Of Course It's Good....It's Beer HOCR 2007

So this past weekend I traveled along with 8,200 other rowers and their 1,700 shells to the Head of the Charles Regatta. As the numbers might indicate, its the largest two day rowing event in the world. Throw in the Red Sox in the playoffs the same weekend and Harvard playing Princeton in their old, but looking oh so retro these days, football stadium next to the Charles and you have one happening weekend in Beantown.

I left from Dulles on Friday morning around 9:00. At the airport I ran into three women from my club who were traveling on the same flight. We chatted away while munching on bagels while we waited for our flight to board. Once in Boston, I was picked up by the bowman of my boat and whisked down to the race course. The last time I traveled to Boston to race in the HOCR (2005), it was cold and I froze my ass off. This weekend, the temperatures were in the upper 60s/lower 70s. Quite pleasant actually. Once at the race course, there wasn't much to do. We wanted to get in a practice run, but our coxswain, Katie, was at the coxswain clinic and wouldn't be finished until early afternoon. Our club had two entries for the men - Senior Masters 8+, which is the boat I would be in and a Club 8+. The Club 8+ had all their crew together so they headed out for their practice. Since we were sharing a boat with the Club 8+ and Katie wouldn't be back for a while, I took the opportunity to walk through the vendor tents, although most were still setting up their booths. It also started to drizzle so I found an empty chair in the Pocock Boat tent where several members of our team, both men and women, had taken refuge and took a nap. One thing you learn quickly about rowing at regattas is that there is a lot of downtime with not much to do. Eventually Katie returned from her clinic all the wiser on steering on the Charles and the Club 8+ were back with our boat and soaked from the rain. As we launched, it seemed every other boat had the same idea and the river was very crowded. It took us forever to get up to the start. The row up was just horrible. We couldn't set the boat properly consequently our oars were dragging on the water on the recovery and our reach was short. Once at the start, we rowed back at about half pressure so not to wear ourselves out. We had stretches that felt good, but overall it was a disappointing practice. It did not bode well for tomorrow's race. After we returned to the dock and placed the boat on slings, we headed back to the hotel. The hotel sits right on the Charles and looking out my window, i could see the boats practicing for tomorrow. i was sharing a room with the coxswain of the Club 8+. A nice kid, but since he's all of 18, if that, we didn't have a lot in common. Its not like we could have a beer or two and botch about how bad we rowed that day. We had no set dinner plans and trying to find a place that could handle 14 people turned out to be a task. We finally settled for a Thai restaurant after our first two choices, A Bertucci's and an Uno's both had waits of over an hour. Now nothing against Thai food, but its certainly not my food of choice when I have to race the following day. I ended up getting a meal of duck, broccoli and rice. And two Kirins. From that came the title of this entry. As I was drinking my first beer, which is brewed in Thailand, the stroke for our boat asked what I was drinking and was it any good. My reply was "Of course its good. Its beer." My teammates found this reply somewhat cute, I guess and it became the catch phrase for the weekend. I'm so proud. This is the view from my hotel room overlooking the Charles.

