The 2009 CRASH-B is only days away, and the "lucky" folks who will strap into the front row of ergs has been determined. This means a couple things – a large group of our fellow rowers will submit themselves to completely irrational torture in the quest for a good time (pun intended) – and it also means that spring in the northern hemi is nigh. The CRASH-B is a perfect representation of rowing's love-hate relationship with both the machine and the long winter – game on!
It's hard to say if it is better to have a little more more time to think about your piece, or if you'd rather just get it over and done, but it's not like multiple CRASH-B champ Joan Van Blom has a choice – she is in the middle erg in the first race of the day, with a batch of other Lightweight Veteran Women. Joan has set a couple world records, so should provide a good show for early risers in the stands.
In the 50-59 class, Therese Brockwell is coming all the way from Australia for her 9:20 row, so it might not really feel like business hours to her – in fact, it might feel like yesterday, as it will already be Monday in Oz! Too bad you can't just fly across the date line and magically have had already rowed yesterday's piece without ever having sat on the machine.
The Veteran Light Men event has a whole heap of international players, this time mostly from Europe; the German squads in particular are fun to watch, with absolutely the most demonstrative coaching staffs alive. They look more wiped out when it's over than some of the rowers!
In the junior men's event, part of the show is definitely the coaches in attendance slobbering over the cream of the crop, so be sure to cast an eye up into the stands to watch their eyes narrow with dreams of a boatload of sub- 6 minute frosh. The best of the junior guys row hard and with youthful passion, so it's a good show wherever you look.
You'll find similar spectacle in the stands for the junior women's events; now that the NCAA has been on the women's rowing scene for over a decade, this group has really come into its own, and the racing can be very intense. There is a certain gregariousness to it all as well, as a lot of the top junior women know each other from the extensive development circuit, so if you see a lot of nasty looks during the racing, they're often followed by friendly embraces immediately after. There is a whole lot of racing in this event as well; fully six flights of the 80-erg floor include junior women, and that's not even counting a few more flights of lightweights.
When watching the masters races, don't be sure you're watching over the hill geezers pound the erg; this class almost always includes some current National Team athletes, particularly among the internationals. They can also be among the best in the sport, in part because only the best erg-smashers stick around in the front row for any period of time.
As you get up into the Senior Master categories, somehow the international cadre only increases; maybe it's because these folks have the seniority at work to get a weekend off to go rowing! These races can get truly gnarly, with multiple lead changes, and are worth a good look.
As we get into the open categories, well, there's a reason these are held at the end of the day. The light women includes at least three ranked internationals, a Seattle Pocock entrant, and more good contenders; the light men does not include new world record holder Henrik Stephansen, so someone else will just have to go sub-6 minutes in his stead, right, gentlemen? The 3pm heat looks like it could have some pretenders to the throne, and tho at that speed pretender might be as close as they get, it's packed with internationals from Moldova to China, and everywhere in between. It doesn't appear that any US team members will be in attendance, as most are on the West Coast this month doing three-a-days and growing mustaches.
The open women's category includes a lot of Unaffiliated participants, likely due to NCAA rules; don't count them out, tho, as you can pick a number of them who could row in the low 6:40s. They will go up against internationals that include a group of Team China members, whose attendance apparently tested the visa-gathering abilities of the CRASH-B folks (and who passed the test with honors). In the final race of the day, it looks like it will be a clash of Europeans vs. US collegians for the premier Erg Monster of 2009 hammer.
Here's wishing good luck, a great last 1000, and a strong stomach to all participants – see you at the arena!
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