Fall Racing Frontier: Friday Night Lights, High Seas and being Booed by 5th Graders
If there is an off-season in rowing, it is the few weeks we have “off” (for most people it is spent stressing out about not working out enough) after the World Championships. After that it’s a slow wind up to the fall racing season. I love the fall. The races have a much more relaxed feel to them, there are more people racing, and the longer you row the more they seem to be more like a reunion than a race. This has been a very eventful season so far and I feel like I’ve been living out of a suitcase since August. After Munich I stopped in New Jersey for a day to gather and organize my stuff and then I was off to Seattle to spend some time relaxing at home and training on my own. I spent about a month there before it was back to the grind. I went directly to Oklahoma City to meet up with my teammates for a week long training camp and then a weekend of eventful racing.
It’s an exciting time for rowing in Oklahoma City. They are building several new boathouses and every university, college, and high schools in the area are starting new rowing programs. The city is giving its full support and local businesses are giving tons of money. And, this is all happening on a river that didn’t even exist a few years ago!
We were invited to be a part of the Oklahoma Sentential Regatta Festival. They call it a festival because it’s more than just a fall rowing race. It’s the most eventful rowing ‘regatta’ I’ve ever been to, almost too eventful. Half the time I didn’t know what race I was watching, but I was having fun watching it. At one point I walked down to the river from the boathouse and there were boats going every direction. Some were racing, others were practicing and others were trying to return to the dock after a race. There was one official in a launch with a megaphone yelling all kinds of orders and nobody was listening to him. Combine this with 25-30mph winds blowing across the course and you get a very entertaining afternoon. In the 20 minutes I spent watching I saw two boats hit the bridge, one single sculler flip and several near collisions. Normally I would be concerned and complain to someone about how the regatta was run, but every one there was so excited about rowing I had to cut them some slack, they are new at this and with this level of enthusiasm I’m sure they’ll figure out the details soon.
This was also a big event for the city; part of their centennial celebrations. They invited crews from Canada, Australia, Mexico, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Moldova, and Georgia, provided travel and accommodations, and transportation while in town. We were actually treated like real professional athletes, and aside from the racing we had to do they filled our days with all kinds of activities in the community. We had dinners as local families houses, we were VIP guests everywhere we went, we were taken to one of the largest cattle auctions in the world, I went on the morning news, we were part of the Oklahoma Centennial Parade, and we went to visit local elementary schools. This was my favorite. I went with two other Americans, two rowers from the Mexican team and two from the Australian team.
I’ve been booed once before in my rowing career. It was in the gymnastics arena/staging area for the opening ceremonies at the Sydney games. Each country was sitting is their own section waiting until it was time to walk into the stadium, which would be at the end of the ceremonies. We were in there for hours. Just waiting. Eventually, countries started doing cheers, singing songs, and doing their national dances. New Zealand did the Haka, a traditional Maori dance. Small countries from Africa all had their own unique song and dance; Tiny island nations had big, soulful songs. France even joined in. Everything was classy and represented some aspect of each participating country. And then, when it seemed to be over, like fingers down a chalkboard, someone in our group started chanting USA! USA! USA! I don’t know what it is about Americans, but we can’t seem to be more creative (and I include myself in this) when it comes to sporting event acclamations. And almost as soon as the cheer caught on in the group, the entire stadium started booing. As we got louder so did the rest of the world. They booed us to silence and we probably deserved it.
This time it was fifth graders at an elementary school in Oklahoma City. They called an assembly for the fifth grade and we gathered in the cafeteria. The school band played and the kids cheered when we walked in. On stage it was a different story. They introduced the Australians. The kids laughed at their accents. They introduced the Mexicans. The kids went crazy. Standing ovation. The school is over 60% Hispanic. They introduced us. Half the room cheered and half booed and jeered. It was all in jest and more of a second cheer for Mexican team, than a shot against us. I hope. It was great fun and the whole assembly went very well. We got a couple kids up on stage and had them race on a rowing machine and at the end they asked tons of questions. They all came on a field trip to see the racing on Friday and it was great to see them again. They remember some of us (not me), but I still gave them high fives.
When it finally came time to race they packed the days full. There were collegiate events, corporate events, which were great. The sponsors were able to enter crews and were then given six practices to teach their employees to how to row and then set them loose on the water. Our event was called the USA World Rowing Challenge There were men and women’s quads, doubles, and singles, men’s and women’s eights and pairs. Each one raced a full 2000-meter sprint, a 500-meter dash, and a 4500-meter headrace. I raced in the eight. The best part of the whole week was he 500-meter dash was at night under the lights and was one of the coolest things I’ve done in rowing. Our race was at 10:50pm. It was impossible to warm up. Aside from the 500 meter course the rest of the river was pitch black. We lost the 2000m race to the Canadians, but were able to win the 4,500m and 500m races. It was a great event and I hope that the terrible winds that made racing tough don’t discourage crews from coming back next year.