Heads UP! Fall 2021 Head Racing Preview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaMHbTxZYuc 00:01 hey welcome to ready row usa it we have 00:06 illustrious guests today jim dietz 00:09 and mark wilson from all-american rowing 00:11 camp are going to be introducing y'all to 00:13 the concept of head racing and touching 00:16 on some of the exciting races around the 00:18 country that they've gone to mostly 00:21 we're talking today about the ones in 00:24 october and november 00:26 the ohio secret city head of the charles 00:29 head of the schuylkill, 00:31 hooch and the south and they're 00:34 probably these guys will probably wander 00:36 on to some other topics too so 00:39 i am really looking forward to this 00:41 discussion we'll introduce them in a 00:42 second and you get to see them on if 00:44 you're watching on 00:46 the live stream and please 00:48 put any comments 00:50 in the chat we can ask them in real time 00:52 i'm charlotte pierce i'm the producer 00:54 and 00:56 i 00:56 before we get started i want to thank 00:59 our 01:00 newest sponsor sykes rowing sykes usa 01:03 it's an australian based company 01:06 but they have amazing boats i just 01:08 bought one 01:09 and 01:10 um they're destined for our customer 01:13 service hall of fame i think the the 01:15 experience of buying this boat from 01:18 sykes was 01:19 so 01:20 pleasant. the boat 01:22 is a 135 light flyweight and it 01:26 just flies on the water so i appreciate 01:29 all that fabio selvib did to make that 01:32 happen 01:35 okay we are as i said 01:39 let me get them on screen here 01:41 mark wilson 01:43 is on the bottom there and jim dietz is 01:46 in the middle 01:47 hydrating himself 01:50 how are you guys doing 01:52 very good thank you yeah you're getting 01:54 ready for some head races 01:56 oh i've already raced in one this past 01:59 weekend we had the head of the pond in 02:01 mashpee massachusetts it's a 7 500 meter 02:05 race that goes from one lake to another 02:07 lake around three islands and back 02:10 and it was a lot of fun yeah cool and 02:13 mark you've been getting ready for your 02:15 european 02:16 camps and the head of the charles camp 02:18 right 02:19 yep we've got uh we've got things 02:20 planned all through the fall been doing 02:22 some coaching down here in hot florida 02:24 and uh training in my driveway and 02:27 leaving uh sweat ponds in my driveway 02:30 from my erg session so uh i've seen some 02:32 pictures 02:34 it's been good so yeah for having us on 02:36 the show today yeah you're welcome it's 02:38 always great and i i want to do this 02:40 annually we're actually in episode 95 02:44 so we're counting down to 100 02:47 and we'll be going we've been going 02:49 since 2018 will be um 02:52 we'll be uh going into our fourth year 02:55 so 02:56 uh let me just uh get you guys get 02:59 started on why you like head racing and 03:02 and uh i'll cue up the websites for the 03:04 ones that we'll be talking about 03:07 well i think where we wanted to start 03:08 today charlotte is is 03:11 where head racing really originated and 03:13 uh for the most part it originated in in 03:17 great britain with the bump races 03:19 between the schools and 03:21 you know having 03:22 long windy stretches of of the thames 03:26 river 03:27 and not many straight shots that have 03:30 sprint racing head racing started there 03:34 it it here in the united states it 03:36 didn't start until 1965 03:39 uh when ernie arlette who was the 03:42 legendary 03:44 first coach of uh northeastern 03:47 university 03:48 uh got together with the cambridge bow 03:50 club and said look nothing's happening 03:53 here in the united states in the fall we 03:55 need to have a race in the fall and 03:57 there was the was the impetus to start 04:01 the very first head of the charles so it 04:04 was ernie arlette and darcy mcmahon and 04:06 a few people from the cambridge bow club 04:09 that started that event where 04:12 in the very first year you could 04:13 probably put all of the competitors 04:16 who weren't on the you know from 04:19 the charles river itself in the 04:21 cambridge parking lot and now what was 04:23 the weather like that year 04:25 it was i i don't i think it was rainy 04:29 for some reason i remember rain i i i 04:32 came up 04:33 uh our car broke down on the mass pike 04:36 we hitched the rest of the way in 04:39 uh to boston and stayed at uh 04:43 the harvard law school dorms because one 04:45 of our 04:46 one of our teammates was was at harvard 04:49 law school but 04:51 writing an event today 04:53 i know that the it when one year was 04:55 snowing since i've been