Saturday dawned warm, but overcast and windy. After snagging the free hotel breakfast and grabbing a bagel to eat later on after our race, we loaded up and headed down to the race course. We were not using our regular shell for this race. Our usual shell is made by WinTech and they graciously agreed to let us use one of their demo shells that they were displaying at the regatta. Its rows much better than our slightly older WinTech. The boat was ready to go when we got there so all we had to do was wait for our start time. When it came for our time to launch, we headed out and rowed up to the start. There were 45 boats in our event. Our bow number was 41 so we were toward the tail end of the pack. Its quite a rush to see that many boats assembled in one area waiting to head off. We could hear the other boats being called to the start line and started off in a single file procession. Soon enough our number was called and we headed off to the start line. Our star,t as we approach the line, is to row by stern 6 using the bow pair to provide a stable platform. This allows the stern 6 to get the stroke rate and power where they want it and not worry about the set. About 10 strokes from the start line the bow pair joins in. Its really a rush when you hear them call your name: "Prince William you're now on the course". We had a good start and within a minute we were under the first bridge by the Boston University boathouse. Almost immediately after going under the bridge, Katie told us we had almost caught our first boat. That were only about 10 meters behind them. We settled into our race pace of 30 to 31 strokes per minute. I figured we'd run that first boat down soon enough. Halfway through the race we were still 10 meters behind, but we finally overtook them. Turns out it was a crew from Ireland that had made the trip over. We fought with them for almost 2 miles before we got a clear lead. As we approached the final bridge, the Elliot Street Bridge, we were passed by another boat. As they approached, i thought it strange they had Bow Number 2. I guess they had gotten up to the start late and had started at the back of the pack. We finished with a time of 18:18 good initially for 28th place out of 45. However, two boats ahead of us were given time 1:00 minute time penalties for various infractions and that allowed us to move up two places to 26th. The oat in 25th place finished less than a second ahead of us and the 24th boat a mere 1.5 seconds. We were pleased with the result. Our Women's Senior Masters 8+ did even better placing 7th and earning an automatic invite for next year. Our men's Club 8+ finished 63rd and the Women's Club 8+ finished 39th. Overall a good result for our Club.

As rowers we try to stay hydrated. The downside is you spend a lot of time waiting in line to use the porta potties. The closer to race time, the more you have to go.

For us non-Boston types, one of the highlights post race is enjoying a bowl of "Chowda" from a bread bowl. Here Daughter#1 waits while her bf buys a bowl.

My teammates enjoy the same.

Our Club 8+ poses for a group photo before they launch.

After launching, our Club 8+ heads up to the start line.

The Club 8+ racing approximately 500 meter from the finish line.

After we finished our race, I changed into some dry clothes and just in time to meet up with Daughter#1 and her boyfriend. She was up from CT to cox for her rowing club. She wasn't racing until 3:30 so it gave us a chance to hang out and buy t-shirts and food. She had been on the Elliot Street bridge cheering for our boat as we passed underneath. I could hear her yelling and i kept telling myself, Don't look up...Don't look up, but of course I did. When it was her time to race, we watched her launched and headed off to the bridge and cheered her as she came through. her boat finished 4th. so she did the best of us all. Its nice to be able to share this sport with her and getting to see her at the various regattas. Because she's young and therefore poor, she and the boyfriend were headed back to CT after she raced and had put her boat back on their boat trailer.

Here's an example of what can happen when your coxswain steers the boat to close to one of the bridges. These guys are from England and their 7 seat holds his damaged oar. I'm sure this will make for some grand stories at the pub when they return home.

Daughter#1's Women's master 4+ from the Saugatuck Rowing Club carry their shell down to the launch dock.

Stepping into their shell. Their coach is on the far left. She rowed on the Romanian Junior National Team and then coached their National Team at the Olympics at Barcelona

Getting ready to push of the dock. This 4+ is known as a bow loader, which means the coxswain is in front of her rowers rather than behind them in the rear of the boat.

Bow seat strokes the shell away from the dock.

Rowing upstream to the start.

Cambridge Boat House as seen from the Elliot Street Bridge.

Daughter#1's 4+ coming around the turn leading to the Elliot Street Bridge.

On their way to a 4th place finish.

I headed back to our hotel and got cleaned up and a large group of us, about 34, headed to the Mount Vernon restaurant for lobsters, other assorted seafood and prime rib and plenty of drinks. We all got to bond and swap stories and drink too much, but it was a load of fun.

Sunday it was home and a long nap. You can see a clip of my race here at the 1:46.25 mark. Click on the link for the races on 10/20/2007.

