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Handicap; Heart of Texas Regatta, 2013
Mar. 4th, 2013 12:13 pmOn Friday morning, I got up bright and early, made some coffee and an egg sandwich, and then got picked up by another rower for an expedition to Austin to attend the annual Heart of Texas Regatta hosted on Lady Bird Lake in Austin. It was cold when we reached the boatyard, close to freezing, so we wasted no time in packing our rowing equipment into the bed of the pickup truck and hitching up the loaded, 65-foot boat trailer. Shortly thereafter, we set off for Austin.
Whenever a regatta involves traveling, the logistics really add up. The Heart of Texas is a large enough regatta (around 780 entries this year!) that teams often try to get to the race venue early enough to secure a good spot for the boats and team tents. And really, the Aggies are no different. When we arrived, shortly before 10 am, our favorite spot was already occupied, but there was room adjacent to that team. We had a brief moment of excitement when a random pickup truck drove next to the parked trailers and someone inside apparently required medical attention for a drug overdose, but otherwise, it was just a nice, sunny spring day in Austin.
Once we rigged all of the boats and checked on a number of miscellaneous equipment issues, I took out an 8+ full of novices to check out the race course. Everything copacetic, we had an afternoon free in Austin. The first order of business was lunch, so one of the rowers who knew Austin suggested an expedition to S. Congress to check out Hopdoddy Burger Bar. This being a college team function, there was no alcohol, but thankfully Hopdoddy has enough other delicious foods that we enjoyed our lunch tremendously. I ordered the one veggie burger, whose patty contains black beans and beets. It was all right. Their french fries, in comparison, were tasty, but even better was the Nutella-pretzel milkshake, topped off with real whipped cream and made with freshly-churned ice cream. If you find yourself in Austin, the neighborhood around Hopdoddy looks fun to stroll through, and there are plenty of places to stop in and eat.
Lunch accomplished, we next ventured over to Zilker Park, as some of the rowers were interested in checking out Barton Springs, despite the cooler temperatures. However, Barton Springs was still closed for renovations (as had been reported to me by DM a few weeks prior), so instead one of the rowers pulled out a frisbee and we all headed for a stretch of open grass. I decided to sit under a tree and read a book for a while, while the rest of the rowers played a game of Ultimate Frisbee. I can't remember the last time I did that - brought a book to sit and read, out in a park. It was glorious, reading about the wrap-up of the Batavia mutiny, sitting under an oak tree on a sunny, warm day. After that, I was convinced to join in a game of sand volleyball, and then it was time to meet up with the rest of the team for dinner and an early bedtime before the regatta.
I don't have many particulars to report from the regatta. It was windy all day on Saturday, but not to the point where races had to be canceled. Just to the point where things were running behind, but to an unpredictable degree. My race wasn't until 2:03 pm, so I spent the morning hanging out and talking with other rowers about rowing and life. That's also a rarity for me these days - just hanging out, not doing much.
I've been out in the single exactly three times leading up to this race, and on all three occasions I wasn't preparing to race, I was coaching other boats. So I wouldn't say I set out to the warm-up area feeling especially excited about my prospects. Mostly, I was interested in remaining upright and not making a complete fool of myself. When I registered for the regatta, the Women's Open 1x had zero other entries, so I signed up for the Women's Masters 1x. The Master's 1x was also on Saturday, and it was unclear whether the rest of the team would be sticking around on Sunday, so that seemed like the most feasible option.
I don't know if I've ever raced in the single with stakeboats before, but I've been at enough races with stakeboats to know the drill; as soon as the race before us left the starting blocks, we rowed around the side of the dock and then backed in towards our lanes. The gusting headwind/crosswind made things somewhat interesting; as soon as the person holding my stern got a grasp on the boat, I had to start correcting my point so the boat stayed facing down the lane, by taking short, choppy strokes with my port oar. After a couple of minutes of alignment work by the race officials ("Lane 1 back six inches, lane six forward a foot," etc.), the starter raised the red flag, dropped it, and we were off.
About ten strokes in, I had one real doozy of a stroke on port, which came kind of close to sending me into the water, but I managed to recover from it and kept going. The outcome of the race also became apparent at about that point. I was in lane 5; lane 6, to my left, took off from the start and I never saw her again. Meanwhile, just a few strokes in I could already see lanes 1 through 4 behind me. The whole course is lined with buoys, which meant I didn't have to turn around to steer, and could instead just steer by watching the buoys behind me. Occasional cross-wind gusts made that somewhat interesting, but otherwise it was a 1k race where I just held on and muscled my way down towards the finish line. Two things saved me from complete embarrassment: (1) I'm in good shape, thanks to all of the cross-training with the Aggies, and (2) this was a Master's race, not an Open race. I'd probably get my butt kicked in an Open race, still. That would call for more actual race training. Instead, after handicaps were factored in, I wound up placing third in the race, behind Lane 6, who won handily, and the oldest competitor, who had a hefty 24-second handicap advantage on me. The handicap meant that despite the fact that I finished in front of her in second place on the course, she aged me out. Ah well.
