(If you want to skip down to the race scroll and look for the bold title)
Well I’m currently on the long trip home from the 2014 CRASH-B (In the air just over the Gulf of Main the pilot just announced) so have plenty of time to write a blog while I watch a movie or three.
First and foremost I would like to thank Q (James Bailey) for all his hard work, time, effort indeed his essence for once again getting this old fat man out to race with the young guns – I can’t even imagine the emotional and time investment he puts into not only mine - but also the teams endeavours - most of which I will more than likely never even know about it – so thank you boss.
We’ll cover a bit of the lead up to Boston – basically not the best prep as three weeks out from D-Day I caught a chest infection – that put me out of work and action on the erg for about two weeks – and gave me only a 7 day run up to Boston – one day of that I would be travelling. Still look at the positives – this would mean I would be plenty rested :lol: also couldn’t pick up any injuries and unlikely to get ill with two lots of anti-biotic and steroids inside me. Travelling to Boston was eventful to say the least – the day before I flew I was due to drop the dogs to the kennels – a 90min round trip which is normally simple enough – unless of course there are 100mph + winds that are tearing trees up and dumping them on the ground left right and centre – still I and the dogs survived. On the day of the flight I had to drive from my home to Shannon airport (2 hour drive) the flight was 13:30 so needed to be there for 10:30 really – set off at 07:00 and it was a wise decision as it decided to snow that morning for the first time this year – I arrived at 10:00 so still time to breath :-D on to the flight without too much effort and even got a row of three seat to myself. Landing in Boston I decided to take the subway as Jen Howse had given me directions that seemed simple enough from the station near the hotel – of course what I didn’t do is work out how to get from there to the Hotel :lol: so I asked a Police man and then after a stop at another hotel I got to the Marriot – huge hotel interconnected to a massive shopping complex. Met up with Q and a few of the team then checked in – room sharing with Paul Brew I awaited his company as he was still to arrive. Out to the cheesecake factory for a meal with those there and on return to the hotel I met up with PB and after a small erg to loosen the muscles we retired for the evening. Never really got over the time difference – Paul and I both woke comically around 4pm when we both tried to sneak a look on our phones while the other slept – trying not to wake each other - then the other woke to try and sneak a look on their phone thinking the other was asleep until we both worked out we were both awake and said good morning :lol: at that point we’d have a bit of a chin wag as if we’d been mates for years having really only just met – maybe that’s the Power of Q-Power.
During the two days leading up to the race we had early morning gentle paddles and then in the afternoon we did something with a little more oomph – not too much – just enough to keep us ticking over. Also had a couple of team meetings and discussed a few things prevalent to the big day and the coming year – all in all a well organised and most beneficial time spent as a team building for something quite unique.
********** Race Here **********
So on to the big day – seeded 5th I had nothing to lose – the plan was to go out hard and see if I could get a little closer to that magic number 6 – with reports coming in from the early races it was clear that Boston was having it’s usual effect of a few seconds so do I adjust or do I go for it – feck it I’ll start hard and see – pre race warm up timed to perfection and out onto the race machine – Ollie to my right and Rich Connell to my left – set the drag – took a breath and got ready – attention – row – we was off and I was hitting it hard – the first 500m I went through in 1:30.8 – but at this point my mind started to drift and instead of keeping my eye on the split I started watching the race – the problem was that we were all so close that we all kept flipping places I saw everyone’s name from Jordan Weide (Q-Power) down to Toby Ayer flick on the screen and it became mesmerising to work out who was where and how close to the upper positions I was – this was a costly mistake in the end – instead of hitting 1:32’s at this point I so a few 1:35’s and 1:36’s come up when my attention turned to the split – damn it – OK focus Paul – the HD thoughts came – I took 5 seconds to picture my daughter’s face and that was sorted out – time to dig in – I have a aerobic base bigger than most and I just focused on using that to get me through to the finish – it worked and we started looking at less than 500m to go – time to push on – the middle two 500’s where 1:33.1 and 1:33.2 respective – Wulf time – hauling the average split down from 1:32.4 Q put in the shout I was on for 6:09 – then 6:08 then 6:07 then I heard it “PB is on!! PB IS ON!!” and I pumped for all I was worth – alas I ran out of rail as the 2k clocked down to 0 meters – I finished not knowing my time nor my position but looking up and taking a breath I saw the 6:06.1 – bugger! PB is still 6:06.0 – OK where did I finish – 5th! Bugger – missed 4th place by 0.3 seconds (Adrian Quinn on 6:05.8) at that point other than Jordan on 6:00.3 and Toby Ayer (6th) on 6:07.1 I had no idea of 2nd or 3rd – (I later found that Rich Connell had pulled 6:05.5 for Bronze (0.6 seconds faster than me) and Marcos Sarmiento had 6:04.8 (1.3 seconds faster than me) double bugger – that will teach me for taking my eye of the ball won’t it.
Later on the Q-Power team entered the team event – really enjoyed that I have to say – if anyone saw it they may have noticed that :lol: we set off to hit the first 500m on a even pace and then waited for the call from our cox – Q- it came at 200m to go – we lifted our pace and a erg :lol: we won the event with Jordan Weide, Ollie Osborne, Paul Brew and myself (all had rowed 2k’s less than two hours before) rowed the 4k combined distance in a ave split of 1:30.4 – awarded some very special hammers for that one. After the last of the medal ceremonies I went to pick up the erg I had ordered and with the very kind help of Jen and Ian Howse and Paul Brew I got it back to the hotel. A team meal that evening and a few drinks – not too many though as I had the erg to breal down to get the weight distributed for the journey home.
A fantastic few days (even though this is the first erg comp I’ve been to where I haven’t medalled – but saying that I have probably taken more away from this than some of those that I have) – the entire Q-Power team rowed fantastically as did every one of those there – as ever I’m so grateful for meeting so many wonderful ergers – too many to mention – although it was nice for them to ask where the fat man went who was there two years ago – wait till next year as the chubby man is about to get cut :evil: I have plans on a few changes that need to be made – which I will talk about as they happen – but first the English
Good job I don’t fly very often after a race – I might overload the blog servers :lol:
Just landed in Shannon - now to collect the luggage and erg then get car and drive home ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz
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