Independence Day Regatta: Fireworks and Rowing, Now That's Patriotism

July 1-3: Independence Day Regatta

Independence Day Regatta is one of the biggest summer regattas and despite eight years in the sport, I had actually never been before. Although I was signed up for a triathlon that day, I asked to defer my registration fee so that I could attend IDR.

Because the classification rules for the Schuylkill Navy are different from the rules for US Rowing, I had to row in the intermediate instead of novice single. This meant that I had to race my first 2k in the single. My heat was at 5:18pm on Friday so I left for Philly in the morning after de-rigging, packing up and washing my boat. After a little traffic and about five bathroom stops, I made it to Philly around 1pm. This left a good amount of time for rigging, socializing and a quick nap under a tree. 

 One of the things about rowing the single that is still taking some getting used to is how much it is all about you. This seems obvious to anyone who knows about rowing but I don’t think that I realized what it was really like until I started racing by myself. When rowing for a team, there’s always someone to launch you or carry your oars or travel with you or check your equipment or high-five you on the dock. When rowing an unaffiliated single, you need to be able handle everything yourself. As much as I really enjoy rowing the single, that is the one thing that makes it very different. Rowing by myself is very enjoyable, it’s doing everything else alone that threw me for a loop at first.

My race in the heat was not the greatest. Since there were 21 boats in the Intermediate 1x category, three boats in each of the four heats moved on to semis. I was in Lane 1, and had been warned about the turn. However, I still took it badly. I ended up with my starboard oars on the buoy line instead of my port oars, the way I was supposed to and actually ended up off the course before the marshal waved me back on. I definitely lost some time because of that. Fortunately for me, I got lucky with a slower heat and qualified anyway. A lot of that race was a learning experience for me. I was trying to learn how to handle the length of a 2k in a single and couldn’t really think about anything other than crossing the finish line with a place good enough to qualify. I finished third and got to move onto the semis, on Sunday morning.

Dinner on Friday was spaghetti and meatballs at Angellino's

Friday night I stayed with a friend of Sean’s old roommate and Marist crew alumnus, Andrew, who lives in Philly with his fiancée and Penn AC junior team coach, Rebecca.  Andrew’s friend, Steph, used to compete in Ironman races so one of the highlights of my stay with her was getting to see real Ironman medals. The other highlights were her two dogs, Tracker and Betty. I spent most of my stay with her playing with my new furry friends.

Breakfast was a cinnamon raisin bagel on Saturday morning at RyBread 

Since I had all of Saturday to hang out and not race, I got to see a good deal of the city of Philly as well as a lot more racing. I think that most of the people who were rowing for a team rowed in multiple events, something I did not envy on such a hot day. On Saturday night, I stayed with my parents, who had come to see me race.  That night, we saw an amazing display of fireworks from the hotel window. Philly definitely goes all out to celebrate 4^th of July: these fireworks were awesome.

Video of Sean's heat, taken by Andrew from his bike

My friend from high school, Andy, walked onto the Bucknell Men's Crew team and is rowing for NYAC this summer. For more video from Saturday's races, click here.

Chicken and whole wheat penne with pesto at Maggiano's with my parents

On Sunday, I was happy to race in the morning. I think that one of the reasons my race in my heat was so bad was because I was exhausted from traveling and spending a day in the heat. Obviously, a good rower should be ready to race in any conditions, so that’s no excuse for a bad race. Needless to say, on Sunday I was glad to be racing at a time where I felt I was strongest.

My race was at 8:36 a.m., but things were a little behind so I didn’t actually end up lining up until 9ish. Everyone in the warm up area was a little tense, but we all got some laughs when the girl from St. Catherine’s (Canada) asked “Do you think they’re behind, eh?” It seems weird to be friendly with your competitors before racing, but the best rower is going to win anyway, not the nicest (or meanest) person.

On this race course, the start is staggered because of the turn. Because I was in Lane 1, it seemed like I started ahead of everyone, though things were evened once we went through the bridge. Despite this false sense of being ahead, I felt that my start was very strong, as were my first power strokes. A couple of the girls shot off the line but I was able to hang with the main pack for about 600 meters. I made a middle move of 15 strokes at the St. Joe’s boathouse, where I could hear my mum cheering for me. (One of the best things about not having a coxswain is that you can actually hear the spectators!) At that point, all the rowers but one were ahead of me. Through the 3^rd 500, I tried to focus on lengthening out my stroke and relaxing my hands, two things I had worked on in practice.