in this area and 04:58 one year it was 80 degrees so that's 05:00 october 22nd um coming up we'll have to 05:04 say and one year it was cancelled that 05:06 that what year mark was 1997. yep right 05:10 we retreated to the bar right during the 05:13 deluge of of rain pelting down and 05:16 flooding the charles river 05:19 and last year it was virtual so we're 05:22 back on the river we've seen that race 05:24 has seen it all but there's a lot of 05:26 other races and i think one of the 05:27 things that we want to want to do is 05:29 talk a lot about some or a little bit 05:31 about all of several other races and uh 05:34 i think one of the unique things about 05:35 head racing that i really enjoy is this 05:38 is the 05:39 is the uniqueness of each and every race 05:42 and i think as you are planning for your 05:46 fall fall rowing uh series if you have 05:49 an opportunity to travel to different 05:51 locations or if you as a scholar or as a 05:55 group of a four or a pair or double or 05:58 whatever you happen to be have an 06:00 opportunity look around the calendar and 06:02 see if there's other races that you 06:04 might want to go and explore 06:06 we're going to talk about a handful of 06:08 kind of the bigger races but 06:11 our races everywhere as jim just 06:13 mentioned the new little uh 06:15 race out on mashpee pond and then 06:18 you know there's races all around the 06:20 midwest and and um further around new 06:23 england and in the mid-atlantic and so 06:25 on so i would really encourage people to 06:28 yeah 06:28 when i was prepping this session i i 06:31 just looked on regatta central and 06:33 there's a search box and you can just 06:35 type in head you know and then you go by 06:37 the date 06:38 but there's just a million of them and i 06:41 didn't really know what to choose but i 06:43 i picked some of the ones in the east 06:45 here 06:46 yeah yep and there's already been head 06:49 races out in uh california they had a 06:52 half marathon race in petaluma a couple 06:54 weeks ago 06:55 um there's races out in uh sacramento 06:58 california and obviously up in seattle 07:01 the famous head of the lake and 07:02 frostbite regatta so they're all over 07:04 the place and i just would encourage 07:06 people to you know 07:07 war and look around as you as you go 07:12 they're great social events that you 07:15 know you get out and you meet a lot of 07:17 nice people and as mark says you see a 07:20 lot of different waterways and 07:22 you know all of them have their 07:23 challenges 07:25 that's for sure and the first one the 07:27 first race that we're highlighting here 07:28 today is the head of the ohio 07:31 and that certainly is has a challenging 07:33 waterway i've i've raced in the head of 07:35 the ohio i've taken teams to the head of 07:37 the ohio in the past and uh sometimes 07:40 it's like uh mashb pond probably or or a 07:44 real quiet 07:45 corner of the charles river but on other 07:47 years it can be like an ocean out there 07:49 and 07:50 the head of the ohio it can be 07:52 challenging for you if you're not used 07:54 to big water 07:56 and it's not in the midwest it's in 07:58 pittsburgh right 07:59 yeah yeah head of the ohio's in 08:01 pittsburgh right that's where the ohio 08:02 river starts so it's actually a very 08:05 apropos name um the ohio river is the 08:08 formation of the monahan gagila and the 08:10 allegheny rivers and so you actually are 08:13 at the head of the ohio 08:15 which is actually kind of unique and fun 08:17 to fun to think about so but it's a 08:19 beautiful beautiful city there's been a 08:21 lot of changes over the last few years 08:23 at the venue when uh with the formation 08:26 and the development of the waterfront 08:28 there with the new stadiums and so on so 08:31 it used to be a lot different than it is 08:33 now and i think that's one of the other 08:34 unique things with a lot of our races is 08:36 that the riverfronts around america are 08:38 finally becoming uh more valued and the 08:42 highlighting of some of these events 08:44 that have been going on for a long long 08:46 time are being seen by more people just 08:48 because of the venue as being more 08:50 developed and and more sought after so 08:54 it was certainly one of those i love 08:56 pittsburgh it's i was there for a 08:58 conference a few years ago and just 09:00 it's really fun and i really wanted to 09:02 row but i didn't get a chance 09:05 but um 09:06 so the head of the ohio is one of the 09:08 big one of the bigger first races it's 09:10 the first weekend of october um and 09:13 thousands of people will end up 09:14 converging in