Friday PM
We arrived at the cape on Friday night, it was a surprisingly easy drive from Central Mass, with two shells strapped down on our Subaru Outback. It was our first time driving with 2 shells on the roof rack and there was a thunderstorm when we left home and it was dark. The anxiety of driving expensive stuff on your car is real.
Day before the race (Sat AM)
We went on an easy, casual row/learn the racing course on Mashpee Pond early on Saturday morning with none other than Jim Dietz himself. WHAT AN ABSOLUTE GEM he is. To be in the presence of someone so accomplished, yet so humble and kind was truly an honor. He was describing to Ross and I where to point our stern at, where to aim for because this is what the race course looks like:
It looks pretty straightforward but when you are solely responsible for your steering in your single scull and moving backwards and going at racing speed, that’s another story.
I did not do much preparation the night before as I am treating this race as a fun race. There was no expectations, I just wanted to see how fast I can go for the 7500m distance.
Race Day (Sun AM)
There was a briefing before everyone got on water to go through the race course and some changes they made from previous years. The line up was already given to us via email so we pretty much knew where we were going to start. I was surprised that I was starting ahead of Ross (which meant the organizers thought I would be faster than Ross!). The first boat was scheduled to start at 7:30am. For such a small event with approximately 50 rowers, it was such a well-planned and well-ran event. I was on water at 7am to begin my warm up. Did a little sprint here and there to get my heart rate up.
Boats were started every 10-15seconds. This was possible my second head race in a 1x, first being the Head of Hosmer at Craftsbury. Basically, the starting line umpire will call your boat up and you row towards the starting line and when you cross the starting line, the umpire will say “BOW #, ON THE COURSE!” which basically means, it’s GO TIME.
The first few minutes went fine, Greg Stone went before me which means he was ahead of me so I was trying to “catch” him. As it was my first and longest race that I would have done, I did not know what stroke rate or rating to keep so I just went around 29-30 with a 2:05 split which at that point, with a little tailwind breeze, felt manageable.
Before reaching the first island, I went past Greg. I must say the gloomy day made the bright, orange buoys pop out in the grey background so that helped with my steering.
In a 2000m sprint race, I would usually break down the race into 500m blocks, with each block having a different focus, and most of the time, counting strokes. I don’t remember counting strokes in this race. I was thinking about technique a lot. I was telling myself to get the blades off the water, because you wouldn’t want to upset the boat glide, especially on the recovery. I was also reminding myself to keep my posture tall and strong, like an albatross.
At some points, I was feeling really exhausted, but I must say, I love that feeling of feeling tired but pushing through it. It is just like training when you do a hard piece and you feel the burn in your legs and lungs but you know you have a few more strokes to go to complete the piece. You do what it takes to finish that piece.
There were some choppy water around the third island where we had to make 2 90 degree turns. I checked the boat down on starboard side and rowed on port to turn the boat sharply instead of making a wide turn. Requires a little bit more energy but saves a lot of time!
The only orange buoy that we had to pass on our port side was the one at Conaumet Pt. By then, it’s already past the halfway mark and you’re on your way back to shore.
There was a doubles that I overtook somewhere around that point. Their directions weren’t the greatest and I just had to overtake them because they didn’t know where to go.
I think the hardest part was the last 2000m stretch back. the straight line that supposedly brings your back to the starting line. My split were definitely crap on that stretch, only then did I start counting strokes.
I crossed the line feeling OK. Knew I nailed the turns but could have done better split wise. I did keep to a 29-30 stroke rate throughout the race though and I surprised myself!
Here’s the results:
Coming in 2nd in the Women’s Masters 1x category with adjusted time. Ross came in 26s after me, which I thought was pretty impressive, considering he only took up sculling a few years ago. When it comes to a long race like this, technique and holding proper form when you get tired does matter. It’s not a piece where you can simply smash through it without great technique, like a sprint race. Longer races require more finesse and of course, rowing endurance.
It was a fun race and it was nice to be able to get back in the boat and enjoy racing again.
It’s funny how just a few years ago, I told myself I will never race in a 1x ever again and here I am, back in the boat. 😉
-Aisyah
