Guest Writer: Tom
Tom rowed in college. After we retired and moved to Austin, Texas, he wanted to get on the water again. But it took him 2.5 years living in Austin before he signed on to be a member of Texas Rowing Center (TRC). He started in December of last year taking some private lessons with Mark Borchelt to learn how to skull (which is a requirement of TRC to be in a rowing team and which he didn't have to do in college). He has not joined a rowing team, but had a chance to work with Mark as a coach when he rowed in multiple team boats with others. He was thrilled to be asked to participate in RowFest 2025 in Ypsilanti, Michigan this July, although he was nervous that he wasn't good enough. He wanted to go, but he also wanted to get better before going. In the end, he went because there would not be a TRC team in his age group if he didn't go. I went with him as an emotional support. Besides, I could take pictures and videotape the events.
Jul 16
Through strange timing, I was able to squeeze in a trip to
the National RowFest 2025 put on by US Rowing. This year's event in Ypsilanti,
Michigan gathered rowers from clubs nationwide. Trân
and I had gotten back from our Norway/Iceland cruise on Jul 14, left for RowFest on Jul 16, and came home
on Jul 21. I then left for my trip to the Northwest on Jul 22. It was tight,
but I got it in.
Trân took good notes, and I had forgotten most of the
details - which were well worth remembering. My biggest memory was that I was
preoccupied with my races and nervous about all of them. The walks at the parks were welcome in that
they helped me relax as much as I could. The weather was very pleasant and the
walks felt almost therapeutic.
I was scheduled in five events: an eight that got canceled,
two quads, and two fours. I wasn’t there because of my rowing skill, but
because of my birth year. Since I was born so long ago, the three gentlemen
that I rowed with in the three 4-man races were allowed to race in a category
for older rowers. I was an injury substitute in the other two races, but one was canceled (the eight). I was keenly aware of my relative skill level
and strove primarily to get a satisfactory start, stay close to in synch with
the other guys, not flip the boat, and finish as strong as I could.
The trip started well; Trân and I had a direct flight to Detroit. Budget, the car rental
company, was a bit disorganized, but we got a car and went to Hampton Inn, where we were allowed to
check in early. Going back to the car to go somewhere for a late lunch, we
discovered that the car was dead. We called Budget, they said they’d send a tow
truck, and we could ride with them back to the airport and get a new car. They
gave us a window for the arrival of the tow truck, and we had plenty of time to
walk to a nearby restaurant. But halfway there, the heat began to get to us and
we turned around. We bought some absurdly over-priced meal-standins (four small
frozen dinners, two bottles of vitamin water, a pint of ice cream, a bag of
chips, and a bag of pickles,-$64) from
the neighboring Holiday Inn Express’ refrigerator, and settled down to
eat in our room when, … the tow truck driver called to tell us he was outside.
We rushed downstairs, the driver got the car started with a “portable jump
start,” we drove the car back to Budget, and got a new (better) car.
It’s worth mentioning that the hotel we stayed at (I like
the fancy waffle makers that seem to be in every Hampton Inn’s included
breakfast) was under renovation and the noise on the main floor was
ear-shattering. We were on the 3rd floor (37 steps) and were
unaffected for the most part.
One delightful aspect of this trip was that it was very
close to the home of my 1st first-cousin-once-removed “the other
way,” Elizabeth Johnson. She and her family live in Canton, not far from either
our hotel or Ford Park. We had intended to check out Ford Park and visit
Elizabeth’s family today, but
we were a little frazzled, and she came down and lent us two camp chairs and a
cooler (with a six pack of water inside).
Trân
stretched and I went next door to use the fitness center at the Holiday Inn
Express. The left foot tie-in on of
the rowing machine was broken. It was a nice machine, but little things
always seem to plague gyms’ rowing machines.
I had
fallen asleep while watching the
movie The Life List with Trân, and the phone or text from
Elizabeth did not wake me up. Considering my general state of nervousness,
especially for the race of the following day, I was glad that I could sleep so
easily. When I woke up and
realized Elizabeth had texted me,
I called her. I was lucky that she was still in the parking lot and about ready
to give up on me. I went down to
meet Elizabeth. When I came back to the room, Trân was already fast asleep.
Trân called this
our “could be worse” day. The car rental snafu turned out to be a relatively
minor event, the hotel’s renovation really didn’t get in our way, we did
connect with Elizabeth, so we were fine. I suppose I could have flown in the
day of my first event, but I was glad to have the extra time to settle in.
