One old boat race...

Finally, I manage to catch the 'Boat Race' on telly. This year its the 155th year that pitted the crew of Oxford against the crew of Cambridge. It was a good start by both crews, but not long after, the Dark Blues (Oxford) surge forward. Both crews upped their effort and counter effort up till Chiswick Eyot where in trailing, Oxford seems to resort to disrupt the rhythm of the Cambridge crews, by opting to clash blades :)

It does rattle the Light Blues a bit I think, and after that their rhythm is a bit affected. From the Eyot, they surge forward, two length advantage at Bandstand and extend it to three and a half length by the Finish. It was superb rowing, duel and clashing of blades, and both crews of international calibre produces a breathtaking race at its 155th edition. Read more here

On a local note, the Oxbridge alumnus here also stage a similar race in KTP. Any idea of the result? Did the Oxford crew emulate their Alma Maters success on the Thames?

Row, row, row your boat...

These past couple of years, I have not done justice to this blog. Of almost 200 posts on 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat', not even 10% is dedicated to rowing, so I would like to make an additional target to achieve this year. To be a member of The Million Meter Club. To be able to be inducted into that club, one would have to row one million meters, either on on water or on the indoor rower, also known as the rowing ergometer. Read about indoor rowing here and concept2 here

To know more about the Million Meter Club, read here.

Bittersweet

I am an ex-rower.

In fact, i was telling a Kiwi friend about it the other day as we are having tea.  Compared to here, rowing in Kiwiland is a big thing, with Olympic champions and Worlds medallist in Wadell, Twaddle and Bridgewater and the Evers Swindell twins. A lot people are involved, from the schools up to the Uni's with numerous regattas.

Here, we can only see Uni teams. We use to have the National Championships, but I do think the competition nowadays are more in the uni scene. Our Uni crew became the National M8+ champions in 1999, beating all the states. I just started rowing by that time, when I was discovered by chance by the Uni coach, aaj (who happens to be a national coach too) when I wore a USA Rowing t-shirt during orientation.

It marks the start of my relationship with rowing. Coach's post yesterday reminds me of our preparation for SEA 2001. He was preparing the four of us, in the LM4-, constantly tinkering with setup, rigging and working us up physically. I was a sub 6:40 on the erg, while Amir was the strongest on water. Upon much thinking, he set our boat as the Italians do, using tandem rigging. Like magic, we are rewarded with sub seven performances in training, almost a minute improvement.

The preparation of LM4- for 2001 Merlion will always be a bittersweet memory in my short career as a rower. Unfortunately, at Merlion, we are barred from using the tandem rigging by the very people who are the supposed to champion the cause of rowing. On water, we ended up fighting each other and the boat nearly ran aground. I know and Coach know how tandem rigging could harness all the crews strength and minimise our weakness. Sigh!

I was heartbroken after that, and not long after that, I lost interest. I hurt my knee and lower back. I was disillusioned. I might not be thinking long enough about my decision to quit. If I had talked to Coach it could be different. The rest they say, is history. It could have a different outcome if we are allowed to row with tandem rigging at Merlion 2001.

I am an ex-rower. Even if, I am 'afraid' of water (and can't really swim)