C.R.A.S.H.-B. Sprints 2018
Why would anyone pay $35 and drive 4 hours to/from Boston in order to do a 2k race? Well, I decided to find out! After hearing so much from everyone about this great race, I finally got my chance to try it on Sunday, Feb 25th. This year’s race was a little subdued compared to prior races (or so I heard) as the World Qualifications were moved to a different venue this year for the first time. However, there was still plenty of action and really amazing performances by all the athletes there. A few favorites:
Dottie
Dottie: My favorite, and probably everyone else’s, was Dottie. She raced in the 95-100 age category, and did so with pizzaz! Not only was she dressed to a tee: hair done, a blouse, slacks, and a necklace, she kept cool and collected throughout. She even blew kisses to the audience as she entered the final leg of her race. She is my hero!
Flyweight women: I was awed by the strength in these women. Small in stature but strong of will, their times were amazing. Showing that technique matters, even on the erg!
Youth age 12 & 13: ok, I’m biased as I hope to see my daughter race in this age group next year (C’mon Nicole!!) but I was truly amazed at how far some of these kids can row in 4min. Not the traditional 2k race, but instead a time based race, these kids are something to watch.
Joseph Dickerson: Our very own novice rower not only did his first ever erg competition, he’d never even rowed a 2k before! Amazing if not a little crazy!
So for those of you who would like to do it next year, here’s a couple tips:
Practice race: I don’t actually erg that much myself, but I do know that you need to have confidence in knowing what split you can hold. So do at least one practice race at a split you don’t believe you can hold. It’ll hurt, but it’s the only way you can know for sure how far you can push yourself. It’ll give you confidence during the more stressful race situation.
Race strategy: Know what you want your average splits and stroke rate to be for each 500 of the race. With adrenaline pumping, you are bound to start off too fast, so you’ll need to slow yourself down! It’s also tempting to listen to the others around you and try to keep up – but if you have confidence in what you’re doing, you can ignore all that (ok, well I tried anyway!).
Enjoy: If it’s not fun – then it’s not worth doing. Nope, I didn’t get the time I’d hoped for, but just being there, surrounded by a lot of like minded people is just amazing. It’s so inspiring that we are healthy and well and able to do this – how can that not be inspiring!
And let me take a moment to thank all my teammates who supported me. Special kudos to Elissa who was willing to wake up early and make the trek with me just so she could coach me. Wow. And to Katie, who made Joseph and I our very own special t-shirts. A very special tradition of hers that I couldn’t be prouder to show off. But thank you to everyone else who stopped and sent pre-race inspiration and post race kudos. I really felt like the team was there with me – very cool and very humbling. I hope I did you all proud.
