Gearing up

It's almost time for the Head of the Charles! Yesterday morning, I got to go out in the coaching launch with a friend who coaches for the Tufts Varsity Men's team. Along with the visit to the Malden River, I got to finally see the new boathouse that got built 6-7 years ago. Swanky. I'll post photos at some point.

Then, in the afternoon I headed out to Community Rowing, Inc., to meet up with my boat-mates for the race. I'm rowing as a German; two of the rowers got in touch with a third rower from Arizona, who contacted a coxswain and myself about putting this boat together. We were hoping to practice yesterday, but plans fell through, so we only have today to hop in a boat and see how things gel. Anyway, meeting up at CRI was a jaw-dropping experience. In some ways, it's the polar opposite of the High-Performance Training Center in Oklahoma City; I believe CRI still operates as a rower-funded endeavor, and they only recently finished building a brand-new boathouse. Actually, a pair of brand-new boathouses. One is full of small sculling boats, the other contains a cadre of sweep boats. Both buildings are huge and beautiful, and it's clearly the kind of space that has been assembled by a group of people hoping to generally promote the sport of rowing. Elements of the CRI architecture are just as jaw-dropping as the OKC boathouse, but if I had to choose between the two styles, I'd easily go with the CRI option because the architecture both pays homage to traditional boathouses and brings in some good contemporary elements.

I'll have to look up more information about CRI. So you can expect plenty more rowing blather in upcoming days. Rowing history is rich in Boston.

The day's rowing adventures/misadventures.

So. Yesterday, we were supposed to gather at 4 pm at Community Rowing to rig our boat and get in our first practice row. We got word in the morning that the boat would be arriving at 10 pm, so based on that we decided to just meet up and make plans, which we did. It was fun to finally get to meet the rowers that my Canadian friend L had arranged to race with.

This morning, I bicycled over to CRI at 8:30, for a 9:30 arrival and 10 am practice row in a rental boat from Vespoli. Shortly after I got there, we learned that somehow the boat we were going to borrow did not make it onto the trailer the night before, and so it was back in Greenwich, Connecticut. After absorbing that information for a few minutes and letting some calm panic and astonishment set in, our German teammates decided to go over to another boathouse to confer with people they knew there. Meanwhile, L called a coach at Riverside Boat Club to see if anyone could help us there. Shortly after she confirmed a backup boat at Riverside, Vespoli called back and said the boat was headed up to Boston on a trailer, slated for a 1 pm arrival time, after which it would need to be rigged/etc.

Here's where I should comment that this four is an interesting experience in personalities. L tends towards the emotional/high strung/overly communicative. I try to be calm and pleasant, especially in the face of emergencies. The Germans are closer to what you might imagine for Germans - pretty stoic and direct (but super nice!). The husband of K has been rowing for 63 years, and she and U both have 100% rowing families, so they're well-embedded in the international rowing community. After a little while, I could tell the excessive communications from L were overwhelming them - especially because they aren't especially confident about speaking English (despite being much more capable than I would be if asked to speak German!). Heck, *I* was getting overwhelmed, but I tend to let that stuff just wash over me so I can focus on keeping my own mental balance.

The second L had confirmed the boat's 1 pm arrival and the backup boat, she wanted to get back in touch with the Germans to have them cancel any other plans. However, before they had departed, U had pointed out that this was the second time that Vespoli had done something fishy, so it was hard to tell whether they'd follow through on a third promise. Also, there's danger with winding up in a situation where you feel like you're at the mercy of a business. So I suggested that L wait until they returned in person so we could confer and make a decision as a group.

When U returned, she strode in and informed us that they'd managed to procure both a boat and backup boat at the Buckingham Browne & Nichols boathouse, which is tucked in next to the Cambridge Boat Club, the hosts of the Head of the Charles. BB&N is a private high school in the area, so they don't have much activity during the Head of the Charles, and they also have a great space and small fleet of boats. Quickly weighing our options, we thought: Vespoli screwed us over TWICE (no practice the day before, major delays that day, no guarantee we'd be happy with the boat, lots of wasted time), so the deal was off. BB&N had two nice boats on offer, and we'd be launching from a boathouse that was much closer to everything else, so we'd go with that plan. On top of all that, I think U was eager to cut off all of the fussing around over the boat, which we would have had to share with the University of Washington and which wasn't all that great anyway. I was getting fed up with it, too. We headed to BB&N, got the boat properly adjusted, and went out for a test row.

Things got much better once we finally got out on the water. The day before a big race, it's really important to budget time carefully. It's not a good day to wind up sitting around in the elements, waiting for too long, because being out and about is draining, and that energy needs to go towards racing. We needed to row and get a feel for how things would go, so there would be enough time to make any changes that needed to be made. Plus, things only get more hectic as the day progresses and more crews show up and want to wedge in some practice time on the water. We launched only an hour or so later than we'd planned, and had enough time to get a feel for each other and the boat. And fortunately, things went pretty well the first time around. By the end of the row, I'd figured out a couple of things I need to focus on while we race, and so I think we'll be set for a good time tomorrow. Then there was plenty of time in the afternoon to relax, visit all of the fun souvenir tents, and head home for a quiet evening.

I really like U's style. She's absolutely no-nonsense, and she'll definitely try to get away with trouble if and when she can. There's nothing timid about her. She's going to be the anchor point in the boat. And she's in a good spot to give me a nice rowing boost; we wound up deciding to put me in stroke seat, with U right behind, and things will gel well.

I love this sport, and already am having so much fun being here, despite the crazy moments.