dad vail regatta

Last Saturday, May 10th, I found myself pedaling down Kelley Drive searching for the Three Angels (which had mysteriously moved from where I last remembered them.) After avoiding numerous buses and clueless drivers, Perez and I found the angels and gathered around the officials for the Coaches & Coxswains meeting.

During the meeting we were reminded that this was an official event and we must obey the rules of the river while also having fun. We were also reminded that we were not allowed to interfere with the collegiate races, and as such would not be allowed on the water until the last Men’s event came down the course. This was tentatively scheduled for 11:21am. I found the owner of Team Concepts and received our bow number, 172.

Back on the bike we start pedaling up river towards the finish line and corporate event tents.  On the way we pass the University of Delaware Alumni Associate tent and wave hello. A few tents down we find our corporate tent and notice that the only ones there are the caterers. I pick up the phone and find out our captain (Mike) and the rest of the team are already getting ready by Strawberry Mansion bridge. However, the boat does not currently have a coxswain or “cox-box” (the device that lets every rower hear the voice of the tiny person facing everyone.)

Once again, we turn around on the bike and head back to the angels looking for the Team Concepts owner. Riding around the area for a few minutes we don’t see him and think it best to call another member of our team who had his number. As we are dialing, he walks by and we ask him what we should do about getting a coxswain and cox-box. His reply is that he already spoke to our captain and we are all set. Gee, would have been nice for Mike to call us back and let us know he already had what we needed.

Back on the bikes we pedal up river past the Alumni and Corporate tent and run into our old college coaches. They were a bit busy getting ready for the next event (which they would win.) Up by Strawberry Mansion Bridge we find our novice boat and meet our illustrious high-school coxswain. We find out that the shirts we are receiving for the race are both sleeveless and size XL. Fantastic. I felt more bad for our cox, as she was about half my size and had the same size shirt in which I was swimming.

We figured that now that we had found everyone we could watch a few of the college races go by and get onto the water within the next 15 minutes. As we start watching the races we realize that they are very far behind and there was no way we would be able to make it onto the river by 11:21. Forty minutes later, at 12:00 we find ourselves getting “hands-on” the boat and heading down the dock. We were informed that our warm up would consist of just paddling down the river until we were at the 1000 meter mark. Not a very long warm up when you consider that most people are hands-on and in the water at least 45 minutes before their scheduled start time.

As we paddle down to the start line we take a few practice “starts.” Everyone is a little nervous and jump, but overall it was not a bad warm up. I was feeling very confident in our race and ability, however I was becoming more and more nervous. It felt like I was back in college getting ready for a race. I knew I should have been out there to just have fun, but I was really starting to feel like I needed to win the race.

At the 1000m mark, they stopped all the boats and lined everyone up, we started to paddle slowly with only stern pair and no pressure down the river attempting to keep even as we approached the official 500m startling line in lane three. We found that even though we were not putting on any pressure we were ahead of all the other boats. This gave me even more confidence that we could really do well in the race.

At 500m, they stopped everyone, staggered the start due to the shape of the river and lined everyone up “even.” I could tell from the beginning that our high-school cox was pretty nervous, and that we were most certainly not pointed at the finish line. As the official says “ready….row!” we do our start “1/2, 1/2, 3/4, lengthen, full, crash!.” Our port side oars were clashing with the oars of the boat in lane two. At first I couldn’t tell what was happening, but then I saw that we were way over the lane markers and completely out of our territory. We were also in a really bad spot, no one on port side could row due to hitting the other boat, however if anyone on starboard attempted to row, it would push us more to port. So, everyone just stopped rowing. At this point all the other boats are pulling away and we are in dead last.

We very quickly get reset, and we start rowing again. This time I’m really mad, but I most certainly do not want to come in dead last. The next thing I know, is that we are gaining on the fifth place boat and making moves on the fourth and third place boat. With about twenty strokes to go, we are even with the boat in lane one and we are in fourth place. With ten strokes to go, we are one or two seats up on the boat in lane one and we are in third place. We cross the finish line about 3/4 of a length up on the fourth place boat and take third.

