The Last Race

Sunday was our last race of the season. The last time our club will be on the water until next May. Kind of sad in a way. Our race in the Head of the Occoquan, or HOTO as it's known, wasn't until 2:30 so I had all morning to sleep in and relax. It's something I haven't done for quite a while. It was a beautiful day for rowing. The sun was out, the temperature was in the low 60s with a bit of wind, but not enough to make things ugly out on the water. I normally get to the boathouse about two hours before we race. This gives us time to give out boat the once over. This is our boat called the Titan.

The novice Men's coach and their boat, in the parking lot. Its the only place with enough room.

We launch for the HOTO about 45 minutes before our scheduled start time. This gives us time to row up river to the start and time enough to relax for a bit before we start to race. Here the oars are being brought down to the dock. Look we now have water!

Looking out from our boathouse, way out in the distance you can see a Club 4+ racing just outside our cove.

The novice men, being younger than our boat, race before us. Here they are putting their boat in the water.

Finally it was our turn to launch. This is my boat (minus me since I was taking the picture), right before we pushed away from the dock.

Heading out of the cove, our stern 4 takes us out.

The start line is at Fountainhead Park. I was hoping for a better picture of all the 8+s up there but it didn't turn out as well as I hoped. The boats tend to blend in with the shoreline.

Our novice 8+ up at the marshalling area before their start.

A quick shot from bow to stern of our boat.

One of our Women's Quads. They would start right after our race and come in 4th overall and maybe second in their age group.

The 8+s rowing toward the start.

I had hoped to get some pictures at the finish, but alas, the bag I had the camera in leaked and the camera got soaked. I'm surprised it still worked after drying out. We had a good race. We battled Thompson's Boat Club for probably 8 to 9 minutes side by side until we finally put them away. We finished 5th out of 12 masters boats and second in our age category. We finally topped Alexandria after finishing behind them all season, including by a mere 1.5 seconds at the Charles.

Overall it was a good a season as we've had. Speaking for the Men's side. We have a good group of novice men that will move up and join us next year. That should add to the competition for the top boat. Should be interesting and challenging. I need to grow another six inches before next summer.