The Chase

The Occoquan Chase was held this past Sunday. Its hosted by the George Mason University Men's Crew team. I competed in the Masters Men 8+ category. We came in third out of six entries in our category. As last week in the Challenge, our time was a bit slower than last year. I don't know if its our boat or changes lie with the lower water level that effect boat speed or a combination of factors.

I've eluded to the low water level in the Occoquan and here is a picture looking back at our boathouse. As you can tell from the tree line on the left of the picture, the water level is down a good ten to fifteen feet. Most of what is brown dirt in the picture is usually covered by water. You can see our dock barely reaches the water and that's with extra dock sections added.

The Chase is run from Jacob's Rock down river to the first set of powerlines that cross the Occoquan. The finish is just past the 500 meter marker on the 2000 meter race course.

This is our Women's 8+ "A" Boat passing the cove where our boathouse is located. They came in first.

Just past our cove, the boats have to make a left hand turn around the a buoy. Our Women's 8+ is the boat to the far right, not quite yet to the buoy. I believe that is Alexandria that is trailing them.

The following picture was taken right before the Men's 8+ race. The boats gather at the start and start off single file with 10 to 15 seconds between boats. This picture is of our Men's 8+ "B" boat. This was the boat I was originally scheduled to be in. I was to be in the stoke seat. The stroke seat is the one just in front of the coxswain.

This is my boat. I'm way at the other end in the Number 2 seat. We were the next to last boat to start. We passed an entry from Northern Virginia Rowing Club, which in all fairness was a mixed boat. They had two women rowing. We also passed our men's novice boat at the first turn. A distance of probably 3/4 of a mile. We cut inside them on the turn, clashing with their oars as we did so. Since slower boats have to yield to faster boats, they had to go wide. There wasn't much space on the outside of the turn due to the low water and they were forced to stop before running aground and reposition their boat. Our "B" boat almost ran into them also before also having to stop and reposition themselves.

As you can tell from the picture it was a gorgeous day for rowing. The temperature was barely 70 with low humidity and just a touch of wind. Also much better than last week was that I only had to race one time. I think I've discovered once is enough.

This weekend I head to Boston for the Head of the Charles. This race is considered the highlight of the Head Race season and draws crews from around the globe. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good weather and tasty lobsters.

All pictures were taken by Alex Torres.

Irish Red Ale

Its well known to most of my family and friends that I enjoy a good beer. That being said, I've often toyed with the idea of trying to brew my own, but for various reasons I've never tried it before. After a very generous gift from my Dad for my birthday and reading about others trying their brewing skills for the first time, I decided to give it a try. So I ordered a beer brewing starter kit and a beer ingredient kit for some Red Irish Ale from Northern Brewers. Not long after I ordered it, these boxes arrived.

Inside the smaller of the two boxes were the ingredients for the Irish Red Ale. In front of the box are the hops, the malt is in the brown bottle, the yeast is in the package to the right of the malt and the grains are on the far right. Also included were instructions.

The bigger box contained my beer making starter kit with such things as a big pan to cook it up in (which turned our to be warped), tubing, a fermenter jar, bottle brushes, etc.

The first step is to fill a pot with water and not quite bring it to a boil. While waiting for the water to heat up, I drafted The Son to help me crush the grains.

The water was suppose to be around 170 degrees to seep the grains in so I drafted my other assistant brew master, Ann, to take the water temperature.

After the water was ready, we steeped the grains much like you would making a cup of tea with a tea bag. The grains turned the water a deep Carmel color.

I was constantly looking over the instructions trying not to mess it up.

After letting the grains soak for about 20 minutes or so, they were removed and the water bought to a boil. Once it came to a boil it was time to add the malt. The malt had a honey type consistency.

After the malt was added, the mixture, now called wort, went back on the stove to bring back to a boil. Once it reboiled, the first of the hops were added. The mixture was left to boil for another 60 minutes. In the last minute of boiling, the second group of hops was added.

The mixture is then cooled down to 70 degrees in a ice water bath and then poured into the fermenter.

