BRIC 2015 Reloaded

[Paul Victory]

Fasten your seat belt Dorothy, 'cause Kansas is going bye-bye. Or, in my case, fasten your foot straps.

I was just wondering in anyone else is planning to take part in the next edition of BRIC on Saturday, December 12th. As it will be the 2nd edition this year, I'm not sure what they're going to call it, hence my Matrix reference above. I've booked my flights so I'm committed to going. I'm on their mailing list and waiting for entries to open.

In February it was just me and John Steventon representing Free Spirits. John, are you planning a return visit?

[strider77]

I am planning on going just need to work out the logistics, as its a Saturday this time shold be easier

Paul, just one request can you forget to start for 15 secs or can I row using your name and you row using my name

[Paul Victory]

I am planning on going just need to work out the logistics, as its a Saturday this time shold be easier

Great! I look forward to seeing you there.

Paul, just one request can you forget to start for 15 secs

Been there, done that....

[hewitt]

£32.50 for a 2k race. Boom. And £26 for a 500m race.

[plummy]

Received the e-mail, read the details, deleted the e-mail and moved on.......

[Paul Victory]

£32.50 for a 2k race. Boom. And £26 for a 500m race.

Ouch! If I hadn't already booked my flights, I might be having second thoughts. No early bird special this time around.

[Paul Victory]

Just wondering how many of us will be attending the above.

Paul Victory - definite (barring injury)
Alan Wisniewski - probable?
John Steventon - ??
Anyone else - ?????

I'm also considering taking part in the Irish provincial championships in Limerick on November 21st. This will be a relatively low key event, but there will be a 2k race and probably also a 500m race. I'm in two minds whether or not to attend.

For

It's just over two hours drive (each way), so a lot easier to get to than a race in the UK
It will give me more practice of rowing in race conditions

Against

It will disrupt my WP training schedule for BRIC (but then again, I'm scheduled under the WP to do a 2k TT on November 23rd, so it won't be all that much of a disruption).

Paul V

[Recess]

Hey Paul,

I've been swithering about this ever since the date was announced. I did enjoy last year, but for various reasons - but mostly because I can't support that kind of entry fee, it's ridiculous! - I won't be taking part this year.

I think I'll stick to the Scottish, and then consider the English at the end of January (but it's a bit close to all that turkey for a lightweight!!)

Good luck to all who take part though, I'll support you from afar.

John

[Paul Victory]

Sorry to hear you won't be there John. It might just be me representing Free Spirits and hopefully Alan W.

[strider77]

I won't be going either.

It's not just the fee but the experience others had at last years does not fill me with confidence, getting there at a ridiculous tme and Masters race on around 9' ish.

Logistically its a bit of a nightmare, its commutable for me but apparently they recommend public transport as not many facilities for car parking which means an overnight as well as the high fees so its a No from me too.

[Paul Victory]

I won't be going either.

It's not just the fee but the experience others had at last years does not fill me with confidence, getting there at a ridiculous tme and Masters race on around 9' ish.

Logistically its a bit of a nightmare, its commutable for me but apparently they recommend public transport as not many facilities for car parking which means an overnight as well as the high fees so its a No from me too.

That's a pity. I was looking forward to catching up.

I haven't actually entered yet, but Jennifer and I have booked flights to London for the weekend, so I guess that means I'm committed. Of course, we could always just have a relaxing weekend over there

[Paul Victory]

I'm taking part in the Provinces IRC in Limerick next Saturday as part of my preparation for BRIC. The rules state that where there are less than 3 competitors in a race, they may transfer you to the Open race.

I got an email this morning showing the list of competitors and there are only two entrants in the M 60-69 race. So I sent a response asking whether or not I would be bumped to the Open race. A copy of their email and my response are shown below.

Thanks Joe

I note there are only two entrants in the M60-69 2k race. Does this mean that we will have to take part in the Open 2k, or will you be combining the 60-69 and 70+ categories in a single race?

Regards
Paul

From: info@rowfit.ie [mailto:info@rowfit.ie]
Sent: 12 November 2015 23:26
To: info@rowfit.ie
Subject: PROVINCES IRC Preliminary List of Entrants

Hi Folks,

Here are the preliminary lists of competitors for the PROVINCES IRC 2015.

http://www.iirc.ie/list-of-entrants-by-race-category/

&

http://www.iirc.ie/list-of-entrants-by-name-2/

Good luck to everyone.

If you have any corrections contact info@rowfit.ie immediately

Thanks,

Joe


Imagine my surprise to receive the following message from the system administrator.