Photos taken by the paparazzi, aka my mother

Once I hit the island, I knew that I probably didn’t have a chance of qualifying but I was going to sprint anyway. I wanted to show the people in the grandstand that I wasn’t completely defeated. I took the hardest power 25 that I think I’ve ever taken in my life before I heard the buzzer signaling that I had crossed the line…in 5^th place. I hadn’t qualified, but I was very happy with my race. Throughout the weekend, I had successfully doubled my racing experience in the single. I had also learned from my mistakes in the heat and had a better semi because of that. Despite reservations earlier in the weekend about whether giving up my spot in the triathlon was the right thing to do, I am very glad I went to IDR instead. 

Results of the races can be found here. 

Rowing back to the dock

Another thing that I liked about the race was that the organizers sent a survey afterwards. This showed me that they really cared about making it a good race for everyone. Even though it’s been around since 1880, they are still working to improve it and that impressed me. I also met the race organizer, Clete, who was very friendly and genuinely cared about my racing experience. The only thing that I wish had been different was the time between heats, semis, and finals. Having 36 hours between heats and semis, and then less than 2 hours between semis and finals seems uneven to me. But since I didn't actually make finals, I was unaffected.

 

Intermediate Women's 1x Final on Sunday morning....wish I had been in the race, but it was exciting to watch too

Thanks to my parents, for coming to watch me race, to Steph, for giving me a place to stay, to Andrew, for cheering loudly, and to Mulvey and Sean, for their amazing ability to keep my ego in check while still giving me moral support.

Check back next week for updates on my first triathlon of the season!



Derby Sweeps and Sculls: Pants Would Have Been A Good Choice

Saturday June 11: My First Race in the 1x

Pre-Race

Since my race was at 8:28 a.m., a 4:50 a.m. alarm was required to be on time to meet Coach Sean (Clarke, the Marist men's varisty coach) at the boathouse to load the boats. Even though I usually wake up at 5:15 a.m. for practices during the year, I was getting a little spoiled with sleeping in til 6 :00 a.m. and 4:50 a.m. start hit early. I groggily made my two packets of raisins and spice oatmeal and coffee and stumbled down to the boathouse. One of the first new things that I would have to deal with for this race was getting my own boat there. We were going to load the Jody right on the crossbars of  Izzy, my 2008 Subaru Forester.

Coach Sean, making sure the Jody is tightly fastened

I was nervous about driving with the boat, especially because the Jody belongs to my coach, Tom. Since I didn't know where I was going, Sean and I planned to caravan to the race. The drive was not too eventful except for the second we crossed into Connecticut, we hit what seemed to me like a monsoon. Trying to follow another person (especially one who drives at 15 miles over the speed limit and believes "yellow light" means "go faster") is hard enough, it’s nearly impossible when you can’t even see the road ten feet in front of you.

View out of the front of Izzy...don't worry we were still on the Marist campus at this point

We arrived around 7:30 and I ran to registration to check-in and pick-up my bow number while Sean very kindly started rigging my boat. Having packed in my 100 degree house the night before, I had stupidly not packed rain gear or any warm clothing. Since it was raining and cold, this was a rookie mistake. Luckily for me, I never clean my car and managed to find a rain jacket. Pants, however, would have been a good choice.

Rigged and ready to go!

We finished rigging and I ran to the bathroom one last time. When I got back, Sean was grumbling and cursing over my boat. Apparently the spread was off by over a centimeter, something that had been causing me to overcompensate to my port side. At that point, I got really nervous because they had made the last call for my race and I was on land when I needed to be on the water. But he fixed everything quickly and I walked my boat over to the launching area. Since this race had no docks, I had to “wet dock” or wade knee-deep into the water, place my boat in the water and then climb in without flipping. I was definitely glad I had Sean and Brendan there to carry my oars and explain how to get in, even if they did make fun of me the whole time. I was all set and headed off to the start.

