Congratulations Are In Order

In the field of rowing there are a few events that are considered premier rowing regattas. Certainly the Olympics is at the top of the pyramid, but it only happens every four years. For Head racing, The Race is the Head of the Charles, which was held this past weekend on the Charles River in Boston. It's a two day event and it's the race everyone wants to go too. The race everyone trains for. So many want to participate that there are not enough spaces for everyone who would like to compete. There are two ways to get a space. The first is to do well enough in the prior year's race to get an automatic invite for the following year. For sweep rowers, that means finishing in the top 50% of your event. For scullers it means finishing within 5% of the winning time. For those who are looking to fill the remaining spaces, the race organizers hold a lottery for each event to see who gets an invite and who doesn't. I have been lucky enough to compete in the HOCR three times so far. Twice as a rower and once as a coxswain. Our Women's Senior Masters 8+ had an automatic entry, but none of our other entries got an invite via the lottery this year. So we have this three week break between our last two races.

The purpose of this post is to really congratulate Daughter#1, who did race this past weekend at the HOCR. She coxed a Senior Masters 4+ from Saugatuck Rowing Club to a second place finish. They missed 1st place by a mere 2.7 seconds. Over a 3 mile race, 2.7 seconds is almost nothing. Less then a boat length. Since Daughter#1 is all about the medals, she was happy with their finish. My Club's Women's Senior Masters 8+ pulled a 7th place finish, which I believe is their best finish ever and comes with an automatic entry for next year so congratulations to them as well.

Hopefully we'll be luckier next year and get an invite to the biggest party of the fall.