The first time Peter Clements rowed in the Henley Royal Regatta, he was an undergraduate at Williams College, racing bow seat in an eight in Temple Challenge Cup. That year, his crew made it to the Friday round of the one-and-done, five-day racing format, before being eliminated.
He went back in 2012 to row bow with the Potomac Boat Club in the Thames Challenge Cup event, and lost again on Friday. Following both regattas, Clements came home thinking two things about the racing; that it was hard, and that his body was hurting.
"The racing is brutal," Clements recalled. "I've only ever made it three days in a row, and my body was shattered."
But there was something else, a feeling that overrode the idea that he had just put himself through intense training followed by physically punishing racing, and that was Henley was worth the months of preparation, travel and expense both times he competed.
"If you love the sport, and you love racing, there's nothing else like it," Clements said.
"Henley takes place in a town that, for over a century, turns itself into a machine with one purpose for one week a year - hosting dual racing more intense than most college cup matches."
Then, he added, there is the event itself, "rowing with the feeling that, for once, the spectators want to be there; and the smells, the drinks, the sights and sounds, the spirit - members of other clubs and teams buying you drinks for what you did to do this and vice versa," he said.
And now, it's an experience that Clements is happy to be living again. Next Wednesday, July 4th, when racing begins at the Henley Royal Regatta, Clements will be getting ready to row in a Potomac crew in the men's eights club event, the Thames Challenge Cup. His is one of two Potomac crews that will compete, including a men's straight-four racing in the Wyfold Challenge Cup.
This time will be a slightly different scenario for Clements, who is now a club rower, leaning decidedly more toward masters rowing than elite, balancing training with career and family life to prepare for his, and Potomac's, Henley goals, which include (of course) trying to win.
"The goal is to win the Thames Challenge Cup in the eight and the Wyfold Challenge Cup in the four," he said. "Potomac, to my knowledge, has never done either. The raw odds are 1 in 32 - the adjusted odds are probably not much higher for a foreign crew.
"But we are emphatically not going over to Henley to make it as far as we can and then enjoy the trip, we are not going as a reward for long-time members - we are going to win."
Which is going to be the goal of not just Potomac, but most of the 565 crews entered.
Of the total entries, 111 are non-British crews, and 35 of those are US crews, racing some of the best boats from around the world from junior to club to elite.
"Henley is the closest thing to a world club championships we can race in," Clements said. "None of the members of our two crews are training full-time - everyone has a job and other serious commitments. So, they have to make rowing a second priority.
"But we all still take it seriously, because going fast is more fun than the alternative, and we treat the experience of being on the team and training for the race as a test; given a job, a family, and whatever else, what's the top speed you can hit;" and, he added, "it beats being in the office in July!"
Of the 35 US entries, there are crews from some of the best men's and women's collegiate programs, two from the US under 23 women's World Championship selection camp, the top women's youth quad from the 2018 US national championships, and two singles scullers including Tom Graves and just graduated Vashon Island High School sculler Riley Lynch, who is racing in the Princess Royal Challenge Cup.
"For this regatta, I would honestly just say that I am so happy to be here," Lynch said. "I have no idea how I'm going to place, but this is such an incredible opportunity to experience such an iconic regatta and bring some representation from the USA, and the northwest region of junior rowers.
"It's so exciting to be around so many elite crews, and see how they train and prepare for big races. This course is unlike any other I've seen before and though I'm nervous to race between the booms, I am looking forward to experiencing what so few rowers get to experience, even if it is just once. Racing on the Thames is an experience I know I'll never forget," she said.
Rowing in the top event for high school level crews is the Y Quad Cities women's quad that just won the USRowing Youth National Championships, the fifth consecutive title for the club in the event. They race in the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup, the only event specifically for high school level women.
This is the second time the Midwest club will send a boat to Henley, said coach Peter Sharis, whose daughter Caroline rowed in the event four years ago with older sister Elizabeth. That crew lost in the semifinal round to Gloucester Rowing Club from Great Britain, the eventual champions.
"Caroline was just a freshman that year and over the last few years we've had lots of stuff going on in the summer," Sharis said. "But there was always the thought in the back of our minds that if we had a fast quad, we would try to go back again.
"So, this year we're getting over there, and there is going to be some pretty good competition," he said.
Sharis said the Henley format of dual racing on a slightly longer course and in front of the thousands of spectators creates a race experience not normally available to high school crews. Nearly all scholastic and junior events in the US are six-across sprint events.