on on 09:16 pittsburgh and it's a nice location be 09:19 for people to come in from the midwest a 09:22 lot of folks will come in from western 09:24 ohio or even indiana and then 09:27 and then obviously people from the 09:29 mid-atlantic states it's an easy drive 09:31 up from philadelphia and washington dc 09:34 so you get a nice 09:35 cross-representation of of uh 09:37 participants from from the two kind of 09:40 bigger regions the northeast 09:42 mid-atlantic and then obviously also the 09:43 midwest so it's a neat neat need for 09:46 that as well now do all these head races 09:48 have different like cutoff dates for 09:51 registration i mean could you still get 09:53 into the head of the ohio or not 09:55 uh 09:56 i don't know that's a good question 09:58 that's the beauty that's the beauty of 10:00 uh regatta central and the opportunity 10:02 to go to uh exactly 10:04 yeah and then be able to see 10:06 uh what you can what you can still enter 10:08 and so on uh usually i think it's a 10:11 couple of weeks out first for the races 10:15 but obviously a lot of these bigger 10:16 races do fill um early and so 10:20 it may be too late but i'm not i'm not 10:22 sure i know the head of the hooch which 10:23 we'll be talking about later just opened 10:25 like yesterday or something well okay 10:28 that's another good point though 10:29 charlotte uh because some of the races 10:33 are are being limited to the number of 10:36 people that can actually attend them and 10:38 uh this weekend i know is the uh 10:42 the the the opening of the head of the 10:46 housatonic in connecticut 10:48 and if you're not online within the 10:51 first couple of hours you might not get 10:53 in the race because they're so over 10:55 subscribed yeah so that is a very good 10:58 point and you know just going regatta 11:00 central if you queue up the regattas you 11:03 want to go to on regatta central yeah 11:05 they'll send you an email saying 11:07 registration 11:08 you can actually put them on a favorites 11:10 list or something yeah yeah kind of like 11:12 getting on southwest airlines you know 11:14 you got to make the call 11:16 well i got into the head of the charles 11:18 again for the second time on the lottery 11:20 because i didn't qualify this time you 11:23 know last time i was in but um so i'm 11:25 i'm like 11:27 i'm getting nervous 11:28 yeah 11:29 i don't know you'll do fine yeah 11:32 i'll live it's only half an hour out of 11:34 your life right 11:35 mark we had the worcester group at the 11:37 head of the pond this year they came 11:39 with nice two threes 11:42 two triples huh 11:43 two triples yeah and and others those 11:46 mike spelaine raced you know they did 11:48 well that's great 11:50 you mean 11:53 the secret city head race and the secret 11:55 city is in my old town that i used to 11:58 live in and and uh can talk a little bit 12:00 about the secret city head race it's a 12:01 beautiful venue in oak ridge tennessee 12:04 and uh usually the second weekend of 12:07 october and it is again uh masters 12:11 collegiate and high school racing and i 12:14 think that's one of the other unique 12:15 things about head races jim was talking 12:17 about that in our pre-show in our green 12:19 room and how unique that is to the sport 12:21 jim you want to talk about that just a 12:23 little bit 12:24 what was that mark the idea how unique 12:27 racing is head races is because you have 12:28 the juniors the masters and the 12:30 collegiate teams that's right you know 12:32 and uh other people have mentioned that 12:35 to me in the past that have come from 12:37 other sports that 12:39 it's it's very unusual to have 12:42 olympians racing in the same races as 12:46 juniors and masters and whatever this 12:49 past weekend the youngest scholar we had 12:51 in in our regatta was 13 in our first 12:54 year of sculling she was able to compete 12:57 against jebby stone who just completed 12:59 her third olympics all right other 13:02 people in the race 13:03 going up to 85 years of age so 13:07 knowing your handicap or your split 13:11 going into these head races you're 13:13 mixing gender and everything else 13:16 you know trying to set up races which 13:18 makes it 13:18 very competitive for everybody so you 13:21 know you can run the gamut 13:23 and for kids to be able to be in races 13:25 where 13:27 they're seeing olympians and being able 13:29 to talk to olympians and you know talk 13:32 to masters that have been in 13:35 in different 13:36 international races and stuff like that 13:38 you know it's kind of special in 13:41 you you don't get that in in other 13:43 sports 13:44 i