It was difficult at this point to figure out how much water we were suppose to add to the mix. The instructions weren't too clear about it. I hope we didn't add too much.

The beer is now down in our basement fermenting away for the next week when I'll test it to see if its ready to be bottled. I sure hope it doesn't end up tasting like garbage, but we'll see. Stay tuned.

Columbus Day in Harrisonburg

One of the benefits of working for Sam are the number of holidays. This past Monday was Columbus Day and a day off. The Son, however, was traveling for work and needed a ride to the airport. He had a 6:00AM flight so off we went to Dulles at 4:00AM, on my day off. Something is not right there. Since I was going to be up early anyway, as would Ann, since The Son demanded to be fed before he left, we decided it would be a good time to go visit Daughter#2 and the Black Demon. We headed down to Harrisonburg and arrived around 9:00AM. We had talked to Daughter#2 beforehand and decided to try a hike again. First, though, we needed sustenance. We traveled south to the town of Dayton for breakfast. We each had huge breakfasts. I had an everything omelet that literally took up the whole plate. Ann had sausage biscuits, which she couldn't finish and Daughter#2 had eggs easy over with a side of oatmeal. We were served by a young Mennonite woman, which was a bit different. As Daughter#2 pointed out she must be a new order Mennonite otherwise she'd be at home taking care of her kids. Its always a bit weird encountering their horse and buggies on the road.

After stuffing ourselves, we headed back to Daughter#2's house to pick up the Black Demon and head out on our hike. The Son In Law couldn't join us as he had to work. Bummer. As Ann and I are not the accomplished hikers that Daughter#2 and The Son In Law are, she had picked out a fairly tame hike for us. We ended up at the Paul State Forest.


With Gracie, aka the Black demon, leading the way we headed into the forest.


It was a fairly short hike as hikes go. It took us a little over an hour so I'm guessing maybe2 to 3 miles. The trail ended up at a farm.

While we hiked 2 to 3 miles, Gracie probably traveled three times that far going back and forth and running into the woods.


After a little more than hour we were back at our car.

Daughter#2 gave us a short tour of Rockingham County and specifically, she took us by the house her Mother In law grew up in. Very rural area. Lots of farms. beautiful country. After the tour we headed back to Daughter#2's house for a short rest.

After returning to the house and checking out Daughter#2's new (new to her) road bike. I' m jealous. We then headed off to lunch at Calhoun's, which is a microbrewery/restaurant in Harrisonburg. After a tasty lunch and a few microbrews we dropped off daughter#2 and headed home. A fun day all things considered.

The Challenge

This Sunday was the first of three head races that are held on the Occoquan. I'll compete in all three. This Sunday it was the Occoquan Challenge. The Challenge is unique in that unlike most head races which you start at Point A and finish at Point B, with the Challenge you start and finish at Point A. There is a 180 degree turn midway through the race course that brings you back to the start. Actually the start and finish line are offset otherwise there would be a number of collisions. Something that you want to avoid. Sunday was sunny hot and humid. Not exactly ideal rowing conditions. At our practice the day before, I found out that I had been moved up from stroking our B 8+ to the #2 seat in the A 8+. This will continue for the next few weeks including the Head of the Charles in Boston. In addition to being moved up to the A boat, I was also scheduled to double row with my second race being in the Quad. When I arrived at our boathouse, the Capital Rowing Club's trailer was there unloading our Women's boats. They had competed in the Head of the Ohio in Pittsburgh the day before. One of the boats they had taken was the Quad we were to use in our race on Sunday. The Quad's steering cable had been fraying for some time and the women decided to tape it to prevent it from breaking, but by doing so they lost the ability to steer it. The tape was located such that it prevent the foot steering from working. The rudder became fixed and all control over the boat now has to be done by varying the pressure on the left or right oars. That makes making a turn much more difficult and a 180 degree turn a struggle to say the least.

