Bring it on

Yesterday’s row was the last “on the water” row of the season. I woke up thinking that maybe it wasn’t raining anymore, but as I started puttering around the house, I heard the light but steady rainfall.

As we set the boat down into the water, muddy and strewn with trash and debris washed into the river by the rain, it was barely drizzling. We went through our warm up drills and started an easy row around the basin while we waited for our coach to bail out his launch enough to be able to join us. It started raining steadily—and I loved it. Surely, it’s a sign of how new I am to the sport, but I felt a bit more like a real rower because I was out there despite the rain.

As the least experienced rower in the boat, I was worried about the possibility that I was solely responsible for the lack of balance in the boat. Instead of continuing to stress, I decided to focus on trying to maintain the form I’ve been learning in erg sessions the past couple of weeks. Just focus on what I can control. I can control how fast I get my hands out and away from my body at the finish; I can control the slide back to the catch; I can control how hard I push with my legs on the drive; I can control my posture, keeping my back straight and tall and my chin up.

Later in the row, we headed out to open water. The water on the row out was a bit rougher than in the basin, but the power sets we were doing required my full focus. At one point, I caught a crab*, but I managed to recover within one stroke. That’s one of the things I like about rowing—if you screw up on a stroke, there’s always the next stroke to focus on.

As we reached our turn-around point, the water was rougher still, and the rain had resumed. In addition to rainfall, we were sometimes taking small waves over the boat. The wind picked up such that I could feel the effort required to swing the oar against the wind and back to the catch. At that point, our goal was to get back to the dock ASAP. Could have been unnerving, but I just kept thinking, “bring it on!” Yes, we were drenched, the rough water made for difficult rowing, and the headwind certainly slowed our progress…but what were we going to do at that point but keep rowing? Catch, drive, finish, recover. Set the oar in the water, push hard with the legs, get hands out and away quickly, control the slide.

When we got back to the dock, we started to bail water out of the bottom but quickly abandoned that effort. We were already wet, so might as well get the inevitable over with. We pulled the boat up to waist and tilted it to get some of the water out, but then there was nothing to do but push to up and overhead. We stood still for a minute as we were deluged with water and then headed back up to the boathouse.

As I pulled out of the parking lot to head home, I thought, “life is good.” Even though my job is in turmoil and I don’t know where I’ll be next year, I’m strong and determined and I have wonderful friends and colleagues to support me. I can’t think of a better way to have ended the week.

*”Catching a crab” is rowing lingo for getting your oar stuck in the water at the finish, which slows the boat down until you get the oar out. A bad crab can knock the rower flat back or even out of the boat.

Cross-posted at dr four eyes.