I was amazed. We were in last place (out of six) and we managed to come back with a third place finish. There is no doubt in my mind that had we stared properly and had no mishaps along the way, we would have been in first place. We quickly spun our boat and headed for the awards dock where we received bronze medals and the applause of the spectators, drunk college kids and our co-workers.

Not too shaby for a “half-time show.” I will definitely be back next year.

Posted in family, perez, philly, play, rowing, work | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

critical mass

Perez and I participated in the Philly Critical Mass this past Friday.

From the website:

Critical Mass is an unorganized coincidence that happens in cities around the world on the last Friday of every month. It is a ride through the city to celebrate and remind everyone about the use of the bicycle as an effective means of transportation.

It was actually a lot of fun and a very interesting experience. I was a bit worried as I’ve seen the videos on YouTube showing people crashing into cars or getting into confrontations, but none of that happened on our ride. People did yell at some drivers, especially the ones who tried to run them over. But all in all, everyone was very friendly and most people seemed to understand. A lot asked what the ride was for, while others cheered the group on.

We rode through Center City, South Philly, The Art Museum, Fairmount and West Philly. It was a great way to see the city by bike without worrying about someone crashing into you, or you moving fast enough for a car.

Posted in cycling, family, perez, philly | Tagged , | Leave a comment

novice again

Rowing practice for the corporate challenge did not go as well as planned this past Saturday. In fact, it was awful. Practice started with our boats one rower and two coxswains absent. The coach offered three high schools kids twenty bucks each to come on the water and act as bodies.

We lined up our boats with the intended race day configuration. Perez was stroking and I was in seven. The other experienced member of our crew was in three-seat. After spending twenty minutes on drills and warm ups we decided to have all eight people row. Eight different people, and eight different ways of rowing. It was a disaster. It was very typical of a crew’s first time rowing all eight, but throughout the course of the practice people just kept getting frustrated and worse. I managed to only get jabbed in the kidneys twice. After an hour of flopping around the river we brought the boats back in and our coach suggested we drop down a level in the competition from ‘intermediate’ to ‘novice’. Advice I think we should really take to heart.

I know this is supposed to be fun, but that competitive spirit keeps popping up and causing angry thoughts. 🙂

Posted in family, perez, rowing, work | Tagged , | Leave a comment

R.E. Load spotting

Apparently I was spotted last weekend:

Posted in cycling, philly, play | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

platinum

Finally! American Express has decided to grace my mailbox with an offer for their Platinum Card. The card with it all!

The invitation is approximately five pages long and lists out over 20 member benefits including “no pre-set spending limit,” which is really a fancy way of saying “we approve it if we feel like it.”

Then at the bottom of the last page in teeny tiny print it says that the card carries a mere $450 annual membership fee.

Now, I have decided to grace my cross-cut shredder with  American Express’ highest level of privilege.

Posted in general | 1 Comment

fitness day

Yesterday, Perez and I inadvertently jumped head first into a 5 hour “fitness marathon.”

The day began with us going to the boathouse for the Dad Vail Corporate Challenge practice. We road our bikes from Manayunk to boathouse row and meet up at #5. On the way there the sky decides to open up and downpour. No warning. Just total drenching rain. Two minutes later it was over. It was like one of those weird summer storms, except it’s spring, and sometimes it’s still pretending to be winter outside. Once we arrived, we got changed and headed out. The moment we put the boat on the water it starts to drizzle again. Next thing we know, there are huge bolts of lightening and the sky opens up again. Then we notice all the crews coming back in with coaches saying how much worse it is up river.  Our coach decides to leave the boat on the water and have us stand in the boat bay for ten minutes to determine if it will “clear up.”

The entire time I am dreading her saying we are going to have another indoor practice. Those things are hell. A few minutes later it seems to be clearing up and we head out on the water.  Perez was in stroke and I was in 7. Stern pair is perhaps my least favorite position in the boat. I hate being in front of everyone and responsible for setting the form for the entire starboard side. The practice went alright. I was only jabbed in the back once with an oar by someone who fell completely out of time. Better than the first weeks in a novice boat at Delaware. I think we stand a very good chance of beating the other crews.