Lane 6 was someone from the Dallas Rowing Club. One of the other rowers from my event said that at the end of our race, the woman in Lane 6 turned around and headed back to the start for another race, which tells me she's a pretty serious rower. I hope I get to race against her again sometime soon. Races are more fun when there are challenges built in.
Whenever a regatta involves traveling, the logistics really add up. The Heart of Texas is a large enough regatta (around 780 entries this year!) that teams often try to get to the race venue early enough to secure a good spot for the boats and team tents. And really, the Aggies are no different. When we arrived, shortly before 10 am, our favorite spot was already occupied, but there was room adjacent to that team. We had a brief moment of excitement when a random pickup truck drove next to the parked trailers and someone inside apparently required medical attention for a drug overdose, but otherwise, it was just a nice, sunny spring day in Austin.
Once we rigged all of the boats and checked on a number of miscellaneous equipment issues, I took out an 8+ full of novices to check out the race course. Everything copacetic, we had an afternoon free in Austin. The first order of business was lunch, so one of the rowers who knew Austin suggested an expedition to S. Congress to check out Hopdoddy Burger Bar. This being a college team function, there was no alcohol, but thankfully Hopdoddy has enough other delicious foods that we enjoyed our lunch tremendously. I ordered the one veggie burger, whose patty contains black beans and beets. It was all right. Their french fries, in comparison, were tasty, but even better was the Nutella-pretzel milkshake, topped off with real whipped cream and made with freshly-churned ice cream. If you find yourself in Austin, the neighborhood around Hopdoddy looks fun to stroll through, and there are plenty of places to stop in and eat.
Lunch accomplished, we next ventured over to Zilker Park, as some of the rowers were interested in checking out Barton Springs, despite the cooler temperatures. However, Barton Springs was still closed for renovations (as had been reported to me by DM a few weeks prior), so instead one of the rowers pulled out a frisbee and we all headed for a stretch of open grass. I decided to sit under a tree and read a book for a while, while the rest of the rowers played a game of Ultimate Frisbee. I can't remember the last time I did that - brought a book to sit and read, out in a park. It was glorious, reading about the wrap-up of the Batavia mutiny, sitting under an oak tree on a sunny, warm day. After that, I was convinced to join in a game of sand volleyball, and then it was time to meet up with the rest of the team for dinner and an early bedtime before the regatta.
I don't have many particulars to report from the regatta. It was windy all day on Saturday, but not to the point where races had to be canceled. Just to the point where things were running behind, but to an unpredictable degree. My race wasn't until 2:03 pm, so I spent the morning hanging out and talking with other rowers about rowing and life. That's also a rarity for me these days - just hanging out, not doing much.
I've been out in the single exactly three times leading up to this race, and on all three occasions I wasn't preparing to race, I was coaching other boats. So I wouldn't say I set out to the warm-up area feeling especially excited about my prospects. Mostly, I was interested in remaining upright and not making a complete fool of myself. When I registered for the regatta, the Women's Open 1x had zero other entries, so I signed up for the Women's Masters 1x. The Master's 1x was also on Saturday, and it was unclear whether the rest of the team would be sticking around on Sunday, so that seemed like the most feasible option.
I don't know if I've ever raced in the single with stakeboats before, but I've been at enough races with stakeboats to know the drill; as soon as the race before us left the starting blocks, we rowed around the side of the dock and then backed in towards our lanes. The gusting headwind/crosswind made things somewhat interesting; as soon as the person holding my stern got a grasp on the boat, I had to start correcting my point so the boat stayed facing down the lane, by taking short, choppy strokes with my port oar. After a couple of minutes of alignment work by the race officials ("Lane 1 back six inches, lane six forward a foot," etc.), the starter raised the red flag, dropped it, and we were off.
About ten strokes in, I had one real doozy of a stroke on port, which came kind of close to sending me into the water, but I managed to recover from it and kept going. The outcome of the race also became apparent at about that point. I was in lane 5; lane 6, to my left, took off from the start and I never saw her again. Meanwhile, just a few strokes in I could already see lanes 1 through 4 behind me. The whole course is lined with buoys, which meant I didn't have to turn around to steer, and could instead just steer by watching the buoys behind me. Occasional cross-wind gusts made that somewhat interesting, but otherwise it was a 1k race where I just held on and muscled my way down towards the finish line. Two things saved me from complete embarrassment: (1) I'm in good shape, thanks to all of the cross-training with the Aggies, and (2) this was a Master's race, not an Open race. I'd probably get my butt kicked in an Open race, still. That would call for more actual race training. Instead, after handicaps were factored in, I wound up placing third in the race, behind Lane 6, who won handily, and the oldest competitor, who had a hefty 24-second handicap advantage on me. The handicap meant that despite the fact that I finished in front of her in second place on the course, she aged me out. Ah well.
Lane 6 was someone from the Dallas Rowing Club. One of the other rowers from my event said that at the end of our race, the woman in Lane 6 turned around and headed back to the start for another race, which tells me she's a pretty serious rower. I hope I get to race against her again sometime soon. Races are more fun when there are challenges built in.
