Really Random Thursday

I've mentioned that I coach high school rowing. I also am on a master's (adult) team. Last weekend the team competed at the Textile River Regatta (on the Merrimack in Lowell, MA - where all the mills used to be hence Textile). I rowed in two events - the women's 8 and the mixed 8.

I'm sitting in 5 seat - the seats are numbered starting from the front of the boat (Bow, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Stroke <-- the lead rower facing the coxswain)

 In the women's 8+, five of the rowers in this boat were novices and for several of them it was their first race ever. It's quite the introduction since the Textile is long at 3.4 miles, even for the fall races. As a basic break down of rowing - the fall is like cross country running: everyone is racing the clock, started every 15 seconds, and going from point A to point B on the river following all the twists and turns with the final results calibrated once all boats have finished the course; whereas, spring rowing is like track: 6 boats line up side by side and go completely straight with the first boat to cross the line declared winner.

The mixed 8 had two women in the stern pair (last ones to cross the finish line), 4 men in the middle, and two women in the bow pair (the first to cross the finish line). I was the bow seat for this race. 

This weekend we have a home course race for the teams that utilize our small river in Cambridge, MA. Then over the next few weeks New Hampshire Champs, Head of the Charles in Boston (the biggest fall head race in the world with 9,000 competitors and a technically difficult course with two 90 degree turns), and to finish out the season Head of the Schuylkill in Philadelphia.