Sunday, October 29, 2006

Cancellations

Lots of regatta cancellations this past weekend: both the Head of the Fish and the Princeton Chase have cancelled parts of their regattas. The Fish cancelled their masters events, and the Princeton Chase has called off all their small boat and four events. Some full regattas have been cancelled, most notably the Head of the Schuykill in Philadelphia. The Head of the Elk in Indiana has also been cancelled.

I was at the Head of the Fish Saturday (open and junior events still went on), and the regatta committee made the proper choice in cancelling the rest of the events. Racing was done in miserable weather: a driving rain, temperatures in the mid-40's, a pretty bad breeze blowing through. By the time I got ready to launch for the Open 8+, I had been exposed to the weather for over six hours, which thoroughly diminished my enthusiasm.

It started coming back when I was bringing down the boat from the trailer, though. I knew what was going to happen: I was going to be cold, wet, and miserable from the moment we got hands on to the moment we pushed off. And then we'd start warming up, first by sixes, then by eights, taking tens on the way to the start. I'd start getting warmer. The rain would stop bothering me, or at the most it would only serve to take my mind off the shortness of breath and the onset of pain as we swung into the current. We would get to the start, spin, and I would strip down to just my uni, as cold as I was. The moment we started heading down that chute, though, any thought of the temperature or the moisture or anything else would have disappeared, 50, 100 meters behind me.

And lo and behold, it did.

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