We launched for my first race in the 8+ about 15 minutes before our scheduled start. As with most regattas, they were running a bit behind, but not by much. There were quite a number of 8+s in front of us waiting for their start so we just chilled till our time to go. In Head races you start single file about 10 to 15 seconds between boats. The object being to pass as many as possible while rowing the fastest time. We rowed close to the start with just our stern six and then added in the bow pair right before crossing the start line. We passed out novice men's 8+ in the first few minutes, but that was the only boat we managed to pass. We had just an ok final time and finished second in the 50+ category and fourth overall out of six boats for all Masters 8+s. I was really beat after our race and wasn't looking forward to racing in the Quad at all. After launching in the Quad literally minutes after rowing in the 8+, we found out we had been given an incorrect starting time and had another hour or so before our start so we went back to the dock to wait and rest. Luckily the start line was only about 3/4 mile from out boathouse. After we launched a second time, we were still early so we took the extra time to practice as the four of us had never rowed together before in a Quad. It was pretty rough. Our start finally came, but we weren't together as a boat at all and it was a struggle throughout the race. I think part of it was we were all tired from having already raced once that day and the heat had just sapped us. It seemed to prevent us from focusing and getting our rhythm down in the boat. Another part was rowing in an unfamiliar boat with four people not use to rowing together. Certainly not in a sculling boat. We got passed early by the only other Men's entry in the Quad event and we also managed to hit a buoy. It did some damage to our boat and should have been a penalty, but the results don't show it so I guessed the referees missed it. It was a struggle to finish. It just wasn't a good row. I was happy just to go home and have a few cold beers.

All year I've have been toying with the idea of double rowing in our last race, which is the Head of the Occoquan, in a single and my usual 8+. Its more doable then most Head races since the single sculling events are held on Saturday and club sweep events are held on Sunday. I've never timed myself before in a single and didn't know if I would be competitive or not. So on Friday, I took a watch with me and ran the Occoquan Chase course, which runs down the Prince William side of the Occoquan. Turns out my time wasn't very good so I'm scrapping the idea until next year. I'll try timing myself a few more times before cold weather shuts down rowing and see if there is any improvement.

After practice on Saturday morning, which is when I found out I had been pumped up to the A boat, I hustled home, showered and headed up to College Park with Ann to watch the University of Maryland play GaTech. In our haste to depart so we would have a little time to tailgate, we forgot to pack sunscreen. As anyone in the eastern half of the United States can tell you, its been hot. Not fall hot, but summer hot. The temperature was in the low 90s. Our seats are on the sunny side of the stadium and we fried. Luckily the game was more exciting then it should have been and we were able to ignore, to some degree, how pink our faces and arms were becoming. Maryland manged to hold on for a 28-26 win after jumping out to a 21-3 lead. After we got home, we walked the dogs and then collapsed in bed. Busy day, but tiring

Monday we headed down to Harrisonburg to spend the day with Daughter#2 and the Black Demon. More on that later when I download the pictures.

A Trip to Berryville

Last week Ann and I decided the time was right to take a few days off from working for The Man or in our case Uncle Sam. We like working for Uncle Sam, but we also have some vacation time we needed to start losing or our dear Uncle will take it come the end of the year. We work pretty hard for our Uncle and we've earned the time off so and so we did. Daughter#2 and The Son In Law had given us a Christmas present last year of a couple of days at our choice of several bed and breakfasts in and around Virginia. After mulling it over for like ever, we chose to spend their present at The Lost Dog B&B in Berryville. Berryville while not quite the Shenandoah valley is in Virginia's horse country with its historic past and mountains of money. We headed out on Wednesday just before lunch and made the hour and some change drive west. Now I should mention that along with the agony of trying to decide where to stay was what to do once we got there. We Googled endless sites, but never came up with anything hard and fast. We thought about horseback riding since Ann use to ride and we also found a place where you could take a hike with a Llama. However, this wishy washy approach to preparing for a trip does not sit well with our anal retentive Daughter#1. During her many phone calls home, which we love, she would always ask what we had planned. We would hem and haw and said we weren't sure. Finally driven to distraction by such answers, she took pity on us and being the event planner she is mapped out a three day itinerary for us. Her paper in hand, our first stop was the Main Street Bistro in historic downtown Berryville. Berryville, for those somewhat familiar with the area is just east along Rt 7 from Winchester. Below is Ann standing outside the Bistro after we ate lunch there.

