October Rowing

This month the Vanderbilt Rowing Club attended two away regattas. Hobb’s Island Regatta was in Huntsville, AL and Secret City Head Race was in Oak Ridge, TN. Both events were successful for our team. The Varsity Men’s 8+ and Women’s 8+ both took first at Hobb’s Island. The Men’s A 4+ and 8+ also took first at Secret City, the Women’s varsity 8+ took second at Secret City. At Hobb’s we raced (and beat) Alabama’s freshman team. This was a big victory for us because they are a NCAA sanctioned Division 1 team. They are comprised of recruits who are payed to row. Because we beat them by 22 seconds, Bama’s coaches decided not to be so embarrassed again and instead raced their varsity boat against us at Secret City. We lost there by a minute and a half. We were sort of disappointed and sort of flattered by this decision on the part of the Bama coaches. I have a friend on the Bama women’s team that told me they were jogging the other day and talked about how Vanderbilt’s Women’s team should start the road to becoming D1 because we are good competition for them. This was another flattering thing to hear.

We were all a little disappointed with our performance in the fours. Mainly this is because we didn’t have time to seat race for them so we can make an A and B. Instead we spilt up our eight by stern four rowers and bow four rowers. This made it hard for us to row well together and we didn’t medal in either boat at either race.

We had a morning practice last week for the first time this year. I actually love practicing in the morning. For some reason, when I wake up very early in the morning, I have more energy during my day. Especially when the first thing I do is work out. The row we had that morning in our 8 was the best we had had all fall. There is something magical about that early morning lake, watching the sun rise, going to breakfast with the girls when we get back to campus, I loved it. I was probably the only one, however.

As we move into November, we are looking at Head of the Hooch, our biggest race of the Fall season. The training is getting harder, and after the Hooch, we will move indoors for winter training, which is even harder. This is the time of the year I start to question why I row. Putting myself through physical agony every day for several hours certainly doesn’t seem like something I would want to do. But this time of year also reminds me why I row. I look around as the sun sets on the lake during practice, I remember laughing with my teammates while we stay overnight at regattas playing games and eating good food, I continue to see the reasons that I stay on the team, and the reasons I joined to begin with. I love rowing, and as much as it stinks to have to come off the water, I have been happy with our success this season, and look forward to the Spring Sprints more than you can possibly imagine.

Anna