'll find the garage warms up - or at least it will seem that way as you try to hold off the speed demons! Bill

[old] captain · Post by **[old] captain** » January 14th, 2005, 10:54 pm

Mark you are more then welcome to use my erg in my house the weather here in Toronto this Saturday should be around -10c. That should keep you cool enough and after the hm my wife offer good hot chocolat (all you can drink) and chocolat chips cookies.

[old] Sir Pirate · Post by **[old] Sir Pirate** » January 15th, 2005, 8:30 am

I see Jeff is going to join us Have started carbo loading, looking forward to this one, Mark..........I coming after you fella, aiming to catch you at the 20K point, dare you stay away!! Roll on 4:30 GMT Sir Pirate

[old] MarkPayton · Post by **[old] MarkPayton** » January 15th, 2005, 12:25 pm

Ok - got the space heater and the ice axe - I'm ready. I'd say "bring it on" but, well, let's not go there. Frosty the rowman is up for the challenge! Good luck today fellas!

[old] Sir Pirate · Post by **[old] Sir Pirate** » January 15th, 2005, 2:28 pm

That hurt Mark, I could not close that last 54m Great row. My bum hurts Sir Pirate

[old] MarkPayton · Post by **[old] MarkPayton** » January 15th, 2005, 3:24 pm

Sir Pirate - I agree - ouch! Sitting is NOT comfortable right now... But what a row! You did great! I was watching your current pace and you held 1:49-1:51 straight through - amazing! Did you even stop to drink? According to my records, you had a total time of 1:24:08, which equals an HM time of 1:17:28 when your handicap is subtracted. That's a new PB by over 20 seconds - congratulations! Despite the cold, being sharkbait seemed to provide me the extra motivation I needed as well! You and Jeff really had me running at about 5k to go - at that point, I thought you were going to accomplish your threat and overtake me at 1k to go, so I tried to speed up. At about 2500 to go, I was watching the PM2+ counting down the lead I had on you: you were knocking off something like 3-4 meters every few seconds. Tried to do the math in my head to figure out what pace I'd have to hold to keep you at bay, but gave up and just started hammering at 1k to go. Couldn't believe how fast you were bearing down in the final stretch, but I got fired up and dug deep to pull out a sprint in the last 500. This was good enough for a new PB for me as well - beat the target by 34 seconds, which equals a new all-time PB by over 45 seconds, and beating my season best by 1:02 (good enough for 11 more Nonathlon points)! Thanks for the motivation! Don't know what happened to Jeff - on my screen, his boat went red early in the race, but kept going at an incredibly consistent 1:54 pace all the way through to the end. But when his boat got to the finish, it just sat there and the final time never came up. Jeff, did you lose your connection? What was your final time? Cees, my hat is off to you for even attempting an HM PB pace after a 3 week hiatus. You and Sir Pirate were pulling some incredible splits all the way through the time you dropped. Thanks so much for joining. Side note: Bill was right, the cold actually helped to avoid overheating towards the end of this race. This was the first row I've ever done where the BEGINNING of the race was more painful than the end! (It was 30 degrees in my garage - could barely feel my fingers and toes until about 3k into the row. The space heater was worthless except as a distraction - pretty orange lights ). Thanks again to all for joining.

[old] Sir Pirate · Post by **[old] Sir Pirate** » January 15th, 2005, 4:30 pm

Mark, I was aiming for sub 1:50 overall split but just missed out on that (1:50.1) it is hard on these handicap events as you are really rowing them blind. I started of doing 500m at 1:52 then 100m at 1:42 after the 1st 1500m I did this for around the 1st 8000m I think, and I started catching Cees, I could see he was rowing around the 1:50 - 1:51 pace, so with the extra burst I hoped to catch him just after half way. Don't know what happened, as you said his boat went red and the screen was just flashing. I caught Jeff much later. At around 3500m to go I started to get a bit bored as my PM2+ was still showing -250. I thought I am not going to be able to catch you. Then, all of a sudden it dropped to -248m behind you. I was starting to feel a bit tired now and did not want to blow. I just stuck at 1:48-1:49 and then try to get you in the last 500m. You just up’d the pace and I could not catch you. That knocked me a bit. Well done on the PB Mark, you work hard for it, well deserved I never stop for fluids during a HM, I drink a bucket load before I start. It was a great race; out of all the Handicap ones we have done I enjoyed that one the most. Thanks to all who rowed it, I think we all pushed each other in a way. Cees, you are a brave man doing a HM with no rowing under your belt for 3 weeks, massive respect to you for trying. Great row by you Jeff, well done. I did manage a PB by 23.3 seconds, but am disappointed about not getting sub 1:50 split overall. Oh well, we could always go again next week. Sir Pirate

[old] grandslam · Post by **[old] grandslam** » January 16th, 2005, 3:45 am

I lost connection and my PM2+ had an error message about 1500 meters into the race. The computer screen said "keep rowing" which I did for another 1000 meters or so when I gave up and reset the PM2+. I've had more problems with e-row since day one than the beta versions of rowpro. Next I switched to rowpro and rowed a 1/2 thon against pace boats, but could not hold the 1:54 pace the last 5K, and ended up paddling in when I knew a PB was out of the question. Nice job you guys. Hope beta 5 comes out soon so we can stop using e-row altogether. Cheers, Jeff Sauter