think the melting pot at the dock and 13:46 then the regatta side is absolutely 13:48 fantastic and that's one of the cool 13:50 things about all these head races uh the 13:52 secret city head race is a fairly 13:54 straightforward uh 5k race you go you 13:57 start more or less at the finish line at 13:59 the venue in oak ridge which were held 14:02 masters national this year and have held 14:04 uh regionals and uh ncaa so it's a very 14:08 well known 2000 meter race course maybe 14:10 a little less known for its 5k but the 14:12 5k if you're looking at the screen it 14:14 starts uh 3k above the starting line for 14:19 the sprint race course and you go up 14:22 there towards clinton you're following 14:23 you're rowing upstream and then the 14:25 racecourse is downstream the one bridge 14:28 it's a fairly straightforward easy easy 14:31 uh race course so there's no real 14:34 challenge in the in the course itself 14:36 just some nice gradual turns you come 14:38 under the railroad bridge and then the 14:40 last 2000 meters is straight as an arrow 14:42 right down the uh 2000 meter sprint 14:44 course and you finish at the finish line 14:46 so it's a pretty neat um pretty neat 14:49 pretty neat race and it looks gorgeous 14:51 and it is gorgeous it's falling in 14:54 middle tennis or in east tennessee and 14:56 then oftentimes the some of the best 14:58 time to be in in tennessee absolutely it 15:00 looks like 15:01 um 15:02 so after that after secret city which is 15:05 the 17th of october starts 15:08 we have 15:09 ta-da 15:11 the head of the charleston the charles 15:14 you know one of the things i think that 15:16 makes the head of the charles special is 15:18 the seven bridges 15:20 right and and the severity of the turns 15:23 you mean the ones that grab your boat 15:25 when you're going through 15:26 and and that's where you have to be a 15:27 little bit more cerebral in in thinking 15:30 about your race you know uh there are 15:33 there are sections of the race where you 15:35 want to be going fast and there are 15:37 sections of the race that you actually 15:38 want to be slowing down because making 15:41 those turns can save you minutes 15:44 all right and um 15:45 you know you often see that with the 15:47 person that's coming to the charles for 15:49 the first time 15:50 you know that they go through a bridge 15:52 and they're going 15:54 60 degrees out of the direction of the 15:57 race course yeah 15:58 which which just 16:00 you know just slows you down 16:02 tremendously so you really have to this 16:04 the study the race course that you're 16:06 going to be going into uh you wanna you 16:09 wanna 16:10 get some information of about the person 16:13 starting in front of you and the person 16:15 starting behind you 16:16 knowing whether they're locals or 16:18 whether they're 16:20 here visiting and their course might be 16:22 terrible you know how to track 16:25 through the race course or former 16:26 national team members from uh 16:29 australia or somewhere yeah yeah 16:32 it is fun and then you i mean like 16:34 i raced in 2018 and then i got you know 16:37 to chat with the people who had 16:40 passed me or i had passed them or you 16:42 know it was all really fun 16:45 i mean i was terrified before i started 16:47 but it it was it was a great experience 16:50 yeah 16:50 um 16:52 and i think what you think about how 16:54 these races have changed though 16:56 charlotte all right at the very first 16:58 head of the charles 16:59 as you went past 17:01 the boston university boathouse 17:04 there was a section of three-quarter 17:06 inch ply 17:08 that had a seth thomas clock on it 17:11 and they took a polaroid picture of you 17:15 getting the second hand in and 17:17 supposedly that was 17:19 hooked up exactly to the clock at the 17:22 finish line where they took a second 17:24 picture of you as you went by 17:26 and then they went back to the cambridge 17:28 bow club and and did the math yeah why 17:31 in those first years you had to have 17:33 several kegs of beer because you had to 17:35 keep the people entertained while 17:37 they're trying to figure out who really 17:39 won 17:41 well 17:42 our electronics has gotten a lot better 17:44 over the years and and those 17:47 results are 17:48 instantaneous now 17:50 and extremely accurate so yeah cool but 17:54 you think about where we came from 17:57 um yeah i interviewed the guy who runs 18:00 he's run the start line 18:02 tech stuff for 18:03 uh 35 years 18:05 yeah yeah 18:08 i don't want to take too much away from 18:09 the head of the charles but also this 18:11 weekend is the head of the cuyahoga i 18:13 