Jul 17
Trân got up very early and worked on emails and notes for this trip. We ate breakfast at 6am,
when it opened. My only scheduled event wasn’t until 6:30pm, but I wanted to
check out the venue to see where we should park, where I should go, and when I
should be there. Parking was $10 a day. There was ample parking within the
park, and there was shuttle service for the distant parking lots. So that
concern was eliminated.
We found the Texas Rowing Center trailer and helped to unload oars. It was interesting that the Dallas Rowing Club had put some of their oars into our trailer. Boats stayed on the trailer or on our own slings near the trailer, but I thought we’d unload them and rig them (boats travel with the riggers removed). There was no need for my help with that. We found where Trân should stay to watch the races, but because of the current wind conditions, there were no races going. It’s hard to move the schedule around, but in retrospect, it would have been nice if the eights, scheduled later in the day, could have rowed during the windy morning, with the smaller boats racing later. Instead, we simply had a seven-hour delay due to the wind. That caused the later events, including my own, to be canceled. We didn’t know this at the time. I knew there was a three-hour delay that could have canceled my event, but I wasn't sure how they decided which events to cancel, so I didn't know if mine was affected.
Tom had to stop to chat to someone at the Sammamish Rowing Association. He went to Sammamish High School.
We drove back to the hotel, picked up salads and a bottle of wine from a convenience store,
and then let Hampton Inn treat us to a 2nd breakfast which we
considered lunch; omelets, yogurt, etc.
Back in our room, I stewed unproductively while Trân looked for interesting places to go in Ann Arbor. She was interrupted by a
phone call concerning her mother; Trân’s “job” coordinating care for her mother and taking care of her
seems to never end.
In the early
afternoon, Trân ate her 2nd frozen dinner and I scrolled
through the event list where it was finally announced that my event had been
canceled. I wanted confirmation so we went back to Ford Lake and indeed it was.
To be honest, I was not really disappointed. I wasn’t sure I could keep up with
my younger teammates anyway so I
almost felt as if I had dodged a bullet. I was only in that race because
somebody had gotten injured.
We went back to our hotel and Trân spoke briefly to a high school friend who had called. We walked to a nice
Mexican restaurant El Agava and had a fairly big meal, including a sangria. We did not eat the salads we picked up
from the convenience store.
We finished the movie The Life List. Then we watched The
Children’s Train. We went to sleep around 8pm.
Jul 18
Again, my race that day wasn’t until after 6pm, so I had
plenty of time to fret. We went down for breakfast at 6:15am. We left around
9:15am to go to Matthaei Botanical Garden at the University of Michigan, which opened at 10am.
I was thinking about rowing, but I was glad for the time we
spent at the Botanical Garden. The weather and walks were pleasant, and I think
it really helped to relax in a somewhat active way. We spent 2.5 hours there and walked all four trails: the
Sue Reichert Discovery, the Sam
Graham Trees, the Marilyn
Bland Prairie, and the Dix
Pond/Fleming Creek – although not in their entireties. We didn’t see the
Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake, the only venomous snake in Michigan. It is
native to Michigan and a federally protected species.
We asked at the Visitor’s Center for a place to eat, they directed us to the
Dixboro Project, a nearby restaurant. The server told us that the place is called Dixboro Project because the
owner wants it to be more than a restaurant, a place for people in the community to gather and hang out. We shared an appetizer of mushrooms and an anchovy pizza. The food was
delicious. Trân had a glass of Michigan red wine. After the meal, we walked
around the property and saw a large field by the water with many picnic tables and a hammock. We stopped at the
bakery and bought a lemon tart to go.
Trân napped once we got back. I was very anxious and wanted
to leave at 3pm for my 6:25pm race. Trân wouldn’t let me. We left 45 minutes later. Trân took a lawn chair and sat near the
finish line in front of the Jumbotron, which one of the TRC coaches
had told her about.
Trân videotaped the first half of the race off of the big
screen and the second half in
“real view.” There were three teams and we came in last, and we got a bronze
medal for our efforts.
The race was a quad with no coxswain. Mark was in the bow calling out suggestions to Mike, who was the stroke (stern). For some reason, we couldn’t or didn’t get our stroke rate up. Even though the stroke sets the pace, if people aren’t coming with him, he has to back off. I hated it when the official’s launch was right behind our shell; that’s all I dared look at. I didn’t look side-to-side, and just watched the back of the guy in front of me and the stroke’s right oar. I thought I was keeping up but then wondered maybe I wasn’t. When Mark called to take it up a beat, I thought I did, but then wondered maybe I was late.
