Free Spirits Rowing

Good luck to everyone going tomorrow. Hope to say hello to you all. Come on Free Spirits!!!

Good luck guys, will be cheering on from afar

Good luck!!!

Looking forward to hearing how you all got on.

Full race report to follow but here are the results. I couldn't find Richard so he may have been unable to attend. Morten and Guy came close to the medals in their 2k races and Guy won a fantastic silver in the 500m. He was just 0.1s behind ex-olympic rower Tim Male.

And my race...

Fantastic efforts from the Free Spirits at BRIC

Great efforts!

Morten and Guy, I hope you got well over being disappointment of being that close to a medal.

Thumbs up for all Free Spirits attending!!

The disappointment vanished with the first beer Tako. Hopefully I will be in better shape in Copenhagen next month.

fantastic rows ! great results !

hope all of you are now a bit relaxed to celebrate !

Awesome efforts guys. Thank you for flying the flag for the team

Well done to all the Free Spirits competing

Well done all and thanks for sharing the results Michael!

Apologies for the delay but here is the race report...

First up was Morten who was in the 55-59 age group for the first time. I arrived just as the race was starting and I'm glad I did because it was a great race. For much of the time Morten was in 7th place and then during the 3rd 500m section he just started to dial up the power. It was absolutely awesome as he moved through 6th, 5th, 4th and at one point it looked like he might get 3rd. But unfortunately it was not to be. Having checked the splits his last 500 was an amazing 1:36.5 and a great way to start the day.

Guy was next and given his form I had high hopes for a medal, but this was tempered when I saw that Tim Male, an ex-olympic rower was in the same race. After the rowers settled into race pace Guy was comfortable in 4th and holding an impressive 1:40 to 1.41. With 500m to go I thought he was going to put the burners on to try and catch 3rd but he didn't. My initial surprise was quickly replaced by the realisation that Guy was racing. He could see that 3rd place was finishing strongly and he could not catch him so was conserving energy for the 500m. Respect for keeping a cool head in the heat of battle. And how I wish I could row a 6:40 2km while holding back for the next race. Chris took 15th place but unfortunately I can't say how his race went because I focusing on Guy and getting ready for my race which was next up.

Since SRIC, training had gone very badly with a combination of HDs and poor times. I was absolutely scunnered (Scottish word meaning physically and mentally tired and fed up). I dared not try and go as fast as at SRIC as it would probably end with a fly and die so no chance of a 3rd PB at BRIC. Anyway, the adrenaline is pumping as I set the drag only to realise the chain crunches badly on the recovery. So I stick my hand up and the race is delayed as I move to a new erg. Then we're off... to a false start. By the time we do start my head is all over the place and I go out too quickly and don't seem to be able to slow down. This is going to be a car crash if I'm not careful. Eventually I get into race pace of 1.44 but with 600m to go I've slowed down a little too much. Lots of things are rushing through my head...This is it. You have a choice, hold the pace I'm doing and admit it just wasn't my day, but then what was all the training, effort and pain for. Or, make my wife proud, make myself proud, give it everything, come on... So I gradually wind up the power... more... a bit more... oh I'm seeing 1.3 something... wow that's fast... keep going... the race commentator is fantastic and I'm lifted by the excitement he's generating, 20 strokes... 10... and suddenly its over. 6:51.0 my second faster time ever and 11th place. The last 500 was 1:40.7 which for me counts as blistering! No wonder I had jelly legs walking down the stairs.

After the race I had a great chat with Guy who explained why I was so out of sorts after SRIC (elevated HR and not allowing my body to recover). Unfortunately I couldn't stay for his 500m race but that must have been the race of the day so hopefully Guy or Morten will post a report. I really wanted to meet Morten and walked round the stadium looking but there were just too many people to find him. Next year we'll have to arrange a meeting place.

P.S There was some confusion in terms of my place. 11th in my race and in the first official results including the other heat. But then I was moved to 12th as a lwt rower was subsequently added, I assumed because he missed the weight but was allowed to race with that group. But today I noticed I'm back at 11th and the lwt has been moved back to lwt. Very confusing but I'll happily take it!

Great write up Max - I miss those as there used to be so many. It almost makes me want to do more races...I said almost!

Thanks for the write up Max I would maybe like to do it one day but the times are frightening

Thanks for the write up Max. I followed your race carefully, you had an fantastic finish, I was afraid that the hard start had filled your legs with lactic acid. This year I was very uncertain about my chances to come under 06.40 as I have had some lower back problems and haven't been able to go as hard as necessary on my interval workouts. I find the warm-up time at BRIC is to short and started way to slow but managed to rev up the last 500 meters, unfortunately not enough to enter the podium. I was looking for you and Guy but could not find you among all the spectators, next year we most exhange phone numbers.