Scottish Indoor Rowing Championships

[Recess]

You have to hunt around the site a bit, but it looks like they've finally scheduled the Scottish Indoor Rowing Championships for weekend of 6th December this year.

Here's the link:

http://www.scottish-rowing.org.uk/index ... /sirc-news

I'll be doing my first and last 30's event (40 next year) as a Free Spirit. Anyone else going?

Time to get serious!!!

John

[Recess]

So the event list for this has been released.

http://www.scottish-rowing.org.uk/index ... vent-list2

I'd hoped the 2k would be age divided. Now I have to decide whether to go for the 2k open lightweight and see how I match up with everyone, or try to 30+ 1k - which won't be quite as rewarding I think (which kinda answers my own question).

Would it be stupid to do both?

John

[strider77]

John,

I think you have excellent chances of medals in both, go for it

[Recess]

So the timetable is through for this. And it looks like I'm in-contested in the 1000m sprint at the moment. Which is good news for two reasons. 1) I may not lose. 2) I can use it as a dry-run for the main event 2 hours later for the 2k. As I've never raced live before, it'll get all the 'what happens' questions out the way before I have to really hit it hard.

The tough part will not be racing the 50 year olds who I'm in with. If it's just me vs me, maybe I shoukd back off race pace a bit and get my body ready for later, unless that's a bad idea?

John

[Wolfmiester]

Id say save whatever you can for the 2k John.
A full out 2k takes a couple of days to get over, and that is surely your focus of the day.

[Paul Victory]

If the 1k is uncontested, I'd be inclined to race it at 2k pace, but without a final sprint. This will give you a good feel for the pace required later in the day, but should not take too much out of you.

[Recess]

I'm here. And I'm bizarrely nervous! Got an hour or so before my first race. About to weigh in. Let's hope all the food suffering has paid off!


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[Recess]

Phew! 73.4. Although they got confused for a sec and thought it was meant to be 73 as a limit... Sweating a bit for a second there!!!


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[Rodger]

Best of luck, John! Those medals are yours.

[Recess]

Ok. So the 1000m was a given, as it was me on my own. Intended to do it in 3:30. Ended up 3:20.6... Oops. But still, I didn't lose against myself.




Then the 2k. Hewitt was in the lead by about 6m until about 600m to go, which was when it started to really hurt me. But at 300 I went for it, at the same time the guy behind me did!! We ended up necks and neck overtaking Hewitt with about 100m to go, trading positions over and over.

We both finished 6:40.7 - tied for first place!!

Or was it?

Sadly, because the university 2k raced at the same time, the also won the open 2k. I kinda get their reasoning for it, but not really. So I was joint first out of all the normals, but quite far down as far as the entire race is concerned. I assume Kelly is ahead of me purely out of alphabetical ordering.

Julie has a nice photo of me lying next to erg in pain... All I have is the result.



Anyway, lots of fun. Knocked 5 secs off my PB I think, so 99% happy.

John


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[gregsmith01748]

Congratulations on nailing 2 wins in a day!

Getting a tie is pretty weird, huh? I did in a 500m race once and I felt a bit cheated.

By the way, nice shirt!

[Paul Victory]

Congratulations John. Great day's racing! =D> =D> =D>

[plummy]

Great result John - superb work. =D> =D> =D>

Dead heat!! - did that in a 5K once - amazing race

[Recess]

Thanks folks. It was a great day - and yes, really odd to finish completely tied. My wife sat next to Roger Stainforth's wife - who let us know he was going for the British record for the 1000m 70-75 Hwt. And he got it! Knocked almost two seconds off it I think. Really exciting race - and amazing to watch him, he made it look effortless!

I'm still a bit narked about the combination of the Student event with the Open event. The more I think about it, the more my bottom lip sticks out. Even down to the fact that my PM5 didn't show anyone other than the people in the Open event - so how could I race against the other lot when they weren't showing up? I'm not saying I could have gone faster, but if I saw other people I may have pushed that little more.