Inside the Bistro I'm enjoying my Reuben along with a Black Dog Ale.

After we finished lunch and walked Main Street, we headed off to The Lost Dog Bed and Breakfast located just off Main Street. We stayed in Virginia's room.

The room and adjoining bathroom was quite comfortable as Ann ably demonstrates.

We also made use of the two person jacuzzi tub.

Sandy, our host, was more than wonderful and cooked us the most amazing breakfasts as well as sharing her wine with us in the afternoon in her sun room. We were the only guests the first night, but the second night a dog trainer arrived from Arkansas to show three dogs in a nearby dog show. She brought along a Mastif, a pointer and a Chihuahua. The mastif, a grand master of sorts and we were told was the number one mastif in the country, weighed in at 190 pounds. The chihuahua at 6. Quite a range. They were so well behaved, unlike our own yappy dogs, we wouldn't have known they were there if we hadn't seen them being taken out before bedtime. Our host, Sandy, has her own dog, a labradoodle, Sirius. He would greet us at the door upon our arrival and often returning to the B&B.

After checking in at The Lost Dog and taking a short nap, we headed out to dinner at The Battletown Inn. The Inn was the former residence of Berryville's founder's Daughter. The dinner was tasty although I didn't realize until I was halfway through my meal that the duck breast I had ordered was, in fact, pork tenderloin. It was still tasty.

The next morning our itinerary called for us to go horseback riding. So we headed off to the Marriott Ranch.

Here I'm mounted on my trusty steed Franklin.

The ranch seemed to have a lot of kittens around the barn area.

Here is one of our trail guides. I didn't catch her name, it was something like Arial, but that wasn't it. She looked like a young Angelina Jolie.

The trail ride last about 90 minutes. I didn't really have to control the horse. I'm sure Franklin has done this numerous times before. It was just a matter of relaxing and enjoy the view.

After our trial ride, we headed to Upperville for lunch. Here is a view on the way there just outside Boyce, VA.

Once we arrived in Upperville, we stopped for lunch at Hunter's Head Tavern.

They have a British phone both by their parking lot.

Their patio was open and it was a nice day so we ate outside.

I enjoyed some Fish n Chips and a few Bass Ales. The crusty bread was fresh, warm and delicious.

After finishing lunch we debated what to do, consulted the itinerary and decided to check out one of the many wineries in the area. There is one right outside Berryville called Veramar. Here I'm right outside their tasting area. At this point our camera died and we didn't have the charger with us.
Their wine was pretty good although a bit pricey by Virginia wine standards. Our host bore a striking resemblance to ER's Linda Cardellini, so that was interesting. After the tasting we bought a bottle of their Chardonnay and two glasses of the same. We went out to their patio and enjoyed the glasses of wine and the great view.

After the winery we returned to the The Lost Dog, enjoyed the Jacuzzi and then took a nap. For the evening we headed out to Middletown, VA for dinner and a theatre show. We drove through an incredible thunder storm with quite the lightening show. It was still raining when we arrived in Middletown and we had to run to the Emerald Isle. Its an Irish pub type place. We enjoyed some Shepard's Pie and some Harp beer. As we were about to pay the check, we asked our waitress where the theatre was. We knew we were close, but we figured we would ask a local who could give us final directions. She told us that it was about a block away but also that it was closed for renovations. Ann and I both looked at her with blank stares. Closed??? But we had tickets! Actually as it turned out, the show was going on but in Front Royal, which was a good 20 minute drive away if we knew the area and had directions. Given that the show was starting in 20 minutes, we decided to just bag it and go back to The Lost Dog. We were still a little pissed that the Wayside Theatre didn't tell us when we bought our tickets that they were performing in Front Royal and not Middletown. Grrrr. Anyway after arriving back at the B&B, we enjoyed Sandy and the trainer from Arkansas's company before calling it a night and going to bed.