We lost to
a composite crew from Detroit and Willamette, and a crew from Minneapolis.
Initially, I was disappointed and felt that I had let the guys in my boat down.
They were very nice to me though. But
later when I watched the videos
that Trân taped, I saw that I wasn’t really lagging behind the other guys in
the boat.
We tried to eat out at a Thai restaurant
and then at a Cracker Barrel, but both were too slow to
serve us. We left the restaurants
and went back to our room and ate the salads we bought at the convenience store the day before. Trân had a glass of
wine and I finished up the whole bottle. We also finished up the bag of
pickles we bought at the Holiday Inn Express and the lemon tart we got at the
Dixboro Project.
With the pain of the race fading, I started to feel a little
more confident and I realized that without me there wouldn’t even be a bronze
metal, and that I had at least come close to holding my own. Trân enjoyed listening to me carry on and see me pumped up. It must
have been tiresome watching me endlessly fret, not that I was done with that.
But for the first time, I looked forward to my next race.
July 19
In the first race, I was one of four scullers; sculling is
when each rower handles two oars. Today I’d be handling only a single oar, and
this is what I did when I was in college. Although I’d have another race
handling only a single oar, I felt that this was my best chance because we were
racing with “avg age at least 65” and “avg age at least 70.”
We ate breakfast a little after 6am and drove to the Nichols
Arboretum, also run by the University of Michigan. We got there before 8am and
found street parking.
The weather was beautiful and the trails were shaded. It was
a great day for going for a walk, even though the peony garden was not in bloom. There was a
pretty little river that we kept seeing and the trail’s hilliness was almost
perfect.
We left the Arboretum around 9:30am and headed to Lillie
Park. Here, the weather was warming up a bit and it was far less shaded. We
spent the first part around Haven Lake. We couldn’t find a path connecting this
lake to the other two lakes of the park on the South side: Duck Potato Pond and Turtle Rock Pond. We
wandered around for a while before driving to the South parking lot. We walked
to Turtle Rock Pond and then called
Elizabeth to arrange to meet for
lunch. She suggested Thompson & Co downtown of Ypsilanti. We had a nice visit with Elizabeth and her husband Eugene at lunch.
When we got back to the hotel, we both took a nap. We left
the hotel at 2pm for my 4:10pm race. Trân sat in front of the Jumbotron
again. It was hotter and more humid today and not as comfortable as the
previous day. Trân wrote:
I saw Tom’s team carrying the boat out. I thought I saw #4 on his boat. I took pictures and waited in front of the Jumbotron. Elizabeth showed up and stood with me while Eugene and their daughter Aralyn went to the bleacher. The screen showed that the TRC boat was in lane #2. There was no boat on lane #1. I mistakenly thought there was a boat on lane #1 and thought lane #2 was lane #1. So I kept looking at the next lane over (which would be lane #2 in my mind) and didn’t see him. So I thought that wasn’t his race, especially since I didn’t see the coxswain (I didn’t realize she lay down very low on the boat). I tried to look for Tom at what I thought was lane #4 also. I did videotape the end of the race just in case. I didn’t run to the bleacher because I didn’t want to miss his event on the Jumbotron if it was the next event coming up. I realized it was his event because the next event was a women’s event. So I went to take pictures and video them at the Recovery. I came back to talk to Elizabeth who was waiting with me near the Awards table. We saw Tom when he came to pick up the medals. Only then that he learned that they got a Gold medal since the boat that came in first was a G boat (a younger group) and his group was H. Tom was ecstatic. He had the biggest smile on his face.
We said goodbye to Elizabeth. I walked with Tom back to the TRC trailer and took pictures of his team. The coxswain wasn’t there. Tom said she might have another event. His team was so happy.
I made Tom go back to the award podium and took additional pictures of him.
Tom didn’t want to eat out today. He just wanted to get food and beer at the convenience store. He got himself a burrito, some cherries, and two beers. I got the Greek salad. We ate in our room. I shared the video and the news with the family and Flora who asked about Tom racing today.
I noted three reasons I didn’t realize it was Tom’s race: the confusion of the lane numbers because there was no boat on lane #1, the confusion on whether or not there was a coxswain, and the confusion on whether Tom’s boat was on lane #2 or lane #4.
As for me, I thought I had some good strokes, and I thought
we rowed harder this time. When we got to the finish (always a relief), I
looked up and saw several boats behind us. I twisted around and didn’t see
anyone clearly ahead of us. I said “Did we win?” Mark said he
wasn’t sure and wasn’t sure if the only boat that was close to us was in our
category. I was relieved; this was my best shot, and I had done at least ok.