Why have them as two separate events if you're just going to roll them together? I bet the students didn't pay to enter both! Bah! Why aren't they out drinking instead of beating me... BAH!

I might email Scottish Rowing about it, - it's not going to change anything - but it'll hopefully clear things up for next year...

John

[plummy]

I agree - if was advertised as two events then it should have been 2 events - I'd be miffed too. Contact them just to get it off your chest - as you say, it may not change anything but it will at least bring it to the attention of someone that their "arrangements" weren't appreciated by all.

You should be happiest with the PB though - they can't take that off you =D>

[Recess]

Very good point. Just under 6 seconds off. Won't sneer at that! One last picture. Sadly that's not me on the left. I'm in the middle... Having a 'wee rest'.




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[Paul Victory]

John, it sounds like you were robbed of a medal. I would definitely follow up if I were you. They completely reneged on the basis on which you entered the competition. Totally unacceptable!

[Recess]

Just sent off an email, saying thanks for today, but:

1) This was never communicated to be what would happen
2) Both events were advertised as separate events. If 24 people had entered the open, would this have happened?
3) Your website states: Medals will be awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd placed competitors in each individual category. (Event 101 and 132 were individual categories)
4) None of the uni competitors showed up on my PM5 screen. How can I compete against people when I don't see what they're doing? As far as I was concerned, I was in second place most of the race, and my sprint finish let me to finish joint first. To find out afterwards I was competing against 19 other guys I couldn't see on the screen was really frustrating.
5) Did the University entrants pay to enter both events? A petulant question I know, but I still think it's relevant.

The more i think about it, the more number 4 above really grinds...

I'll let you know if I get a response and what they say. I'm still really happy with the day, and I don't want this to spoil it.

It's time to focus on training to lose 2kg and get faster in time for the BRIC's. Any ideas on how i can lose 2kg while adding muscle for power would be greatly welcomed!!

John

[gregsmith01748]

I really like the thoughtfulness of the organizers providing individual puke buckets next to each erg!

But all in all, I think a medal would be better. I have seen other races run multiple events simultaneously, but they have always reported the results separately. It doesn't help the race display, but at least they don't steal shiny objects from deserving competitors.

[Recess]

Only saw one guy use the bucket. Not nice...

[kirbyt]

Great job, and congratualations, John, you're so close to sub 6:40 now. You were robbed of the medal. Surely those medals aren't that expensive that they couldn't have given you and Chris your rightful gold medals. I hear you about the monitor, I had kind of the reverse problem at the '08 BIRC; my monitor somehow lumped the much faster 30-35 lwts with us 45-49 lwts but I had no reason to know that and thought I was in 8/9th place for most of the race when I was really in 3rd/4th. I ended up with a bronze but I still wonder if I eased up a little in the middle of the race thinking I had no shot at a medal.

Also, why do you need to lose two more kilos for BRIC? What is their weight limit?

[Recess]

73Kg!!!

To be honest, it's not about the metallurgy, it's really just that it was never mentioned that this was what would happen - that I didn't really compete against them (I still think I would have gone sub 6:40 had I had people ahead of me who were going a LOT faster than me, rather than 10ths of a second faster) and ultimately, that as I thought I'd be getting a medal, Julie and I hung around for an hour waiting for it. I could have been at home getting and extra hour's worth of 'well done' hugs from my little girls!!

Still, as I just posted in the 6:20 thread, my plan for next year is row 6:20 and beat everyone...

John

[kirbyt]

Wow, 73! I gotta say, I think that'd be a deal breaker for me. I don't know why they're changing what has been the standard for so many years. If this catches on, I'm going to be one small heavyweight in the future!

[Recess]

Probably my last post on this thread - they've quite handily provided split time for the 2k:

John Steventon Free Spirits MOpLwt
500 38spm 1 : 39.7
1000 37spm 1 : 40.5
1500 36spm 1 : 41.4
2000 36spm 1 : 39.1

That'll be my difficult 3rd 500 then...