damselfly wrote:And wishing our intrepid Cap'n GOOD LUCK tomorrow, at the Cincinnati Indoor Rowing Championships tomorrow.
Row strong, Cap'n Izz!!!!
I survived.
Got out of my house a bit late, but I got there (Notre Dame Academy, Park Hills, KY) about 8:45 for the 9:00 race. Then, I found out they called it for 9:08, and it ran about 10 minutes behind, so someone is going to get their knuckles rapped by the nuns! (Seriously, though, it's a great race run by great people in a clearly high-quality school. Thanks, MaryFran Piepmeier et al!) So, I did get to do a full 2K warm-up - and another 1,100m not to get cold again!
When the race began, I got hit with a wave of nausea, most likely from a burst of adrenaline. I knew that if I gave in to the adrenaline, I'd burn out after 3 minutes of furious racing. So, I started out at a careful pace, about 1:43 per 500, hoping the nausea would pass and I could up the tempo without up-chucking. (Please pardon the medical jargon.)
A couple ergs over was a fellow in a different race (I was in Race 7, "Veteran's 50+", while he was in Race 9, "Men's Open".) who brought a rowdy, loud, obnoxious cheering/coxing section. They're yelling to him (at him?), "LET'S SEE ANOTHER 36! YOU CAN GIVE US A 36!" This was a request to maintain a pace of 1:36 per 500m, which he did pretty well. Then they started yelling, "YOU CAN DO THIS - THIS IS WHAT YOU WORKED FOR ALL THIS TIME! YOU CAN DO THIS!" Since there was no way I could tune this out - I actually started concentrating more on his boat on the screen than on mine - I decided to make believe they were cheering ME on!
On the erg next to mine was the great Rich "Ranger" Cureton, an erg world record holder whose times had slipped when he stopped hauling butt & instead pursuing the "perfect" stroke and the "perfect" race. (Yes, the old 'the perfect being the enemy of the good' saw!) He's now over 60, and barely into the Heavyweight category, but he still led me through the entire first half of the race.
Almost halfway through the race, I looked at my own monitor, and it said I was averaging 1:43.3. This was not going to do! I upped the pace to 1:41, and held that until about 400m left in the race. So, I passed the halfway point with about a 3:26, but I was starting to bring my speed up. Then, "Ranger" stopped rowing for a few seconds! This brought me within 3 meters of him,and it stayed that way for another minute or more. Then "Ranger" stopped for another few seconds as I was speeding up, so I was now 15-20 meters ahead of him, a gap I was to widen as the race progressed.
Then, incredibly, the rowdy cheering section actually got LOUDER!!! "YOU GOT IT! FINISH STRONG! THIS IS IT! HARDER! HARDER!" First, this threw me off my pace, but then I decided to start my final sprint a little early to coincide with his finish. So, the last few hundred yards, I did about 1:35 or so. That gave me about 3:20 for the last half of the race - well better than my first and nauseous half - and a final of 6:46.0, 10.4 seconds ahead of "Ranger"!
The other fellow (presumably hard of hearing?), in his 20s, had done a 6:28.8 - and finished second in the Men's Open division.
So, does that mean I won? Actually, no, I came in second. Someone completely off my radar screen - I'm not sure he was even rowing in the same grouping and time as me - finished in 6:40.5. Congratulations, Eric Wuerfel, whoever you are!
Had he been on my radar screen, might I have beaten him? I assume not - I probably could've knocked a second, maybe 2, off my time, but not 4.5 seconds.
Am I satisfied with my race? Yes and no. Yes, this was a season's best time, better than the 6:46.3 I'd done in the RNS, and the 6:46.9 I'd done early in the season - and well better than the 6:47.7 I'd gasped through last week. No, because I know I can do better, but I need to undo a couple of the training mistakes I made, like not doing enough speed work and anaerobic work.
So, I'll take the 6:46.0, but will try to bring my time to 6:40 or below in the next month or 6 weeks...
)
