Dallas SWEAT

[Ron Hekier]

This is my first time on the forum in nearly two years. As a 43 year old person trying to balance mind, body, and spirit, Quatroux I am struck by your amazing post.

[Quatroux]

Thanks, Ron. We do some great stuff on these forums occasionally. I hope to put together a story this year about this quad of retirees that used to row for my club... very impressive group of athletes. When do we get to hear your story?

[Gettingold]

Thank you for your thoughts Andy. It helps put a lot of things in perspective and provides a lot of clarity for the aging athlete. I too am about to embark on my first competitive row and at the age of 50. It seems a little odd to some around me and yet I have been overwhelmingly encouraged by those closest. As part of the Veteran field I know all of the effort will not need to be forgotten by the general crowd as it won't be acknowledged in the first place. But the support and best wishes from those who you see everyday. Those whose thoughts matter most will be more than enough. We all occaisionally have our hills to climb and its nice to know we have people close by to make the effort a little easier.
Best wishes
(Happy to end up a shattered mess but hoping to avoid the "snotface")

[enrage]

Quatroux,
what did you have the damper setting on? Just curious. Congrats on your personal PR and finishing the competition.

[Quatroux]

Good question. I haven't thought about DF even once since the race. I now do all of my erging with feet out and the damper at 1 which is no more than 100 DF on the ergs I use. I beleive that I targeted 120 DF for the race which was between a 4 and 6 on the ergs I frequent. I will take another look at DF once winter training starts.

[dwalk]

I met Neil at the OKC Riversport indoor race in Feb. 2013. We both were in a heat with some of his juniors and some from OKC. We both won our divisions, he won the 30-39 and I won the 40-49, with pretty similar times. He was a great guy and very encouraging of all the other rowers.

[Ron Hekier]

Thanks, Ron. We do some great stuff on these forums occasionally. I hope to put together a story this year about this quad of retirees that used to row for my club... very impressive group of athletes. When do we get to hear your story?

My last great rowing story was CRASH-B's 3 years ago. My first and to this date only CRASH-B. I hit a PR. I will take time to compose my thoughts and share with the group.

[Quatroux]

Neil made a very positive first impression. I don't know his age, but I need another year after this one to beat him on an erg.

Ron, I look forward to that story.

My next race is a 3k OTW, but I just came down with bronchitis so I'm unsure what that will do to my training.

[dwalk]

Neil is 40 this year, so he and I are in the same division this year. I hope to make the SWEAT this year and race him along with P. McDonough, who has had a strangle hold on the 40-49 division. I'm in the 6:30's now so it should be interesting.

[Quatroux]

I have a few years to go until I'm in the ultracompetitive 40-49. Pat is pretty fast OTW as well. He put on a great sprint race earlier this summer in Fort Worth.

[Quatroux]

…and we’re back! One year later…

SWEAT had 559 entries this year from 27 clubs. That’s several more clubs than last year which I attribute to CrossFitters. Those are really amazing athletes and a couple of them did take home gold. (The rest could probably stand to do some longer cardio, but they'd beat me up if I said that to their face. Shhhh....)

Otherwise, it was business as usual for the rowing clubs.

The day started with the women. I was able to watch races in which three women broke the 8 minute mark. Those sort of psychological milestones are huge.

The Dallas Rowing Club entered 7 rowers into 6 womens events. They won 5 gold medals and 1 silver. What a dominate performance! I happen to row with them and I can tell you our coach is a real pain in the ass. He spends his free time thinking of impossible workouts, but it definitely paid off for all of us.

It was all the usual suspects on the mens side and I won’t bore you with names since they are likely all foreign to you. However, the OTW rowers are clearly as fit as ever and ready for spring sprints.

Things didn’t go so well for me. Actually, I shaved 6.5 seconds off my time last year. That’s an improvement, but really not much reward for all the time I put into my novice season. I’ll keep at it. Nothing to see here except me busting by backside. Let’s move on.

I wish I had a cool story for you this year. The warm up ergs were free (shocker)! I have no idea what was different about this year, but I was really happy to find a free erg multiple times that morning.

I raced with a cox for the first time. It was a nice boost. In fact, he had just come off posting a sub-7 race the heat before which was very cool to see. That’s such an amazing milestone for a male rower and a really nice achievement to build on for the OTW season.

I didn’t meet my snot quotient this year. I’m sure I had *some* running down my face by the end of the 2k, but not an embarrassing sum. No blood, either. No heart attack. No vomiting. No stroke. I didn’t even lose feeling in my hands or get tunnel vision (ok, maybe a little bit of tunnel vision).

I actually don’t have perfect recollection of the event which is probably a good sign. I left last year thinking I hadn’t given it my all and that was NOT a problem this year. I felt like crap all day. My kid topped that off by opening a car door into me. I also spent the weekend unclogging a *** DELETE - SPAM *** sink which involved me handling sulphuric acid, getting covered in sewage, and buying most of the plumbing section at Lowe’s. (I’ll be damned if I’ll pay a plumber’s weekend rates, though.)

My final word is about that jerk* of a coach we have. I sure hope he’s reading this because we racked up a lot of medals thanks to him (see what I did there?). I admit there were times we thought about burying him under the boathouse, but we owe him for bringing us together as a group and improving our times. He's a nice guy and a repeat winner at SWEAT. Masters athletes are really the best in the world and all of us have an unpaid volunteer to thank for introducing us to the sport, helping us get better, and/or doing some thankless task around the boathouse.

*I am going to reward him with lots of loud rap music anytime I catch him in the middle of a long erg piece.

[dwalk]

I see that McDonough and Bergenroth won their divisions, about 6 titles for McDonough I believe.

[Quatroux]

I see that McDonough and Bergenroth won their divisions, about 6 titles for McDonough I believe.

Bergenroth is ridiculous. He’s about the nicest guy you’d ever meet, a teacher, juniors coach, former junior national team member, and a scholarship collegiate rower. I hate being in his age category, but always enjoy seeing him.

Pat McDonough (1st place from Fort Worth) and Tom Carr (2nd place from White Rock) are equally ridiculous. They row a 2X together all season and it isn’t even fair. They are also very nice guys and I think Pat is key to FTW growing a couple of really nice home regattas.

A lot of rowers downplay the erg times of some people (ex: CrossFitters) because they don’t transfer to the water. That isn’t a problem with the above 3, I’m sure. I haven’t seen Bergenroth row OTW, but Pat and Tom are pretty fierce. The Greater Texoma (or NewArkLaTexOma) Region isn’t famous for masters rowing (yet), but the boathouses in OKC, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin are going to quickly change that.