was just looking on regatta central 18:15 head of the cuyahoga i know that's not 18:16 in our list right now and we don't have 18:18 to have a screen on it but the head of 18:19 the cuyahoga is in uh cleveland and it 18:22 touts itself as 18:24 equally challenging because there are 18:26 the same number of turns and the same 18:28 number of bridges at the head of the 18:30 cuyahoga so if somebody wants to train 18:32 for the head of the charles they really 18:34 ought to make their way to cleveland and 18:36 run that a month ahead of time and then 18:38 be prepped and yeah 18:40 for the for the charles i raced that 18:42 race back uh a number of years ago as 18:44 well and it was super challenging and 18:47 those sea walls are really uh really 18:50 hard 18:51 and how far away is that or what how 18:53 where is it that's in cleveland 18:55 cleveland yeah yeah in the real ohio 18:58 yeah up there um and i want to you know 19:01 take just a second to plug your your 19:04 head of the charles rowing camps while 19:05 we're on that uh race um 19:09 you know i think we 19:10 might have to do we might have to do 19:12 three next year we did 19:15 we've done one head of the charles 19:17 racing camp with jim 19:19 and i kind of as your as your coaches 19:21 and so on for the last i don't know 19:23 eight years nine years something like 19:24 that and uh this year we had such an 19:27 interest in the first one that we added 19:29 a second one and filled them filled them 19:30 both so 19:31 it's a lot of fun and like jim always 19:33 says it's an opportunity for people to 19:35 get the you know to kind of have the 19:38 tour without the 19:39 the 19:40 you know the big circus going on exactly 19:43 yeah i mean there's so many strategies 19:45 that you can pick up from that camp and 19:47 you know i don't know if anyone else 19:48 does them but yours is just so much fun 19:51 and so productive you know i i knew a 19:54 lot of people who wanted to come and you 19:56 were already full so 20:00 we put it up earlier 20:01 um so what do we got next uh 20:04 the school head of the school kill and 20:06 this year will be the 50th anniversary 20:09 of the very first head of the school 20:11 kill regatta 20:13 wow that's a milestone so you know it 20:15 started six years after the head of the 20:17 charles i think it actually was the 20:20 second head race in the united states 20:22 you know following the charles 20:25 it just blossomed 20:27 from there you know all the different 20:30 regattas yeah i'd really like a little 20:32 shorter race than the charles uh it's 20:35 downstream i think it's only 20:38 two and a half miles it's really quick 20:40 and this year 20:42 because of the flooding on the river 20:44 it's even going to be shorter uh 20:47 because yeah how's that 20:50 well 20:52 the the the safety line that goes across 20:55 boathouse road to keep people from going 20:57 over the falls 20:59 that was ripped out by the logs and 21:01 everything flooding over it so 21:03 you know for safety this year i i think 21:05 they're going to be start stopping it a 21:07 hundred meters shorter 21:09 so they can turn the people around 21:11 safely to to get them back up and yeah 21:13 so there again you're you're coming to a 21:15 historic rowing city yeah you know with 21:18 with you know so much to do there and so 21:21 much to see there and 21:23 again it's a great event and why have 21:25 these events continued to grow because 21:28 our sport is growing along with it 21:30 you know people need regattas to go to 21:33 and i think um you know if if you can go 21:36 to the school 21:38 they need a lot of support down there 21:41 that some of those boat clubs just lost 21:44 you know 21:45 tons of boats and racks and right things 21:48 like that so you know just 21:50 help them out 21:52 all right for sure 21:53 so have you uh raced that jim 21:56 i embraced that several times um 22:02 just a couple i guess yeah it's the head 22:04 of the charles the one you raced the 22:05 most yeah the charles is definitely the 22:08 one i raced the most i've only missed 22:10 one out of the past 57 years or 56 years 22:14 that's 22:15 amazing 22:19 we can go on if or do anything else on 22:22 the school 22:23 well i'll just mention i'm looking again 22:25 at the race site race regatta central 22:27 and i think it's just interesting to 22:28 mention you know along the same weekend 22:30 as the head of the schuylkill there's 22:32 also the north star regatta in 22:34 minneapolis there's the wormtown chase 22:36 over in worcester mass there's the head 22:38 of the colorado which is a big race down 22:40 in