We’re off the water for the winter; but we had a great rowing/racing season this year.  Here are some pictures of me racing at this years USRowing National Championships during sprint race season.

It took us a little while; but we got the names put on our singles. We considered having more elaborate graphics; but decided on a more simple design that matches the lettering on our double.

A photographer form Germany took some great pictures of us at the practice session on Wednesday. WRMR 2019 in Sarasota was definitely worth the long drive (even towing the trailer). And all the vacation we took.

Meg rowing her brand-new single for the first time. It’s an early present from me for our 30th wedding anniversary. Where did the time go. Now we have three racing sculls. His and hers singles and, our double. Her boat is named the “Pearl” and my boat is named the “Thirteenth Warrior”.  And, of course, the double is the “Mr. Do!”. Here is our fleet laid out during spring training this past weekend in Oak Ridge, TN.

Meg and I did even better at the Midwest Masters Sprints than we did at the Dogwood a few weeks ago. We medaled again and are closing in on our near term performance goals. We’re not “fast” yet; but we’re beating competing boats in both raw and net time. I also medaled in my single. It was a very good day in less than ideal conditions.

Meg and I competed in the Dogwood Regatta our first 1K sprint race since we got our new double. We had our best race ever and got a silver medal in our flight (age group). We have both really improved since our first race at the Midwest Masters two years ago. We still have a plenty of things to work on; but I guess we can’t call ourselves “beginners” anymore.

Meg and I competed in the Head of the Hooch Regatta, our season ending 5K head race, a couple of weekends ago. The “Hooch” is quite an event. There were almost 10 times as many boats entered than the next largest regatta we’ve attended. We’ve never seen a traffic jam of racing sculls before. And the Tennessee River is BIG! We certainly didn’t ever envision ourselves rowing on such a large waterway when we first got started a few years ago. Our new Fluidesign double scull is magnificent and very stable (for a high-performance racing scull). But, I even raced the dilapidated club single I like to row and its kinda tippy. We’ve both come a long way since our first LTR class.

Meg and I competed in our first ever 5K head race this past weekend. We’ve done “sprints” before; but this was our first longer race. Rowing almost seven miles on the Scioto river wasn’t as scary as it seemed it would be when we were there for the race in June. We’re definitely a lot more comfortable in the boat than we were last year.

In addition to rowing with Meg, I am also the coxswain for sweep in many of the races. I steer the boat, set the stroke rate and help keep then crew synchronized. It’s a lot of fun pulling the strings. But it’s COLD in bad weather since I’m not moving much.