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rebeccmeisterAs usual for the Head of the Charles, what a weekend!
It would have been ideal to have had a chance to practice in the boat I raced in, a Fluid mid/lightweight single. My timing just wasn't ideal for that. However, that said, the moment I sat in the boat, I felt comfortable, so for a situation where I had to just drop in and go, it was ideal. Coach Y has been getting on my case to race at a higher stroke rating. For this race, I managed to do a better job, keeping my stroke rate between 27-28 strokes per minute and even bringing it up to a 30 at the end. I was pretty tired but I also had a feeling that I probably could sustain a higher stroke rating for longer and go faster if I tried harder. I was somewhat distracted by my surroundings this time. But all told, it was a decent race and 20 seconds faster than my last 1x race at the Charles in 2017, in spite of more headwind this time.
I started as bow number 8, behind a rower from Park City, Utah, who was so slow that I would have passed her before the BU bridge if that was allowed. As it was, I was stuck behind her - not a fun way to start off a head race. Coming out of the BU bridge, I hugged the green buoys around the Magazine Beach turn and left her behind.
Sometime after that, I saw bow numbers 10 and 11 creeping up on me. At one point, bow number 11 came up around and in front of bow number 10, but going through the Powerhouse stretch she veered to the side and picked up a 5-second orange buoy penalty. Odd for a Riverside rower - shouldn't she know the course better than that? She also wound up dropping back behind us again later on, and never caught all the way up to me.
I think my turn through the Weeks Footbridge was pretty good. I didn't have to do a ton of steering between that and Anderson, just went for a straight shot.
The elevator tower on the apartment building is still a fantastic bow point for the start of the Dead Man's Turn before the Elliot Street Bridge. Friends on the Elliot Street Bridge got some video of me that suggest I could shave a couple more seconds off my time if I hug those buoys just a little while longer. Next time! This year at least I got to take the big arch, although by that point bow 10 was making some serious moves on me so I had to give her space on the inside for the final curve towards the finish line.
In the last 30 strokes of the race, bow 10 was coming up right next to me on one side, while I was coming up right next to bow number 4 on my port side. The excitement! Three boats across headed towards the finish line! Can I hold off bow 10 and give her the squeeze? Suddenly, bow number 10 caught a small crab and came to a stop for a moment. Time for me to make a move! "Come on!" I shouted, and picked up my stroke rating. Even though bow 10 would be faster than me, it was a good moment to make one last big push across the finish line. And super fun to finish three-across.
So the Fluid single and the familiar orange-grip club oars served me well this time. I had fun! And I know that there are things I can keep working on to go even faster.
The way the Charles is set up, if a person finishes within the top 25% in an event, they get an automatic entry the next year. Otherwise, the person is back in the lottery system. However, if one finishes within the top 50%, one gets back into the regular lottery (non-deprecated). Otherwise, if one finishes in the bottom half, chances of getting a golden ticket to race the next year are much lower.
So the other feather in my cap this year was that I finished within the top 50%, by coming in 9th out of 18 boats. I was just slightly over 5% behind the winning boat's time. So by those marks I have also made some good improvements since 2017.
On the other hand, as one of my coach/teammates put it, the specific event that I'm in is probably the easiest out of all of the events at the Head of the Charles, because a substantial number of the women my age are busy doing things like having a career or children instead of focusing on rowing. I think he's correct about that, but I'll still happily take what sources of motivation I can get and keep rowing faster and more beautifully.
I have a couple more Head of the Charles posts to write about other aspects of the regatta weekend, plus I have posted a bunch of photos on Flickr, including some carnage I witnessed on Sunday morning in the Women's Youth 8's. First photo in the set starts here; click left to view in chronological order:
https://flic.kr/p/2hyvvYs
It would have been ideal to have had a chance to practice in the boat I raced in, a Fluid mid/lightweight single. My timing just wasn't ideal for that. However, that said, the moment I sat in the boat, I felt comfortable, so for a situation where I had to just drop in and go, it was ideal. Coach Y has been getting on my case to race at a higher stroke rating. For this race, I managed to do a better job, keeping my stroke rate between 27-28 strokes per minute and even bringing it up to a 30 at the end. I was pretty tired but I also had a feeling that I probably could sustain a higher stroke rating for longer and go faster if I tried harder. I was somewhat distracted by my surroundings this time. But all told, it was a decent race and 20 seconds faster than my last 1x race at the Charles in 2017, in spite of more headwind this time.
I started as bow number 8, behind a rower from Park City, Utah, who was so slow that I would have passed her before the BU bridge if that was allowed. As it was, I was stuck behind her - not a fun way to start off a head race. Coming out of the BU bridge, I hugged the green buoys around the Magazine Beach turn and left her behind.
Sometime after that, I saw bow numbers 10 and 11 creeping up on me. At one point, bow number 11 came up around and in front of bow number 10, but going through the Powerhouse stretch she veered to the side and picked up a 5-second orange buoy penalty. Odd for a Riverside rower - shouldn't she know the course better than that? She also wound up dropping back behind us again later on, and never caught all the way up to me.
I think my turn through the Weeks Footbridge was pretty good. I didn't have to do a ton of steering between that and Anderson, just went for a straight shot.
The elevator tower on the apartment building is still a fantastic bow point for the start of the Dead Man's Turn before the Elliot Street Bridge. Friends on the Elliot Street Bridge got some video of me that suggest I could shave a couple more seconds off my time if I hug those buoys just a little while longer. Next time! This year at least I got to take the big arch, although by that point bow 10 was making some serious moves on me so I had to give her space on the inside for the final curve towards the finish line.
In the last 30 strokes of the race, bow 10 was coming up right next to me on one side, while I was coming up right next to bow number 4 on my port side. The excitement! Three boats across headed towards the finish line! Can I hold off bow 10 and give her the squeeze? Suddenly, bow number 10 caught a small crab and came to a stop for a moment. Time for me to make a move! "Come on!" I shouted, and picked up my stroke rating. Even though bow 10 would be faster than me, it was a good moment to make one last big push across the finish line. And super fun to finish three-across.
So the Fluid single and the familiar orange-grip club oars served me well this time. I had fun! And I know that there are things I can keep working on to go even faster.
The way the Charles is set up, if a person finishes within the top 25% in an event, they get an automatic entry the next year. Otherwise, the person is back in the lottery system. However, if one finishes within the top 50%, one gets back into the regular lottery (non-deprecated). Otherwise, if one finishes in the bottom half, chances of getting a golden ticket to race the next year are much lower.
So the other feather in my cap this year was that I finished within the top 50%, by coming in 9th out of 18 boats. I was just slightly over 5% behind the winning boat's time. So by those marks I have also made some good improvements since 2017.
On the other hand, as one of my coach/teammates put it, the specific event that I'm in is probably the easiest out of all of the events at the Head of the Charles, because a substantial number of the women my age are busy doing things like having a career or children instead of focusing on rowing. I think he's correct about that, but I'll still happily take what sources of motivation I can get and keep rowing faster and more beautifully.
I have a couple more Head of the Charles posts to write about other aspects of the regatta weekend, plus I have posted a bunch of photos on Flickr, including some carnage I witnessed on Sunday morning in the Women's Youth 8's. First photo in the set starts here; click left to view in chronological order:
https://flic.kr/p/2hyvvYs
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Date: 2019-10-21 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-22 12:35 am (UTC)