Other singles wet-docking at the launching area

Lane "5"

The race course, as seen from the finish line

On The Water

The race itself was fairly uneventful. I was in the second heat, and two of the racers scratched so there were only three people in my race. I was originally supposed to be in lane 5, which is the outside lane. The officials moved me to lane 4. The start was staggered so it felt like I started way behind. Even if the start hadn’t been staggered, I probably would have started behind anyway. My start was fairly sloppy and I was definitely not very aggressive from the beginning. I picked it up after the first five strokes. I didn’t really stick to any plan in terms of a high twenty because I was concentrating on the girl in lane 1. She was probably a boat length ahead of me off the first twenty strokes and I wanted to catch her. I kept my rating high (I think anyway, I don’t have a stroke coach) and thought about something Sean had said about single racing:

“When you’re racing a single, it’s not like the eight. People don’t make huge moves out of nowhere. The races are usually decided by the 1000m mark and if they’re not it’s because the two or three guys are really close to each other. No one who is behind by a deck will take ten strokes to move up an entire boat length on you, and if they do it’s because you let them.”

And I was not about to let this girl go. By the 500m mark I had moved back and was probably up a deck on her. I kept telling myself that all I had to do was hang on, because she wasn’t going to make a move unless I let her. At 250m, my lead was probably about a length. We had practiced sprints the day before and I wanted to try and see what I could do. I started cranking as hard as I could in order to get across the line and finish the race. Afterwards, the guys made fun of me for not taking a single stroke past the line, but once I heard the “beep” for my bow crossing, I was done.  Even though it was “only a thousand meters”, I was tired!

Post Race

Brendan: You got disqualified.

Tory: You’re kidding. That’s not funny.

Sean: No, seriously, you got disqualified.

Tory: WHAT?! FOR WHAT?!

Brendan: There’s a weight limit for Novice Singles. You can’t be over 200 pounds so they disqualified you.

(Sean and Brendan kill themselves laughing)

Tory: I hate you guys.

Which I think is their backwards way of saying “Good job.”

After I raced, I got to watch Sean and Brendan race in their respective heats of the Open 1x, of which I snagged some video.

Brendan, headed out to race

Sean, headed out to race

Just chillin' in the river after the race

Packing up the cars

Once they were done,  we looked at all the results, packed the cars and headed off for some food. Sean had “droid-ed” a restaurant on his phone, but once we got there, we decided that the BBQ shack, which turned out to be RiverView BBQ, we had passed previously looked better. And it was amazing. It was right on the river, probably 10k or so upstream from the course. It was very pretty and I had a super delicious BBQ pulled pork sandwich.

Big flavor from a little shack

Enjoying a well-deserved meal

They weren't kidding about the river view

Between the three of us, we ate everything on the sign: ribs, chicken and pulled pork

Overall Impression of the Race

I definitely think this was a great venue for my first race in the single. The registration people and the officials were very friendly and helpful. The other rowers were also friendly and I met some really nice people. There were enough rowers there to make the race fun, but not so many that I was intimidated or lost in the shuffle. The race course is very pretty and it helped calm my nerves because I had raced there before with Marist, at Head of the Houstonic. It’s also close enough to be a one day trip and doesn’t break the bank on paying for gas (definitely a plus for me).

Results

Can be found on the New Haven Rowing website here. I was in the Women's Novice 1x, and yes, my real name is Victoria.

Guess who ate my other peanut butter and honey sandwich?

Acknowledgements

Obviously, I didn’t do everything by myself. so I’d like to thank the following people: Tom, for lending me the boat to race in; Brendan for pushing me to enter the race, even though I didn’t want to; Ben for still being my friend after I whined in between every practice piece and Sean for lending me the oars, adjusting my equipment, pushing me through hard workouts, and telling me to “just be quiet and pull hard”. 

Friday June 10: Pre-Race Prep in Pictures

The Jody's hardware and wrenches

I'm pretty sure that this is the first time the Jody has been de-rigged in 10 years

Dirty, dirty boat

What Hudson River grime?

Izzy the Subaru gets packed with oars, rigger, an extra strap and hardware and wrenches stuffed in my "track bite sock"



Pre-race meal: Twisted Soul on Raymond Ave in Poughkeepsie



Pork dumplings, fried chicken coconut curry and BBQ mac&cheese are all gone

Laying out my stuff...yes, that's two peanut butter and honey sandwiches