Day 2/3 at the 2008 Northwest Masters Regional Championship
A little late in writing this catch up post. A sinus infection (my first) hit me hard and left me dazed and confused at the booth and crashing at night.
Saturday saw the total animation of the booth on our right, Row For The Cure with the warm and totally engaging founder, Kathy Frederick. They were there to spread the word about the 2008 Row For the Cure regattas in Portland and Seattle, both scheduled for 21 September. Others are planned but no schedule was available. GLRF will list the regattas on our calendar since we honor at least one GLRF member who is a thriving, race competing rower and survivor in Boston. They’re also looking for club coordinators to help spread the word. You can contact Kathy at fairygodmother3 (at) verizon [dot] net to volunteer.
What makes the Northwest Regionals so cool? It’s the unique community feel of the park/lawn/beach that brings everyone into the same area: vendors, race officials, rowers, and you can watch the entire race from the luscious and soft lawn. (okay, so bring some bug spray – the no-see um’s begin to turn into thirsty vampires by 3:00 pm. That and the awesome music that keeps the mood easy and happy all day long.
So who comes to the race? There were Marin Rowing Association folks from the San Francisco Bay Area, every rowing club in Oregon and Washington, and a great showing from Vancouver and Victoria. The somewhat outdated rule that said competitors outside the Northwest region could not win a gold medal in a race has been replaced by the standard gold/silver/bronze and a Northwest Trophy goes to the winning Northwest club – this year: Lake Union Crew! Woo hoo! Also, not sure if other countries offer the same feature, but there were some great races to watch in the AA category, meaning under 26, which is a relatively new USRowing category.
So how did days 2 and 3 work out? We saw a lot of visitors at the booth on Saturday and Sunday, including membership registrations from Washington and Oregon and Canada. The GLRF gear seemed to fly off the tables, and one Dad even came by just to say he was glad we were there. Speaking of flying, the GLRF booth started getting some Flying Nun action beginning at Noon on Saturday. When I mentioned the problem to Margaret and Rome, they both just looked at me with a total WTF look. Doesn’t anyone know about the Flying Nun ? Come on! Alright, the winds were lifting the canopy off the frame. No, Alejandro Rey didn’t appear but the wind was creating total havoc at the starting line as stake boats kept breaking away. Finally they put the regatta on wind hold at 3 pm and called it at 5 pm. All existing heats went to finals based on finish times. The next morning went off without a hitch although some of the Vancouver Island folks had to scratch in order to catch the last ferry back to the island. We had some typical early morning Northwest mist/rain but the sun came out later.
Kudos to the USRowing Northwest Rep, James Rawson, who did his magic to keep the regatta from missing a beat between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. (yes, ’til 8:30 pm, he did toil…) , and many thanks to all of the volunteers for an awesome regatta. More pics posted on the GLRF NWR2008 page .
ps: Albert, Mr. Vic City Rowing Club Coach – you look good in every thing.
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