When I went to get the medals, I pointed out that we were an “H” boat and
… They knew exactly what they were doing
and handed me the 5 gold medals. I could hardly wait to tell the other
guys! BTW, we lost to the G boat by only
0.82 seconds, so it was close even though we weren’t competing with them. By comparison, we beat the third place boat
by over 7 seconds, which is about a length and a half. I was thrilled
and was even more thrilled to see how happy the other guys were. I felt as if I
had really contributed and was more than someone who provided an age and didn’t
flip the boat.
That night, we settled in and watched the movie Woman of
the Hour. In the middle of the movie, there was a fire alarm in our hotel. We
had to go outside for a while. We were both tired and didn’t want to watch
another movie. We set an alarm for 5:30am so that we could eat breakfast early
and pack up to check out in the morning. We were going to stay at Elizabeth’s place after my last race the next
day.
July 20
After breakfast
at 6am, we packed. We checked out around 9:15am and went to Holy Cross Lutheran Church
in Livonia, the church Elizabeth and her family goes to. The service got moved from their outdoor
labyrinth to their inside narthex because of the rain. After the service, we
joined Elizabeth’s family to go to lunch at Three Brothers restaurant, a Polish restaurant, in Plymouth. Trân
tried the pierogis. I was
actually too nervous to have anything but a little cottage cheese and
applesauce.
After lunch we went back to Elizabeth’s house to rest a bit
before heading to Ford Lake Park. I had events at 3:40pm and 5:10pm.
The race at 3:40pm used sweep oars, but I was a substitute
and it was for “average age at least 60,” so I had very little confidence.
Moreover, the two port oars were very strong and both the other starboard oar
and I were older and at least visually less imposing. In addition, one of those
two starboards (me) hadn’t really rowed that long. Finally, we were shaking
hands introducing ourselves to each other just before we hoisted the boat to
our shoulders. This had all the makings of a very bad race.
And it was. Going out to the starting line, we had a
practice start that did not go well. I was rowing #3 which meant that I had to
be one of the guys backing the boat into the starting dock, and I didn’t do
that very well. Then the start command came MUCH earlier and faster than I
thought it would and I got off to a horrible start. I think we came in 7th
of 9. It was ugly. There was another TRC boat in this race and they did much better.
Still, nobody said anything snide to me; throughout the
entire regatta, I feel as if I were treated with much more respect and
cordiality than I deserved.
It was time to get ready for the 2nd race of the day. This involved the same
four guys using sculling oars, as in my first race. We had trouble getting our
boat and our oars to the dock and in
fact I had to stow my shoes for that race; there was nobody to carry them away
for me. We kind of raced down to the starting line and got there in time to get
lined up on the starting dock. Two of our oarsmen barely got out of the boats
they were in for an earlier race. Again, we didn’t get off to a good start, but
there was a little more determination and relaxation and we started to move on
the other boats. I knew that the boat to our left (starboard side) had fallen
way back and it was a good thing because I think I saw a land marker between
our boat and my starboard oar. Apparently that wasn’t a violation since the
boat in that lane wasn’t affected. I was keeping my eyes on the back in front
of me and the port oar farthest from me. I had no idea what was going on. I
heard Mark say “500” and I felt I could go another 60 strokes. And we did.
Apparently, we came from behind and got the gold again! We beat at least one club that had beaten
us in our first race. It was very satisfying.
But I didn’t know it immediately. When Mark said “down” to
indicate that we were done, I came up ready for another stroke if the guys in
front of me were still rowing. When they did not take another stroke, I slumped
over my oars and thought “I’m done; on to Elizabeth’s.” One of the other guys and I went to get the
medals. Trân took pictures of us.
Two of the guys were catching flights out that night, but we
went to Elizabeth’s house. Eugene grilled steaks and Elizabeth cooked salmon
for Trân since I had told Elizabeth that Trân I doesn’t eat meat. I talked a
lot about rowing. Eugene showed Trân how to spin in ping pong. Then Aralyn and I
came down to play foosball with Eugene and Trân. Then Nolan came to play ping
pong with Eugene, Trân, and
me. It was fun. Eugene put on a fire. Trân got bitten so she
left early. I stayed out until
11pm.
July 21
We got up
early and were able to say goodbye to Eugene before he went
to work. Elizabeth made breakfast. She called Nolan and Aralyn to come down to
say bye to us when we left around 9am. Aralyn took pictures of Elizabeth, Trân, and me.
