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Newsletter?
One
of the facets of rowing that has always interested me is that of synergy.
When a boat is in unison, it’s sum is somehow greater than it’s
parts. In the brief time that I
have been a member of this club, I have met many wonderful people.
I hope to somehow contribute to the intangibles that make up the synergy
of Cape Cod Rowing.
I
would like to propose the publication of a club newsletter.
I would like to believe that a newsletter would help our busy membership
stay ‘in the loop’. I would like it be based mainly upon membership submissions,
finally allowing rowers to ‘talk in the boat’.
I have also been made aware recently of private donations and I believe a
newsletter would help make such generosity public knowledge.
I also have a few friends in other clubs and I believe that a column that
would seek to contact individual clubs would help create a fellowship within our
rowing community. We often race in each other’s races or buy and sell each
other’s equipment, or perhaps we could talk of successes of fundraising
efforts.
Meet
the Membership
Within
this column, I thought it would help personalize our club if we met a rower
through two basic questions: What
do you like about rowing? What do you like about our club?
As
this newsletter is only in it’s proposal stage, I will begin by interviewing
myself.
What
I like most about rowing
It
is tough loving an obscure sport. When
I would tell people that I did crew, I would immediately feel the urge to
explain, ‘you know, rowing’. I
have been fortunate to live in a few different places, and meet many new faces
and through it all has been rowing (though I had often thought I had quit, I
always end up back on the water). This
constant in my life has provided me an opportunity to ‘try’.
Through these efforts I always seem to relate an experience.
Most recently, I was able to row again at a college club.
I was much older and was amazed at the recovery rate of younger rowers
between workouts. My focus since
has been centered upon ‘the recovery’, both between workouts and between
strokes. It is a zone of comfort of
both mind and heart during extreme exertions. As a master rower, I have found this very
helpful in day to day life as I
have found that recovery, in general, is best the closer it is to instantaneous.
What
I like most about our club.
When
I was younger, I had heard the phrase, ‘youth is wasted on the young’.
This always made me upset as it incurred an unmet obligation.
My ‘wise-guy’ response was always, ‘wisdom is wasted on the old’. What I like most about our club is the meshing of youth and
master’s programs. It is just
great to be around ‘wide-eyed’ enthusiasm.
I think the younger rowers really learn something from seeing this in the
Masters.
Within this column, I plan on getting a tip from one
of our wonderful coaches and a tip from a rower upon submission
As
a team, we share in each other’s endeavors.
As such, we want to share in your victories. Compete in a regatta? Hit
a personal best on the erg? Run a road race?
Let us know. Having a good
row, go for the course record, measured by the Youth’s 1500 meter house on the
point to the third flag pole.
Be the first to ‘set the bar’.
Recently
moved? On Vacation?
Drop us a ‘hello’
Good
news? Bad news?
Searching for boosters for a charity run or bike ride?
Have a cross-training hobby you are looking for others to share in?
Let us know.
Within
this column, I would submit a subjective account of board meeting minutes.
If someone has
results they can submit to me from last season, I would be glad to post them.
Beyond
Results
For those of you whom may be members of the Masters
Rowing Association, you may have seen this article that I had written printed in
the December issue. I would really
enjoy posting any rowing stories our membership may have.
Driving up to the Festival Regatta, I had those
wonderful butterflies in my stomach again.
It had been some time since I’d raced and although I had often
‘drifted’ away from the sport, it felt wonderful to be back again.
The last club I had belonged to had a former lightweight National team
member on it, and I found myself always watching him out of the corner of my
eye. I have always believed that it
was the compilation of many characteristics that made a champion.
It was with this same eye that I spotted what looked to be a true elder
statesmen of the sport on the dock launching for the veterans race before mine. In his sixties, perhaps even seventy, his build was
impressive and he had that look of calm, suggesting that he was confident in his
training and was now just going to go out and have fun.
A look that I have only been able to achieve superficially, always
feeling like I could have done more. Like
the champion I had known, this man possessed a character I’d also hoped to
attain; that of the will to achieve
my ‘best’ in whatever way the day allowed. As I sat on the race line, we were delayed with the notice
that a boat had flipped at the finish. I
laughed to myself, having done the same on this course the previous year in my
first singles race. “Been
there”, I said. During the race,
I had sat in last place through most of the course.
I felt the butterflies turn to will though and managed to finish second
in a heated sprint. The joy of this
moment lasted all to briefly. I
have always been my own hardest coach. I
have never fought this tendency as I believe such proddings have allowed me to
compete at levels which my athleticism may not have dictated.
As this process began it’s active work, I learned that race day was
suspended. The rower that had
flipped had suffered a heart attack. I
mulled about with the image of the veteran in my head.
Fears confirmed, I overheard his teammates say, ‘it didn’t look
good’. Suddenly, there was that
uneasy loss of footing and intense zooming of perspective that occurs at such
moments.
Race
day resumed, and this being only my second sculling race, I shared in the
anxiety of Hannah Brewster’s first singles race. On such a day, it was great to see a new start.
I could somehow span all the race days and all of life’s wonderful
victories that would arise from trying something new, trying to do something
better, or from just plain trying, which would lead us out of our nervousness
towards that calm joy that I had attributed to the veteran sculler.
Hannah was forced to race with the experienced rowers of the light-weight
women. The stage was set for an intimidating heat as light-weights are renown
for their ‘toughness’. But
today was a day that the true spirit of sport would be rewarded and Hannah won a
gold for her efforts. My final was
canceled due to the tragedy and I was awarded a medal for my heat race.
That
next day, my Mother asked me how the race went. Previously, I had gone on and on about how I fully expected
to get ‘skunked’. I showed her
the medal, and felt immediately obliged to all of those that had ever trained
harder and raced better to explain how my medal was really ‘bogus’, after
time handicaps, a third place of five in a heat race, and not really deserved.
Her ‘motherly’ response, obviously not hearing such explanations,
‘see, I told you you’d have a good day’.
I immediately felt obliged to the veteran rower that I had seen, smiled
an old smile and responded, ‘yeah, I did have a good day.’
Classifieds
Eric
Caldwell is looking for a small apartment to rent, somewhere between Plymouth
and Barnstable, beginning in March or April. Any leads would be
appreciated.