austin texas the blake haxton fall 22:44 regatta in columbus ohio is going on the 22:46 same time and then down here in florida 22:49 the halloween regatta over in tampa 22:51 florida and then the head of the bull 22:53 trout up in lake stevens washington 22:56 and uh the portland fall classic in 22:59 vancouver and then the speakman memorial 23:02 regatta 23:03 in columbus ohio so all of those events 23:06 going on in on the same weekend as one 23:08 of the as you know arguably the second 23:10 largest head race in the in the country 23:12 we can do a little road trip around you 23:13 know well it shows what jim's talking 23:15 about you know it's it just explains how 23:17 big this is and how many opportunities 23:20 there are to go uh try other places so 23:23 you know and often i'll just mention too 23:25 you know we have people and jim is jim 23:27 while he's been coaching at umass for 23:29 the last 24 years after before retiring 23:31 he was always 23:33 arranging or help arrange boats for 23:34 other teams that were coming in from the 23:36 other parts of the country and i think 23:38 that's one of the beauties of our sport 23:40 is that we're we're a very giving sport 23:42 so if you're wanting to travel or find 23:45 yourself in texas for example there's 23:47 any number of boat clubs that would 23:49 certainly find you a boat or rent you a 23:51 boat or own you a boat for a regatta um 23:54 you know and and just a little planning 23:57 a little pre-planning on that and uh you 23:59 you would have a great time i'm sure 24:00 yeah i did it for the hooch you know 24:02 they just they just gave me a boat to 24:04 use and yeah 24:06 it was just so nice yeah you know if if 24:09 you're a 24:10 recreational rower who doesn't really go 24:12 to regattas and you're listening to this 24:15 i would encourage you to pick out one of 24:17 these regattas and go because 24:19 yeah it's a social event you'll get to 24:21 meet other rowers at of of your own 24:24 caliber there's always that people there 24:27 that can help you with with 24:30 the strategy of how to row the race or 24:32 you're rigging you know 24:34 you know just to make that connection to 24:37 the rest of the rowing community i think 24:39 you you you'd really appreciate 24:42 how friendly people are at these 24:43 regattas you know 24:45 weekends regatta 24:47 i'm out pulling the course and three 24:49 hours later people are still on the 24:50 beach drinking 24:52 eating 24:53 donuts you know it's like 24:55 it's just a good time 24:57 i mean i'm i get nervous but i'm always 24:59 i'm always happy i did it you know and 25:01 it it's it's just a little 25:03 you know effort out of your life and 25:05 then you go and enjoy things yeah 25:09 that race goes like that i mean yeah 25:12 you might think it's four thousand seven 25:14 hundred and twenty meters 25:16 if it's the charles or seven thousand 25:18 five hundred at the head of the pond it 25:21 goes really quick and and 25:24 you get to enjoy 25:25 a beautiful fall day right and um the 25:29 hooch 25:31 uh which i've wrote wrote in but the um 25:34 the year i went 25:37 oh god i didn't want to do that um 25:40 they it would the the flow was so fast 25:43 that they cut it in half 25:45 right yeah yeah i don't know that's the 25:48 thing with a lot of the races and and 25:50 you do want to do a little homework and 25:52 kind of look at 25:53 look at the last few years results and 25:56 think about the weather and stuff and 25:58 especially if you're traveling a long 26:00 way with equipment 26:02 definitely look at the weather forecast 26:03 before you go and 26:05 make sure that you you know they're 26:06 gonna they're gonna row it or 26:09 it having plan b is along the way as 26:11 well 26:12 so not only do things happen a lot of 26:14 these regattas have been set in stone as 26:16 far as the first weekend or the third 26:18 weekend whatever weekend of the month 26:20 that they happen to fall on for years 26:22 but things do happen this year um my 26:25 friend who runs the music city head race 26:28 in nashville tennessee 26:30 uh john miller he's the coach at 26:32 vanderbilt they had to move their 26:34 regatta day 26:36 uh a weekend or two i forget which it 26:39 was one or two weekend they had to 26:41 change it because the rolling stones 26:44 were doing a concert at the football 26:46 stadium which is 26:48 so they always are on a non-football 26:51 weekend at the music city but here who 26:54 would have guessed that the rolling 26:55 stones would be coming into town so they 26:57 they weren't gonna uh compete against 26:59 the against the um the rolling