"It's definitely more pressure with dual racing," Sharis said. "You put that in combination with the booms and being side-by-side, and it definitely becomes a more stressful race and probably more of a tactical type of race because you want to stay in touch with the other boat and be a lot more of aware of moves the other boat is making than you would be in a big six across type of race."
But, Sharis said, it is the atmosphere of the 179-year-old event, the town and all the tradition of the what is viewed in the rowing community as a very special regatta.
"It's one of the most beautiful regattas there is," said Yale men's head coach Steve Gladstone, who is sending an eight of mostly second and third varsity athletes to reward them for their contributions to a second straight year of championship performances.
"It's a reward for those seniors and their devotion and consistency and the work they've done all year," Gladstone said. "But, there are any other number of considerations, and one is there are a whole lot of Yale alumni in London, and this will be a treat for them to have a Yale boat to cheer for, and the other dimension is it is important to show the flag at Henley."
Also showing the flag will be two women's crews from USRowing's Under 23 World Championship Princeton selection camp. This is a first for the US under-23 program, and is designed to give the 2018 World Championship team race experience.
The last US women's team that raced at Henley - and won - was a crew from the 2016 senior women's Princeton Training Center.
The eight will row in the Remenham Challenge Cup event, while a four will race for the Town Challenge Cup.
"Really, the inception of the idea came after Worlds last year," said U23 women's team head coach Brett Gorman said. Gorman said she was relaxing following last year's World Championship with assistants Megan Cooke Carcagno and Rob Weber, "talking about the summer and the process of selection and getting the kids ready to race and how we all felt very similar in that it was pretty unbelievable to us that we didn't feel that we knew what we had until the heat in Plovdiv.
"Even though we did everything we could to put them in race situations, there is just nothing that replaces going to a start line when you don't know what's going to happen."
She said she is hoping that racing in Henley will help get her crews ready for the World Under-23 World Championships, even if it means the stress of two trips to Europe.
"The kids were definitely really excited when we told them," she said. "I see the U23 program as a dual-purpose program. One purpose is to go to Worlds and perform well, and come home with some medals, and do the best job that we can with the kids that we have with the limited amount of time that we have them.
"But the other part is to get these girls excited about training and continuing on to the senior team, and I think that is the more important job. We saw that as a good reason to go."
If the purpose was to get the women excited about summer racing, it worked, said coxswain Leigh Warner, who is back for a second time as the U23 women's eight coxswain.
"It's one of the most exciting races to be at from a spectator point of view and from a racing point of view. I heard that it is very intimate and exciting with all the people lining the shore, so I am pretty excited to go and race there. We weren't expecting this," she said. "There were rumors, but when they told us, it was pretty exciting that we were going to go."
While some of the U23 women's training camp crew will be racing for the US, some of the camp athletes from the University of Washington will be joining their collegiate teammates in Washington's entries in the eight, quad, and double.
Washington head coach Yaz Farooq said the university tries to take a team to Henley every four years. She said that while it's important to raise the university flag, it is just as important to pass along the tradition of Henley.
"Jan Harville (former head coach at Washington) came out in the launch this morning and told me about Washington's journey to Henley in 2000, the first year that women were allowed," Farooq said. "After a runner up finish at the NCAA's, they got a taste of Henley hospitality firsthand, and then had an amazing run to win the regatta.
"Henley's nod to rowing's past makes it a once in a lifetime experience that those rowers experienced and one that I really want each of our rowers to have moving forward. We are fortunate to have the support of our university and the Seattle community to ensure that our team can attend every four years (the maximum allowed under the NCAA foreign tour rule)."
Men's head coach Mike Callahan, like Yale's Gladstone, is taking a combination crew of mostly athletes from the school's second and third varsity boats as a reward, but also to develop athletes who still have undergraduate eligibility to row in the program.
"We take crews for a lot of reasons," Callahan said. "One is we want to reward guys for a great season, and in this case, that's why we are doing it this year. We're rewarding a lot of guys for a well rowed season and winning some championships in the 2V and 3V at the IRA.
"But there are also some young guys and we would love to develop them and put them on the big stage."
For Callahan, exposing athletes to Henley as either a reward or for the purpose to development is one of the highlights of the seasons.
"It's definitely a bucket list race," he said. "I think it's the history of it, the setting. To row in front of thousands of people who appreciate rowing in one of the greatest rowing nations is exciting, and it's traditional. Henley is the Wimbledon of rowing and it's really a special place.
"When you walk across the bridge, it has a little bit of magic to it and you feel it right away. Every rower wants to row at Henley and that's why we're giving these guys the opportunity."
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