The Ecstasy and the Agony
My teammates had their first race this weekend. Apparently, there was some good racing, and from what I've heard, there's still a lot of work to do in order for the 1V to reach their potential by the time the championships roll around.
It's still very tough hearing about races and looking at results, knowing that I might have been in one of the boats that raced this weekend if not for my back. It's even worse than being the spare or not making weight in a lights race, because my absence is not due to lack of dedication or training time; instead it's an uncontrollable weakness of my body. I can't imagine what it's going to be like after my years of college eligibility are up. I know I'm never going to be an elite oarsman, no matter how hard I work; I have too much in the way of physiology and size working against me. But I don't think I could stay disconnected from the sport for even a few months, whether I'm holding an oar or a megaphone.
Now for the pain: running sucks! That's about it. I enjoy it, but I'm terrible at it. I would love to run a marathon or even a 5k someday, but even when I'm at my fittest as a rower, I still can't run fast or far. It's far from ideal, but now that it's nice out, there's no way I'm going to spend my days in the stuffy, overcrowded gym.
---
In other news, congratulations to the USC women and Stanford men for winning the Jessop-Whittier and Copley Cup at the Crew Classic this year. This makes two in a row for Stanford, who defeated Cal by a little over a second this year; last year, they beat Cal by two seconds (of course, Cal ended up winning the rest of their races against Stanford, the Pac-10 championships, and the IRA MV8). There was also a strong field in both the Men's and Women's Cal Cup races, with 20 entries in the men's race and 17 in the women's. UC Davis won the women's event, while UCSD won the men's. From what I understand, the Cal Cup is becoming the race for smaller programs at the Crew Classic; hopefully this trend of crews coming from places as far away as Philly and Buffalo to race in San Diego will continue to grow.
It's still very tough hearing about races and looking at results, knowing that I might have been in one of the boats that raced this weekend if not for my back. It's even worse than being the spare or not making weight in a lights race, because my absence is not due to lack of dedication or training time; instead it's an uncontrollable weakness of my body. I can't imagine what it's going to be like after my years of college eligibility are up. I know I'm never going to be an elite oarsman, no matter how hard I work; I have too much in the way of physiology and size working against me. But I don't think I could stay disconnected from the sport for even a few months, whether I'm holding an oar or a megaphone.
Now for the pain: running sucks! That's about it. I enjoy it, but I'm terrible at it. I would love to run a marathon or even a 5k someday, but even when I'm at my fittest as a rower, I still can't run fast or far. It's far from ideal, but now that it's nice out, there's no way I'm going to spend my days in the stuffy, overcrowded gym.
---
In other news, congratulations to the USC women and Stanford men for winning the Jessop-Whittier and Copley Cup at the Crew Classic this year. This makes two in a row for Stanford, who defeated Cal by a little over a second this year; last year, they beat Cal by two seconds (of course, Cal ended up winning the rest of their races against Stanford, the Pac-10 championships, and the IRA MV8). There was also a strong field in both the Men's and Women's Cal Cup races, with 20 entries in the men's race and 17 in the women's. UC Davis won the women's event, while UCSD won the men's. From what I understand, the Cal Cup is becoming the race for smaller programs at the Crew Classic; hopefully this trend of crews coming from places as far away as Philly and Buffalo to race in San Diego will continue to grow.
posted by theoarsman at 10:13
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home