Paul Rosenquist

Report 3 from Turino

12 11 2006

Turin - Sunday 12th 18:15

Just walked into the hotel and crashed on the bed. Nackered. But satisfied!
This morning at 07:00 I sat straight up in bed and realized I had alot to do today.
Man, all these guys here..I understand why they all bring their coach allong. It is bloody much work to keep everything sort of organized…what time, breakfast, when to plan the short little jog before dressing down to race clothing, when to put the oars by the dock, when to go out, how to warm up, what to eat, when to eat, eat wat?. On race day everybody is just in its own little cocoon. Lassi and Olav, (my Nordic buddies) were seeded after their great results from last year (2nd and 1st) so they were starting first. After them about 400 boats qued up and were sent of on to the course with 20 second intervalls. Since its my first time here, I just got a random number. 173. Just a few number in front of me were Sjoerd Hamburger (dutch champion in the single), Geert Cirkel (bow man of the illustrus dutch four that has been winning silvers on all the races the last few years), and that goofy beast from New Zealand Mahe. Than a massive group with juniors, seniors, women and what not…So: not only the challenge of pushing yourself for over 40 minutes, navigating the curves, bridges, river banks, tree trunks, but also dealing with dozens and dozens of slow traffic ahead.
Lassi and Olav did not have this trouble. But they had other problems. When they started, I had about 1 hour to go to my start. So I was trying to relax by standing on the veranda af the club overlooking the start area and look at the guys blast away. I could also see how hard they would push in the start and how the start procedure would go. Pretty tricky stuff with being exactly in the right spot att the right time. The officials standing att the bank give you orders like, ‘centoseptiotreo avance pronto, retourno sinistro prousiciouto o carbonaro, si,’ at least that was how it sounded to me….all in Italian. Why in Italian? Sure they talk good english I noticed, but I made a stupid decision to race in my club suit and not in the yellow and blue of Sweden. Believe it or not but the Stockholm clubsuit is nearly identical to the big local club here in Turin. So they thought I was one of the 15 rowers from this club.
The weather had a surprise for us as well. The first start should have been att 10:00, but as the river was flooded in a massive fog, there was no way that we could race. The start was postponed 30minutes. Lassi and Olav were paddling around to stay warm. A warm up usually is something like a 12 minute easy row, than some quick burst with a total of 100 hard strokes, a start, and than ready for race. Pretty exact and controlled timing with other words. Their start was postponed 2 hours in the end. They went in after a while. At 12:20 the fog cleared and the race was on.
Ok, I thought, now I have 40 minutes to when I should be att the dock to kick off. Somehow after 30 miuntes I realized that I totally misscalculated. I had 10minutes to the start! Damn. I rushed down with my oars and got my boat to the water quickly. The little walk from where we ‘the internationals’ had our boats took us through the crowded pation stuffed with club tie wearing Italians all sipping on either wine or expresso. Great atmosphere. Than when you show up with your boat on your shoulder, they all start shouting and screaming for people to watch their heads and get our of the way….very Italian. ATTENTZIONE!

I sort of tried to get the most of my ten minutes on the water and felt that all was pretty ok. I wrestled my way through the two long ques to the start and suddenly I saw I guy on the river bank with a red flag. I was so not ready. I planned to start my stopwatch and empty my water bottle. I looked at him, and he looked at me. He suddenly raised his flag, and I immediatly realized that this funny guy was the starting official. Attentzione, go. Shit, ok screw the stopwatch. Lets get out of here. My plan was to be a coward. I had a little ambition to keep my stroke rate at least over 28strokes a minute for the whole course. I actually just wanted to execute a smooth race without anything crazy. I have nothing to prove actually. Right? That is all the smart voices in your head talking. Than there are the crazy voices trying to stress you up…Anyway, I just took it pretty easy in the begining trying to establish that nice rythm I knew I could handle. But how long can I handle it? After a short while I overtake the first rower. Little did I know that there were at least 50 more to overtake. My stroke clock was bleeping on 27,5 and it felt good. I just did not want to stress more. I knew it was low, but I also felt my boat was gliding along nicely, and the strain on the system was really manageble. Than voices start coming, come one! Dont be a pussy now! The others are all pushing their guts out now! Dont sit here and try to win points for good technique. The first bridge deemed out of the fog and it went ok. Easy turn to bow and just keep rolling. More boats gliding past me. Than the next bridge. A bottle neck. Attenzione I suddenly hear really close to me..I turn around and notice how my bow just slides under the rigger of a ladies boat,, ‘beng’ there goes my starting number, and I just really stuck with here. We were just so close to each other that I decided to back a bit and hope the current will seperate us again. I helped and I was on my way again. Damnit! Loaded with a bit more adrenaline I rushed of again, plowing my way through the field. I was actually really happy with my steering and nicely managed all the point that I memorized as being crucial. Than come some long straight where I really just tried to get the speed up in that low pace that I set for myself. My biggest mission was to use as little power as possible. It is soooo easy to be really strong in the strokes, specially for me, in the beginning of the stroke, BOOM a lot of power, and a lot of speed, but not for long. As soon as I felt something saying, ‘lactose acid’ I dropped the power and tried to focus on rythm. It worked! It just felt so comfortable I was wondering again I was pushing enough or not. Luckily the turning point was free of competitors and I could easily turn my boat and race off for the home stretch. Because of my mis with my stopwatch and total lack of support on the river bank, I had no iddea how I was doing. When I finally crossed the line I had no clue. Since my starting number was ripped of my boat, I had to wait a long time to a result from the regatta officals. I learned that Mahe won, and not only made the coarse record (worth 1000€) but totally trashed it with 30 seconds. (while struggling with the traffic as much as I was), Lassi did great and was really fighting hard with Olav, Lassi got 2nd 30 seconds after Mahe and 3,8 seconds in front of Olav. Than finally I got my time. 42:32 that meant 12th position and 1:30 after Lassi! 30 second behind the great Juri Jaanson from Estonia. ( probably to friendliest guy I ever met )
and even cooler was that I beat Sjoerd from Holland with a few seconds.
I walked away from the regatta office 20kgs lighter than I came there. With a smile on my face I rigged of my boat and threw myself on a nice lasagna with the other guys in the clubhouse. Mahe was allready screeming that the gold coins he won, probably will work fine in the bars tonight. Amazing guy.
The atmosphere loosened up here with 200% now ans even the grumpy farmer Olav has a smile on his face now. On the way back to the hotel, we stuffed our faces with a quick kabab , and are now waiting for an other dinner at an other rowing club.
Ok, I better keep it a bit short now…