The next morning Sandy provided us with some tasty Belgium waffles and we took another walk around Berryville before heading home. All in all it was a fun few days and we look forward to returning at some point.

Racing on the Potomac

Yesterday was our second Head Race of the season. We packed up our boat trailer and headed down to the Georgetown waterfront to race on the Potomac in the Charlie Butts Head of the Potomac run by the Potomac Boat Club. It was sunny with temperatures in the mid 70s, fairly low humidity (at least for around here) and very little wind. Just an occasional breeze. It was a perfect day for rowing and as it turned out a perfect day for others to be out on the water as well as you'll hear a bit later on. I was originally scheduled to race in a 4+ and an 8+. Due to a few guys that dropped out at the last moment and a shortage of coxswains, I ended up racing just in our Quad. Our race wasn't scheduled until 2:10 so I actually got to sleep in before getting up, eating a heavy breakfast to carry me through the day and gather up my rowing stuff (Uniform/water/ butt pad) and head off to meet the rest of my crew. I met my other three Quad teammates at a commuter lot and we headed off for Georgetown. The waterfront was crowded and bustling not only with rowers, but bikers, walkers, boaters and those just there to enjoy the day. After parking we walked the short distance to Thompson's Boat House where our boat trailer was parked and where we would launch from. We were hoping our boat had been unloaded and rigged, but no. It was off the trailer, but we had to rig it. Before we started to rig it, I wandered off to find the regatta t-shirt sales to purchase a shirt before they ran out. I think all my t-shirts at this point are either from a regatta or somehow rowing related. I picked up a long sleeve shirt since it will be turning cold here shortly. I returned to the boat and helped rig it. I also gathered up our oars (or sculls as they're called) and carried them down to the dock area so they would be ready when we launched. Since a Quad doesn't have a coxswain, I would be responsible for steering the boat from my bow seat position. I talked to one of our high school coxswains who had already been out on the course to talk me through the row up to the start and then the course itself. I had printed out a course map and went over it with her. She had some good tips and I was just hoping I could follow them while rowing with my back to the course. I was actually more concerned with the row up to the start then rowing the course itself. As I've mentioned, we've been in a serious drought here all summer so the water levels are down. During a similar occurrence a few years back, we rowed our 8+ over some rocks on the way up to the start. mostly because we were too close to the DC side of the river. Still I was concerned and not without reason it turned out. We decided to launch about 50 minutes before our start time to give us plenty of time to row upriver to the start and had a quick blow before we would start. We were the first Quad to launch and we were following a few junior (high school) 8+s up to the start. I decided the smart thing to do was just fall in behind one of the 8+s and they would lead me safely to the start. In theory that worked fine. In practice not so well. Rowing or sculling with two oars while occasionally looking back over your shoulder to see if your on course and more importantly making sure you're not about to hit something or someone can be a challenge especially with my old eyes. On the row up, we got under Key Bridge fine and we had a long stretch of open water. There were a number of anchored power boats, but they were safely off to the side. So I let the 8+ get out of my field of vision. I like to look over my left shoulder, but that leads to a blind spot over my right shoulder. After losing sight of the 8+, we proceeded up river. I noticed what looked like a bunch of Kayaks and canoes that we were approaching. As we got closer and closer I decided we'd better stop and see what was going on. It turned out the kayaks and canoes were actually a pile of rocks. Oops. We backed the boat and turned it and finished the row up to the start uneventfully. We spun the boat and waited our turn. While we waited we chatted with an 8+ from Notre Dame in Baltimore who first thought we were from NC and then West Virginia. Strange. they said it was because we had such southern accents. Ha. Very unlikely. As we waited we noted that we weren't seeing any other Men's Quads. A few Women's