Gold Rush regatta report: Rudder won two bronze and one silver medal, the former
in his two singles (regular and lightweight) races and the latter in his double
with She-Hulk. She-Hulk was veryvery happy at getting to take home a medal. He
also came in first in his heat in the men's B single (B is ages 36-44 or
thereabouts) and set a personal best time there.
We came in last in
both the quad and in my double with Hardcore, but not embarrassingly so. In the
quad, I think we might do better with more practice -- the race was about our
third time all rowing together. The double actually felt much better and smoother
than the quad; and I think we were just rowing against some burly competition.
(They didn't have a lightweight W2X category, unfortunately.) In my 300m sprint in
my single, I came in THIRD, I say THIRD, ahead of TWO OTHER PEOPLE. Not only that,
but I was closer to the first place finisher than the fourth and fifth place were
to me. I got off the water grinning, practically jumping up and down in the boat.
When Rudder rowed his marathon race in Louisiana, right before we
moved from Houston, he said, "I've finally found my event and now we're moving!"
and that's just how I feel. I've found my event, but unfortunately, hardly anyone
holds 300m races. *snif* The standard distances for masters are 1000m and 5000m. I
do best in shorter races, having no endurance to speak of. Even on the Concept II
web site, where you can compare your erg times to others from around the world, if
you plot my percentile, it is inversely proportionate to the distance. Egret and
Hardcore and even Rudder are exactly opposite, preferring distance to the short
haul, but I'm a quick-twitch kind of girl.
Since Rudder's
grandparents are moving to the other side of Sacramento, his parents were down to
help them, and they, the grandparents, and an aunt and cousin all came out to
watch us race. It's always cool to have a cheering section, and they had never
seen him (or me) race before. Unfortunately they got there a bit too late to see
any of his singles races, but were able to see him come in second in the double
and to watch my sprint.
Lake Natoma is really a wonderful venue for
the race, and the club there did an excellent job of organizing. There were races
every ten minutes from 8AM to 7PM, with a break for lunch and they managed to stay
on time all day, not a trivial task. The barbeque lunch provided wasn't bad
either, and they had a large tent with tables and chairs where Rudder's family
were able to watch the races while staying in the shade. The weather was a little
warm but very comfortable in the shade, and we had brought a shelter to set up
near our boats, along with chairs, towels, and coolers so we could lounge in
comfort between races.
On Sunday, we acquiesced to duty and went off
to Bodega Bay to help pack up another load of the grandparents' stuff. No one said
much about the kayaks they'd offered us, but it was obvious we had no room for
them anyhow, with three boats on the rack (ranging 27-45' long). We did somehow
end up with a service for 12 of fine china. We don't particularly need such a
thing, having already both good and everyday plates, but Rudder's mother really
seemed to want us to take them and she's upset enough already about various other
aspects of this move, so we just said thanks and took them. Anyhow, this gives me
tea cups from this set of his grandparents to add to the ones from my grandmother,
the ones from his great-grandmother (paternal side), the ones he brought from
Taiwan, and the tea set I got in Korea. One of these days I really ought to hold
a tea party, especially since this set actually includes a tea pot, something I
was conspicuously missing.
On the way back, we found a great place to
stay. For some reason, some ranchers in a tiny town halfway between Sacramento and
LA decided to diversify. Not only do they raise both beef and vegetables, they
breed and board racing horses and run a hotel, restaurant and adjacent airstrip.
The restaurant is about 25 years old and seems to be thriving; I'm not sure if the
hotel is older or younger, but it also was quite busy. At any rate, both were
wonderful and we'll certainly stop there again if we need a place to crash in the
area. It would also be a great stop on a flying trip.
At around 6
last night, we finally pulled into our boatyard, having called Hardcore to come
help unload the boats. She showed up with her husband and another rower who lives
next to them, and we unloaded in record time. As we were standing around talking
afterward, I decide to pop open a well-deserved beer, which is when the park cop
drove by and busted me. Dammit. I guess my law-evading skills have atrophied, in
all these years since I've been of legal age. He was nice about it at least, just
made me pour it out and warned me not to drive (because, you know, those two sips
would have just ruined my reflexes). And it did provide vast amusement to my
audience. I imagine I'll be hearing about that one for some time.