After a 12 mile of hiking day on Saturday with my poodle Cooper I had a double race day planned on Sunday. I was returning to my rowing roots by rowing in a 2km indoor rowing race first, and then I was rushing to Concord to run a 4 mile running race.
Indoor rowing races are usually called Ergattas because Concept II Indoor Rowing machines are often nicknamed Ergs (ergometer). The race consists of a row of rowing machines in a room together. When I was younger the time for each contestant was recorded from the individual displays. Newer races are done by connecting all the displays to a computer. With a projected display that shows the position of tiny graphic rowing boats.
The Queen City Icebreaker Ergatta was a tiny event. It was very well run, but it wasn’t the crowds of people from my high school ergattas. This is probably because a) it’s a very new event run by a specific local high school so people may not know about it and b) New Hampshire isn’t exactly the rowing Mecca that St. Catharines is.
It was so small that I was the only experienced rower in my category. The poor girl rowing next to me was a novice college rower. She looked at my screen and said “holy s***” after my start. I hope I didn’t discourage her. We actually only had a three person race, and the third person was convinced to row because we told her she would get an automatic third place.
So I won my category. Pulling a 7:33.0 in the process. I was happy, I hadn’t trained on an erg in years other than playing around. Although my high school self pulled 7:20s and my college self pulled 7:00s, I have to remind myself I’m not that rowing obsessed anymore.
I even got a little trophy for winning: a screwdriver spray painted gold. I guess the trophy is an homage to the fact that the original ergatta, the CRASH-Bs, gives out hammers to the winners. I just wish it looked more like a screwdriver from a distance.
Full results here.
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