Its been a little while since my last update. I keep starting entries and then not finishing them, or not coming back to them until they are out of date.
Life is really good. I am in complete health, minus the minor groanings of a sleep-deprived body during training. I am really enjoying my teammates, my course seems (finally) to be picking up and getting interesting, I went on a first date with this Canadian girl I like (dont get too excited Dave C., no Canadian citizenship plans yet), and the weather has improved from gloomy and cold to just gloomy.
The biggest news, however, is my race from last weekend. We raced in the Fuller's Fours head in London, which is basically like the head of the charles, english style, and in 4+s, 4-s, and 4xs (for those of you who dont know rowerspeak, these are different classes of four man boats). Although generally people acknowledged that we were the fastest Cambridge 4 entering in the event, expectations were not high, given how sick my bowseat and I had been. We also were not the biggest or the strongest guys in the CUBC squad. The lineup was:
Henry Pelly, CUBC president,
Tom Ransley, 7 seat of last year's boat
Rob Weitemeyer, Canadian 4x for the last couple of years
Silas Stafford, that's me!
cox: Helen Hodges
None of us are superstars, especially when compared with Oxford's top boat, which contained:
1 olympic silver medallist from Great Britain
1 olympic bronze medallist and 2007 world champion, New Zealand
1 olympian, The Netherlands
1 bronze medallist at world championships, USA
There were also a number of olympians in other boats that entered. Anyway, the long and short of it is that my boat won the whole shebang! We finished approx 16 seconds in front of the next boat (which contained GB gold medal olympic star, Andy Triggs Hodge), and approx 20 seconds in front of Oxford. I was stroking, and my boat just slotted into an easy rhythm, which apparently was pretty fast. A lot of crews struggled with the rough conditions, which I think my boat handled better than most. Rowing in London almost always seems pretty crazy, between weather, currents, and other boats. While I dont have any delusions of grandeur yet, it is always fun to beat up on some olympians. I'm just hoping it wont give Oxford the jolt they need to wake up and train hard for the boatrace.
It was also fun to race against my former US coxswain from two summers ago. In Head Race format, boats race the course one at a time, like a time trial in cycling. About a third of the way into the course, I realized we were going to pass the boat who started in front of us, which was Oxford's second boat. A little bit after that I realized that I recognized the opposing coxswains voice. It was fun, in the stroke seat, to stare down an old friend in combat.
If you want to read about the race, the Guardian published a blurb about it which has some minor inaccuracies in it:
Celebrations afterwards were pretty fun, although it did make me miss some of the comradery of my Stanford teammates. We went to the London Rowing club and did a leprechaun race, which is where teams of 5 dress up as leprechauns and have to carry one of their teammates on a stretcher to 5 different pubs, where everyone has to "scull" a beer (all this as fast as possible. My team got 2nd place, though I am convinced the winners cheated). Afterwards I hung out with a bunch of Australians in London. London is a town I rather like, and I could see myself living here at some point in my 20s. The next morning it was a 25k row on the Thames, and then back to Cambridge.
We've broken down into pairs, which I think will be fun and good for me, as I relatively little experience in a pair. For the time being Ive been partnered with Deaglan McEahearn (probably spelled that wrong), another American, who pulls a pretty big erg. Learning the pair with an American will be good, so I can train this spring and have a partner for US trials or speed orders (If youre reading this Charles, dont worry, I'm still your boy once I get settled in the states again).
congrats! :) i'll quote the transformers theme song (from the real movie):
ReplyDelete"you've got the touch!"