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: RE: PROVINCES IRC Preliminary List of Entrants
Sent: 16/11/2015 16:10

The following recipient(s) cannot be reached:

'info@rowfit.ie' on 16/11/2015 16:10
552 5.2.0 iGAG1r00d26ouGu01GAGTh Abusive content detected in your email

I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what it was in my message that was considered abusive, but I'm stumped. Can anyone offer any explanation? I would like to be able to contact them to clarify what race I will be taking part in on Saturday.

Paul V

[Recess]

I'd resend it without the original email from Joe at the bottom. Then the only thing I can think is that it's some really heavy handed catch of '69'...

John

[Paul Victory]

Never thought of that! I've re-sent it without the offending number, but got the same message back. I'll try again without the original email.

Paul V

[Paul Victory]

Just received the revised schedule for Saturday's PIRC. There are now three competitors in the 60-69 category, do we will be having a separate race. They have also pushed back the start time from 10:43 to 11:56, which is good news as the venue is approximately two hours drive from my home.

Paul V

[Paul Victory]

Alia iacta est. I've just sent off my entry to BRIC (and paid an extra £6 for a spectator ticket for Jennifer).

Alan, it's still not too late to change your mind! Surely there must be somewhere nearby that you could park?

[Paul Victory]

Did the PIRC today as part of my preparation for BRIC. I was hoping to go sub 6:55 and ideally improve on my SB of 6:53.5. Didn't quite work out according to plan.

They had to move to a smaller venue than last January's IIRC and it was quite stuffy and humid, which made breathing quite difficult. Then there was a problem at the start, which resulted in us hanging around on the ergs for over 5 minutes after we had been told to put the handles down because the race was about to start.

When the race started, I saw my usual 5 minutes plus for the first split and it took quite a few strokes to get the average pace down to 1:46. I had been hoping to keep my pace at 1:43/1:44, but found that I was seeing a lot of 1:45s and 1:46s. My average pace remained stubbornly at 1:45.1 and moved out to 1:45.2 with around 500m to go. I was determined to go sub 7 and managed to pick it up over the last 300m or so to finish in 6:57.6. Splits were 1:45.1/1:45.1/1:45.3/1:42.1.

There were only 3 competitors in my race and I was over 45 seconds ahead of the second place finisher. If I had been pushed by someone rowing at around the same pace, I might have found another second or two, but I certainly wasn't going to set any PBs today. 500m is on in just over an hour from now, so planning to go for a walk (if it would stop raining for a few minutes) and then do another 'mini-Fletcher' warm up before the race.

Paul V

[Caratacus]

Well done Paul, nice last 500 there and comfortably under 7 mins =D> =D> =D>

[Paul Victory]

Thanks Felton. The 500m was on around 3 hours later and I had decided to do that as well. I finished my warm up around 10 minutes ahead of the scheduled start time and discovered that they were running around three races behind schedule. My legs were feeling pretty heavy during the warm up, so I decided not to do any further warm up and to use a higher than normal DF (160) for the race.

There were three false starts and my initial split was over 5 minutes. I was still averaging around 1:40 at the 100m mark despite pulling a few 1:29s, but I was comfortably ahead of second place. Kept going as best I could (with lots of encouragement from my lovely cox, Jennifer) but my legs (rather than my breathing) was the problem and I finished in 1:32.6, over 12 seconds ahead of second place.

Nice to pick up two gold medals, but a long day and we didn't get home until after 7 p.m. Feeling a lot better now after a takeaway and a few glasses of wine.

Paul V

[gregsmith01748]

Congratulations on your 2 gold medals! Awesome result under tough conditions.

[sander]

Great result and impressive last 500m on the 2k

[Recess]

AH! I've been hunting around trying to find your results Paul - I didn't think of checking in here! Well done! Sounds like a bit of a success is the face of adversity kind of day. If you're anything like me, you'll be a bit irked not to have met your goals - but sometimes, golds are a good subsitute for goals!

I admire your tenacity in the face of things that don't go as planned. Just before my race yesterday, they were still playing Whitney Houston through the PA. I was sitting on the erg thinking "There's no way I can pull a PB with Whitney playing in the background..." so who knows how I'd have responded to what you went through!!

Hope to catch you at a race sometime soon. Good luck at the BRIC's!

John

[strider77]

Brilliant rows Paul, going sub 7 at our age is fantastic.
Well done on your 2 Gold Medals.

[Paul Victory]

image.jpeg (851.39 KiB) Viewed 2397 times

Thanks folks. Full results are here http://www.iirc.ie/iirc-provinces-2015-results/

By the way, got a chance to show off my new Free Spirits headband.

[strider77]

Looking mean and lean Paul