After we bring the boat in and place it in the bay, Perez and I hurry to get changed and get out of there. We signed up to do the 8th Annual R.E. Load Alley Cat race.  The event kicked off at 2pm and it was currently a little after 1. We still had to get down to 2nd and Spring Garden to register and pick up our rider numbers. We get to the back of the R.E. Load store at about 1:35 and find out that the start of the race is back at the Art Museum (where we just were!). Back on the bikes we booked it up to the Art Museum to meet the mass of about 200 people. This was a very diverse set of individuals. You had everything from the messengers with giant bags, tattoos and varied piercings to the crazy guy with a beard on a recumbent.  As is typical in Philly you had everyone in cars who were driving around the Art Museum circle beeping and hollering odd things.

At about 2pm, someone who was in charge grabs a megaphone, tells everyone to leave their bikes on the grass and head over to the statue/fountain thing. It was going to be a running start. As she is making the announcements and reading the rules she politely reminds us of what happened in Chicago a few months ago. This resulted in a rule change. It would no longer be a race, but a “fun ride.” With points assigned not for coming in first, but for doing the best at each of the various challenges they had set up at each checkpoint. We were also reminded that this was a highly illegal event. So be careful. After saying that she said perhaps she shouldn’t say that so loud. Moments later we were given the list of checkpoints with the caution that this was an April Fool’s race and a good number of them would be fake. We also realized that most everyone else had brown paper bags and were drinking from them. That should be safe.

We hopped on the bike and headed for the closest checkpoint at Lemon Hill first. About halfway there Perez finds himself leading the pack and climbing up the hill. At this point he remembers that he is on his fixed-gear bike and can not shift. Next thing I know he is hopping off from the front and pulling a u-turn. I asked what was up and learned that he wasn’t going to make it up the hill. Oh well. So much for that checkpoint. I bet it was fake anyway. Next we headed over to 25th and Spruce, which I thought said 25th and Spring Garden. Whoops. After correcting that mistake we were told to write a haiku about our bikes. Mine was something along the lines of:

green frame, red bar tape  | (i forget what was here) | don’t fail me now

It was lame, but it let me complete the checkpoint. From what I remember, Perez’s was funnier. At this point we started riding around the rittenhouse area and grabbed some food at Devil’s Alley. (Hey, it wasn’t a race anymore so who cares). After that we were riding down 21st near Cherry Street and the freaking road must have just recently experienced an earthquake. The road is completely broken and there is about a 10ft long, 1 inch deep pothole which I could not avoid quick enough. I go over and quickly realize that I have popped my rear tire. Not having a wrench on me, this was the end of the day. Frustrated I called a friend, left my bike in her garage and headed back to Manayunk.

All in all it was a very good day, and I managed to get some sun out of the whole deal. I realized that I was doing some form of exercise for the past five hours and I felt I deserved a whole lot of delicious food for that.

Posted in cycling, family, perez, philly, play, rowing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

age

Age is one of those things I absolutely hate talking about at work.

As we were wrapping up a meeting this morning the woman we were talking to asked us our age. I sort of froze as the question came out of nowhere and looked around the room. A colleague answered that we were ‘in our twenties’. The woman than asked, “late 20’s?” To which he replied… some of us… Next thing I know this woman’s voice became high pitched, and she said “oh my God” and walked away sounding like she was crying.

This is honestly one situation I have never had to deal with. The individual we were working with went out of the room and came back a few minutes later saying everything was okay.

This is why I am not a fan of discussing age at work. It becomes a very sensitive topic when you are many years younger than the indivuals you may be evaluating or providing recommendations. A large amount of the time people correlate experiance with worth and value. Those things are not always correlated as well as people think they are.  You can have a very old and experienced individual who just plain sucks, and a rather young but smart individual who can provide valid opinions and value.

Age should not be a topic discussed at work…

Posted in life, work | Tagged , | Leave a comment