I rowed for three seasons in high school. It was hard, and I often felt like I wasn’t getting any better, but on the good days it was tons of fun. Gliding down the Nashua River made for some magical spring afternoons, especially when the leaves grew back on all the trees and folks from town walked their dogs on the path along the river. My senior year, I didn’t want to give up crew, so I figured I’d give the Wellesley team a try.
During my gap year, I waffled back and forth between rowing (hard! stressful!) and not rowing (free time! no exercise!), but I decided to join novice crew in September. I can’t imagine myself not being on the team right now; I don’t know what I would do with all my free time.
We started by learning the rowing stroke on the erg, or indoor rowing machine. It was mostly review for me, but I’m still working on unlearning some habits I picked up in high school. Soon we were dipping our oars into Lake Waban here on campus, and eventually we started taking the bus to the Charles River every morning with varsity. The team is really energetic and supportive, and I love getting brunch with my teammates after long Saturday rows. Waking up at 4:18 a.m. has gotten slightly easier over the past few weeks, but it’s still weird to think of 9 p.m. as late to go to bed. And that’s saying something, since I was an early bird even before crew.
Last Saturday was our first race of the season. It was my first race in blue, and most of my teammates’ first crew race ever. It was longer than the races I rowed in high school—I’d only ever done 1500-meter sprint races, and this was about 4200 meters—but it went by fast, thanks to some great encouragement from our coxswain, Rosa. We rowed together better than we ever had before. My roommate/classmate/teammate/friend Cricket was my pair partner and hair braider. (I loved that braid so much that I left it in for two more days.) Parents brought food and support, which we devoured after getting the boats back on the trailer. The vegan cupcakes were my favorite part, by far. The varsity four raced hours later than the rest of us, so it was really fun to cheer for them as they came toward the finish line.
Food! Shoutout to all the parents who brought food. All regatta photos courtesy of Paul Montie.
Rowing!
That’s my boat! I’m the fourth one from the right, doing some weird thing with my leg.
This past week, I had a mix of outdoor and indoor practices. We don’t have any more races this fall, but three varsity boats (two eights and a four) will be racing at Head of the Charles this Sunday. HOCR is like the Boston Marathon of rowing, and I’m really excited to watch and support. The atmosphere will be pretty amazing.
The sun is rising later and later over the river, and the mornings are increasingly crisp. Indoor winter training is coming up real fast. I’m excited to get strong this winter, but I’m still looking forward to a few more days on the water.
In other news: I’m currently writing my first paper since high school, and there’s definitely been a re-learning curve (will update!). Last night was bread and cheese night, and there was a whole table of vegan cheese!
Vegan cheese galore! (I got there toward the end, but it started out really pretty.)