WEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! I won a medal!
I have been rowing at this club in Redwood City called Bair Island Aquatic Center. I started out rowing in the morning with the novice people, but it conflicted with getting calls for subbing so I started rowing in the afternoon with the intermediate crew. It's mostly older people, but there are a couple younger people there for the summer whilst they are off from college. One of those people is our cox Kris, she rocks! She coxes like every boat at the place.
So anyway, I have been rowing there for a while and recently we have been training to race in the Lake Merritt Sprints. They were yesterday. They are sprint races, and only 1000 meters. Woohoo! That is shorter than any of the other races I have done, but it is still hardcore when you are doing THREE of them. It was fun though. I like sprints and their head to head-ness rather than "head" races where everyone starts at a different time.
Our first race was a mixed intermediate 8, the category that we fit in best. We came in second place in that one. We were all kinda hoping that since the boat that was in first place had crossed into a different lane they would be disqualified or something, but no such luck. There were four other boats that raced us in that one, so I felt slighly accomplished for coming in second and was dissapointed to hear that they were only giving out medals for first place. Boo :( but I still had two more races... one of which was only against one other boat. The novice boat from our club.
The second race was the womens masters four. We had to be in the "A" category... because of me and my young age. So we came in dead last in that one, there were three other boats. We were practically a minute behind them all, but they were hardcore and all my age, whereas I was the only young one in our boat. However, we did pretty good, and stayed with the advanced womens four (which was in the "C" category or something like that because they are older) from our club whose race was being run at the same time as ours.
The third race was the mixed open 8, which was only against the novice boat from our club. It was weird that we were the only boats in that category. It was "open" because we had a rower that was under 21, as did the other boat. So we raced that one and won, woohoo. But they kept up with us pretty well (but were never ahead of us and we stayed about half a boat length ahead) until one of their rowers' seats came off. Then we pulled away pretty quick. So we got medals for that race. I was surprised that we actually got them, seeing as there were only two boats in that category. But that is ok, a medal is a medal!
It was a fun day. Very exciting to get a medal, although I am more proud of our performance in the first two races than in the last one. Yay for sprint races and their shortness and obvious competitiveness. Way better than long head races where you don't have someone right next to you pushing you to go faster. Yay for medals. Yay for rowing! Now I have that wonderful sore because I worked hard feeling. :)
So anyway, I have been rowing there for a while and recently we have been training to race in the Lake Merritt Sprints. They were yesterday. They are sprint races, and only 1000 meters. Woohoo! That is shorter than any of the other races I have done, but it is still hardcore when you are doing THREE of them. It was fun though. I like sprints and their head to head-ness rather than "head" races where everyone starts at a different time.
Our first race was a mixed intermediate 8, the category that we fit in best. We came in second place in that one. We were all kinda hoping that since the boat that was in first place had crossed into a different lane they would be disqualified or something, but no such luck. There were four other boats that raced us in that one, so I felt slighly accomplished for coming in second and was dissapointed to hear that they were only giving out medals for first place. Boo :( but I still had two more races... one of which was only against one other boat. The novice boat from our club.
The second race was the womens masters four. We had to be in the "A" category... because of me and my young age. So we came in dead last in that one, there were three other boats. We were practically a minute behind them all, but they were hardcore and all my age, whereas I was the only young one in our boat. However, we did pretty good, and stayed with the advanced womens four (which was in the "C" category or something like that because they are older) from our club whose race was being run at the same time as ours.
The third race was the mixed open 8, which was only against the novice boat from our club. It was weird that we were the only boats in that category. It was "open" because we had a rower that was under 21, as did the other boat. So we raced that one and won, woohoo. But they kept up with us pretty well (but were never ahead of us and we stayed about half a boat length ahead) until one of their rowers' seats came off. Then we pulled away pretty quick. So we got medals for that race. I was surprised that we actually got them, seeing as there were only two boats in that category. But that is ok, a medal is a medal!
It was a fun day. Very exciting to get a medal, although I am more proud of our performance in the first two races than in the last one. Yay for sprint races and their shortness and obvious competitiveness. Way better than long head races where you don't have someone right next to you pushing you to go faster. Yay for medals. Yay for rowing! Now I have that wonderful sore because I worked hard feeling. :)