Monday, March 27, 2006

Results

Race went very well.

You can see a pretty cool way of looking at the results here. Though I think the times are a little off, (we didn't do a 1:40 second 500 and then a 1:30 third 500... That's just crazy) the pictures are probably right about relative positions.

Had I known the race was going to be streamed on the web with live video, I'd have told some folks so they could watch.

Me in the warm up:



Us with about 500m to go. Note the blades all entering the water together:



It's huge for us to have won so decisively. We were racing some of our best competition on the West coast, a crew of many ex national team and elite collegiate oarsmen. We got maybe a seat or two up on the start, and held our high strokes for about 5 more strokes than they did. When both boats settled, we were pretty close. They crept back a bit and were maybe just a half seat down with 500 down. At which point we dug in and moved out to maybe a 3 seat advantage. Our coxswain made a brilliant call for us to shift our stroke rating down a beat right before the 1000 meter mark. We made the shift, and he then called for a power 20. So essentially, we shifted our rhythm and rowed a slightly slower pace, but much higher power. And we took about a length on the other crew. At about 1500 down our coxswain called that he had their bow ball, and that we'd sprint the last 300. At this point I just shifted my focus to being sharp and clean. The only thing that could stop victory would have been a boat stopping crab.

When we hit the dock, the unofficial time was 5:59, which is crazy fast. The time on the web site of 6:12 seems more reasonable. While this isn't exactly my crew for San Diego, 5 of us are in that boat. And the winner of our event down there usually goes about 6:25. Bodes well.