stones 27:02 obviously so 27:03 that one year in pittsburgh that jimmy 27:05 buffett was uh oh my gosh yeah that's 27:07 right 27:07 [Laughter] 27:09 so is he as popular as the stones 27:12 yeah well pretty much 27:16 they have all these jimmy buffett heads 27:18 where everybody's wearing their coconuts 27:20 and 27:21 beach hats right yeah 27:24 lots of margaritas 27:25 you do want to you do want to plan your 27:27 your 27:28 calendar and look at the regatta 27:30 schedule uh early as possible as you're 27:33 kind of making your plans so but the 27:35 head of the hooch that's a great regatta 27:37 as well it's a relatively 27:38 straightforward course but as charlotte 27:40 already mentioned water flow rate can 27:42 change drastically and make the race a 27:45 very uh short event downstream but 27:48 obviously if you've got a huge ra a huge 27:50 current coming down you've got to race 27:52 or you've got to warm up more than the 5 27:55 000 meters jim and i did that a few 27:57 years back and we raced the double and 27:59 the single and man remember those that 28:02 lightweight girls ate gym that we were 28:05 we didn't think they were going to make 28:06 it to the starting line it was going to 28:08 be an hour and a half 28:09 it was like an hour up and then it was 28:11 like nine minutes down right 28:17 i got hung up on a buoy i thought i was 28:19 gonna have to call for help but um 28:22 you know i i got off it 28:24 or the river got me off it 28:27 but um 28:28 and so obviously with the weather this 28:31 time of year you know in november first 28:33 week in november things are starting to 28:34 slow down up in the north northeast and 28:36 the upper midwest and things kind of 28:39 shift shift further south so the racing 28:41 the racing season continues and our last 28:43 event that we're gonna post or chat real 28:46 quick about is the head of the south 28:48 which is in augusta georgia and it is 28:50 the next weekend after the head of the 28:52 hooch uh the second weekend of uh 28:55 november and that's a beautiful venue as 28:58 well it's really a nice course it's kind 29:01 of a it's kind of a little s turn course 29:04 and it's it's kind of challenging the 29:06 river widens and narrows and so on so 29:08 it's a very well 29:10 uh well-run and well-respected race in 29:12 the uh 29:13 in the south right the head of the south 29:16 and um 29:17 that's uh that's in augusta georgia and 29:20 then there's gonna be other races as 29:21 well that weekend uh down and around the 29:24 uh state of florida and state of georgia 29:27 and probably in texas and california as 29:29 well 29:30 so there's lots of things still going on 29:32 in november so it's 29:34 it's fun it's good it kind of threw me 29:36 off and i looked at head races because 29:39 you know it's 2022 and then 29:42 so 29:43 just go down to the correct date 29:46 you know whether whether you're a junior 29:48 or an elite athlete you need a a lot of 29:50 water time and a lot of steady state and 29:53 that's what head racing is really all 29:55 about it's about building your base you 29:57 know and getting out there and rowing 29:59 those long distances and stuff like that 30:01 you know that that's one of the reasons 30:03 that head racing really got popular 30:06 because you know physiologically we have 30:08 to know how to build our 30:10 our bodies up in order to to be able to 30:13 do that 30:14 harder racing i mean personally i don't 30:17 think masters should row anything but 30:19 head races you know yeah absolutely 30:21 stuff that really makes sense you know 30:23 banging your head against the wall for a 30:24 thousand meters isn't appealing 30:27 and wasn't it you guys who told me um 30:29 always like train a little longer than 30:31 your head 30:33 right put on another 500 meters or 30:36 whatever 30:37 yeah right and then you're kind of 30:39 psyching your body out a little bit more 30:42 so 30:46 well we are 30:48 kind of coming to the end of our 30:49 discussion unless you guys want to talk 30:51 about some you know general 30:54 tips and tricks and 30:56 uh 30:58 i think the thing with a race is as you 31:00 know we kind of touched on already but 31:02 one of my things is just do a little bit 31:03 of homework i think it's really valuable 31:06 as a scholar or as a coach if you're 31:08 taking your team to a new location for 31:11 example uh just do that homework you 31:13 know how know how far it is from the 31:15 hotel 31:16 to the venue think about race day 31:18 traffic 31:20 think about when you're going to eat 31:22 where you're going to eat you know those 31:24 kind of logistical