Sunday, October 21, 2007

Take Me To The River

Those of you who really know the Radical also know that I am a Rower. As a Dedicated Rower, my fall was spent preparing to row three miles down the Charles River, in Boston, in a double. I expected to do ok: my partner and I had won a couple races, and done moderately well in another.

Well, we got our butts nailed to the wall: got charged once by an oncoming boat, another boat failed to clear and then, all on our own and with no help from anyone, we missed three buouys, so at a messy end-of-the-pack we were DFL. Which, if you are a rower, you know means Dead Fucking Last. OK, so it's all about next year, winter training, blah, blah.

We did the Weeks and Eliot bridges to perfection: I hope that's where Regatta Sport took the picture.



(This is a picture of someone else doing the Eliot bridge perfectly.)

And yet there is something to be happy about besides the potential picture of my doubles partner and I doing the Weeks bridge perfectly. Because the Zenith 1V Men -- excuse me, Wesleyan University Men's Varsity Rowing, First Boat --were second in the Collegiate Eights, fewer than five seconds behind Trinity. This, sportsfans, is outstanding. And it could not have happened to a nicer or more hard working bunch of guys.

Which is all the inspiration I need to get my ass down to the boat house tomorrow morning and start to work all over again.

5 comments:

cantdance said...

any tips on how to get started with crew (when one doesn't have the benefit of a school rowing program).

Tenured Radical said...

cantdance,

I would start by going to USRowing: I think they have a directory of rowing clubs.

I first learned to row because the women's coach at Zenith taught a bunch of us out of the goodness of her heart. But there are also summer camps, and you can try a website called Row2k for those.

It is a brilliant sport, partcularly in a warm fall like this one where you get the leaf visuals.

TR

Paris said...

One of the most remarkable things about studying at The Ivory Tower was observing how they managed to turn rowing into a contact sport. Impressive.
That and watching straight men attempt to be roaringly butch whilst dressed in pastel-colored lycra.

Edward Carson said...

I too have long been interested in rowing; however, it is a sport that has never taken off in the south, with the exception of the Atlanta - Tampa area. I have long viewed rowing as the sport of the bright. It seems expensive. Am I right?

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