Master's Open Sprint Championship

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » January 10th, 2008, 4:13 am

I don't know when I will start what I am about to announce, but I am going to host a Master's Open Sprint Championship. It will consist of distances ranging between 250 meters and 1000 meters. It will be based on total time over the series of races. Recently, I learned that some California racing venues have 1000 meter race categories. I am very excited about this in that I am more prepared at the moment for a 1000 meter race than a 2000 meter race.

I am think perhaps in April to give everyone some time to prepare.

michaelb · Post by **michaelb** » January 10th, 2008, 11:56 pm

Is this going to be an online event using rowpro?

The very best race I have seen online, and maybe heard about (although I think there have been some other great races) was the 1000m race now 2 years ago during the fall racing series. There was 8 of us in the race all at similar times, right down to the wire.

the new version of RP has the ability to race up to 16 boats, and Pete says he will turn that on at some point once all the bugs are worked out. If you are planning your event online, that would be a great feature to have ready.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » January 11th, 2008, 3:15 am

Yes. The event will be on-line.

Rockin Roland · Post by **Rockin Roland** » January 13th, 2008, 11:58 pm

Thomas,
1000m is the standard distance that all masters race over on the water hence it would be the appropriate distance to race online on the erg. I'm keen to join in if it fits in with my time zone here in OZ.

Wasn't it around April when the World Online Indoor Rowing Champs use to be held? We haven't had one of those for a while. No handicapping nonsense. Just pit age group against age group. In fact we haven't had an online championship event on Rowpro yet. They were previously all on e-row software.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » January 19th, 2008, 5:27 pm

Roland,

Thanks for replying to this. Good to hear from you.

Yes, that is what I want to do. An "OPEN" championship based on raw time. An idea would be somethiing like a 1000 meter piece done each weekend in the month of March with the total time being used as the winners time. So, if you are a dominate rower, then it will reflect and you will be awarded as such.

I have more ideas on this and what is driving me this direction. I will share more later.

I have not heard from Marilyn or Joachim in quite along time. Having met Joachim at Paul's house and again with Marilyn in Munich, they are really good hearted.

Later,
Thomas

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » March 3rd, 2008, 5:18 am

This is the idea.

-1k every weekend starting the weekend of March 8,9 2008 and ending April 26/27 2008, for a total of eight weekends.
-The winner will be determined by the lowest total time (meaning we add up all the times).
-Each weekend will be capped at the best time you could receive (ie, the first weekend will be 3:25, then 3:20, then 3:15, then 3:10, then 3:05, then unlimited, then unlimited, then unlimited.
-It will be men's open and women's open.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » March 4th, 2008, 1:59 am

To add:

You are allowed to miss two weekends but you have to make it up the next weekend or you can do it in advance. So, if you know you are going to miss week 2 and week 3, you could do two 1k's in week 1 and do two 1k's in week 4. The goal is to do a 1k each weekend, but in light of vacations and work commitments, it is possibly for someone to not be able to do a 1k each weekend.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » March 4th, 2008, 2:32 am

The 1k is to be done on one of the rowpro programs.

The 1k can be done solo.

The title of the race should be something I can easily find like, "Men's Master Open Week 1," Women's Master Open Week 1," etc.

You must be 30 years of age or older.

The results will be posted here on the forum.

michaelb · Post by **michaelb** » March 4th, 2008, 3:43 pm

could you explain more what you mean by this:

Thomas wrote: -Each weekend will be capped at the best time you could receive (ie, the first weekend will be 3:25, then 3:20, then 3:15, then 3:10, then 3:05, then unlimited, then unlimited, then unlimited.

I am not sure I can race at maximum each week like that, and want to understand the sandbagging possibilities. I will never win either so scoring like this only matters for those at the top.

Can we row these as handicap rows online, so the fastest rowers wait to start? That makes the rowing more interesting for a mixed group, but makes the results in RP incorrect. At least for the first weeks until the "unlimited" weeks?

michaelb · Post by **michaelb** » March 4th, 2008, 6:55 pm

Thinking about this more, I will take a guess:

Do you mean "capped" as in what we would call in the US "making the cut". So that everyone needs to row 3:25 or better in the first week to advance to the second week? Then 3:20 to advance to the 3rd week? So that slower rowers get eliminated and only the fastest remain to compete at the end?

If so that is fine by me. Hitting the 3:20 target is a season's goal and will be a huge PB; 3:15 may be out of reach, but I am ok with taking a shot at that.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » March 6th, 2008, 3:14 am

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your reply. The time element is the fastest time a person could receive for that particular weekend. For example: The first weekend is 3:25. If I rowed 3:20, that is nice, but I can only be awarded a time of 3:25.

Unfortunately, I would rather stay away from handicapping. This distance is short enough that people should not get too far out.

Yes, this to encourage faster rowers and to encourage pushing ourselves.

Something just occurred to me: I don't have any idea on what times to choose for women.

Stefan · Post by **Stefan** » March 7th, 2008, 2:53 pm

OK, set it up!

michaelb · Post by **michaelb** » March 7th, 2008, 5:18 pm

So the plan appears to be to start this tomorrow. Thomas: do you have any idea how many people are interested or even know about this yet? I don't see anything on oarbits so far.

I am pretty free tomorrow, so I will put up a 1k at 16 gmt on the beta. But if anyone else puts up another row on the beta for tomorrow, I could always switch and join that instead. This week will hopefully be an "easy" row at around 3:30 for me. My understanding of the caps/targets is there no incentive to go faster than that in any week. So it doesn't get tough for me until the 3:15 week.

In terms of setting a targets for women: the men's target starts at 3:25, which is the 75% for all men over 30; the 75% for women over 30 is 4:05. But I think 4:05 is too fast practically for women, and there are only two women who have posted a time with rowpro faster than that. So I might start the women at the 50%, or 4:25, and go down from there.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » March 8th, 2008, 5:28 am

I don't have an idea of how many people want to participate.

You may have to do this as a Time Trial, which means you are going solo and that is perfectly fine. That is why I have asked for a person who is participating to label their race as something that is distiguishable, such as, "Men's Open 1k 1st week."

I may do the 1k tomorrow but for sure on Sunday. I lifted weights tonight after work knowing I could do the 1k on Sunday.

If you are planning to participate, go ahead and proudly say so here.

Thanks,
Thomas

RR1 Kirk · Post by **RR1 Kirk** » March 8th, 2008, 7:08 am

Is there a light weight division?

Cheers,