things that are 31:25 pre-race 31:27 time um really do matter and i think a 31:30 lot of times people get kind of uh 31:32 surprised maybe or they get kind of 31:34 caught behind and nobody wants to be 31:36 caught behind on race day so make sure 31:38 when you're going to places think about 31:40 think about those logistical 31:43 challenges or obstacles and and be ready 31:45 for those and then your race day and 31:47 your athletes or you as the athlete will 31:49 enjoy the day that much more yeah where 31:51 you're going to put your stuff 31:54 well how long it's going to take you to 31:55 get from from 31:57 where you are to the starting line you 32:00 know i mean simple stuff like that 32:01 safely without running on onto the race 32:04 course and 32:05 running into people and getting in 32:07 trouble you know it's right and know the 32:09 rules and know that some of the rules 32:11 are are different at different places 32:13 you know sometimes there's a dock 32:15 a dock time and you will get a penalty 32:18 if you stay on the dock longer than the 32:21 rules allow for at that race some races 32:24 are lackadaisical you know they don't 32:25 really care there's plenty of dock space 32:27 and others they uh they're a little more 32:30 pointed about making sure that you 32:33 follow every rule so i would encourage 32:36 coaches and scholars especially to row 32:39 toxins as well to read the 32:42 uh head race um 32:44 program you know the the rules of racing 32:46 for their specific race because 32:48 everybody's a little different 32:49 there's a lot of 32:50 there's a lot of stuff on youtube where 32:52 you could click in the head of the 32:54 tutorials and 32:55 maybe 32:57 pick up some high school or college 32:59 eight that has a 33:01 a gopro going down the race course so 33:03 you can see what it's like a little bit 33:05 in advance 33:07 yeah 33:07 yeah was that ollie um there's there's 33:10 one or is it another rose 33:13 maybe um 33:15 but you know i think it was a 17 minute 33:20 um 33:21 finish time 33:23 but anyway yeah yeah 33:26 it's all great 33:28 thanks a lot for having us on today 33:30 charlotte appreciate it you're so 33:32 welcome mark and um we're gonna we've 33:35 taken a little time off during the 33:36 summer but we're going to be doing a lot 33:38 of uh 33:40 probably about two episodes a month um 33:43 we're going to be some club spotlights 33:46 so 33:46 uh 33:48 if you have a rowing club that you'd 33:49 like to have featured on the podcast 33:52 um we really want to hear from you and 33:56 we want to we want to highlight it 33:58 because there's some really cool people 33:59 out there in 34:01 in 34:02 you know 34:02 u.s rowing land 34:04 um review us uh subscribe on any of your 34:08 podcast apps on youtube or we have a 34:11 facebook page where our episodes go live 34:14 as well 34:15 and if you use our hashtag 34:18 readyrow.usa it's easy to remember um 34:22 you can win rowing gadgets and gear 34:26 uh like i just had a little takeaways 34:28 slide um we talked about this make a 34:31 race plan and have fun train a little 34:33 longer than your race 34:35 um that's a picture of where i launched 34:38 from at the community rowing on the on 34:41 the charles river upstream from the 34:43 racecourse shot in the morning 34:46 yeah yeah i got so many sunrise shots 34:49 that's true um pierce press is my 34:52 company and all our podcasts are the 34:54 archived on there and it's uh pierce 34:56 press.com 34:58 slash podcasts or you can just use the 35:00 menu 35:01 we also publish books and 35:04 we're doing some new books in our 35:07 alternative education 35:10 imprint 35:12 we've won some awards with our 35:14 children's books they're really really 35:15 cool books um a lot of 35:18 stories about diversity and uh 35:21 taking care of the environment 35:24 these are 35:25 listed on our pierce press dot com and 35:28 here's your the club news forum is also 35:30 linked at 35:31 piercepress.com 35:33 so just fill it out and we'll get a hold 35:34 of you and cover your club we 35:38 i think we we're going to do what up a 35:40 rowing center in 35:42 fall river and we've done north cascades 35:45 was last month so 35:48 it's just it's fun talking to these 35:49 people who are doing cool things around 35:51 the country um 35:53 gadgets and gear we also have a forum 35:55 for that and you can find that on the 35:56 website and 35:58 that's about it guys thank you so much 36:02 thank you charlotte we had a good time 36:04 as always as always it's fun to hear 36:06 your stories and your tips and tricks 36:08 thanks so much all right bye-bye okay