Quads from Potomac Boar Club showed up, but no men. They finally called our number and we were off with one short stop right before the start as a Women's Quad spun their boat right in front of us. Dumb. We had a good start and set our stroke rate at 28 strokes per minute. I got us down the first part of the course that hugs the Virginia shore line without incident and I could see two Women's Quads from Potomac Boat Club gaining on us. I also noted they they were rowing a course to my right. Since they row on the Potomac every day, I used them to set our own course and I began drifting our boat more to the center of the river. The first Women's Quad caught us about 500 meters above Key Bridge and the second as we went under the bridge. Now under normal circumstances, getting walked by a Women's boat would be cause for embarrassment. However, Potomac is probably the top rowing club in the DC area. Their members include many rowers that compete or have competed at the elite level. So getting passed by these Women's boats was not unexpected. I'm sure they scull everyday in a Quad while we just dabble in Quads. Not to mention they were considerably younger than us. The four of us had rowed together just once before in a Quad and that was the day before we raced. After they passed us, I again used them to set our course past the Georgetown waterfront and around Roosevelt Island. As we headed for the finish right before the Roosevelt Bridge, I turned to get one last look to make sure we were on the right heading and to see how far left to go. At this point I noticed that two kayaks were about 100 meters right front of us. I had just a few seconds to decide to stop our boat to avoid a collision or to keep rowing and hope that we didn't collide. I noticed one of the kayakers was paddling furiously to get out of our way while the other was just floating and taking no action. I decided that we probably could slip in between them and proceeded on. Our oars just cleared both boats. I noticed in the one kayak that didn't move that it was a parent and child. Had I known that, I probably wold have stopped so not to endanger the child. As it was we didn't hit them and I just yelled at them to get off the race course as other boats were behind us. We crossed the finish line shortly thereafter and turned toward DC to get out of the way and catch our breath. It was a good row, but nothing to write home about. The boat seem to lack the power I had felt before. Maybe it was just me, but that's what it felt like. Our time of 19:45 seems to bear that out. After the race is over its such a filling of relief that you are done or maybe its just the endorphins coursing through our bodies. The row back to Thompson's was relaxed and we enjoyed the sights on the DC side, including many of the monuments and the Kennedy Center. The view is what makes this race special. We docked at Thompson's and put the Quad away. We went back down to the water to check on our results and to our surprise we got first. As it turned out, we were the only boat in our category hence the lack of sightings of any other Men's Quads at the start. A first is a first and we won't split hairs on how it came to be. The rest of the day we just relaxed and watch the other boats from our club race. When we left at around 5:00 the results for a lot of the races weren't complete so I don't know how the club did as a whole. Our Women's double got a second and our Men's 4+ got a second so it was a good start to the day.

What a great day of college football on Saturday. All those upsets. After practice on Saturday, I settled in for a marathon of college football starting with VA Tech vs. UNC at noon, Maryland vs. Rutgers and 3;30 and Auburn vs. Florida at 8:00. All three schools won. Maryland and Auburn in major upsets as they were double digit underdogs. Nothing makes me feel better than watching Auburn beat Florida (well maybe seeing Auburn beating Alabama is better although Alabama hasn't been much lately). Watching the Auburn kicker kick the winning field goal twice was a bit nerve wracking, especially with the kicker being a true freshman. The kid delivered though. Plus whats this crap with coaches calling timeouts right as the ball is being snapped so the kicker actually kicks it, but it has to be rekicked. That is so much crap. Its happened twice in the pros and now Florida pulled that crap. They need to look at that practice in the off season. Anyway I went to bed happy Saturday night. Any day/weekend where West Virginia, Texas and Oklahoma lose if just glorious.