Blog of Bermanism

Earlier this August, the competitive rowing teams from the Austin Rowing Club set out to compete on a national level at the US Rowing Masters National Championships in Worcester, MA. We trained long and hard under the direction of head coach George Jenkins, and we expected to hold our own against the extreme level of competitors that live in the northeast. But first, we had to get there.

I don’t think there was a single person who arrived in Boston, New Haven, Manchester, or Providence that arrived on time or on the flight they were supposed to be on. I’m not sure what happened to air travel this week, but it has definitely hit an all time low for reliability and safety, as evidenced by the two recent plane crashes (one in Greece and one in Venezuela). Anyway, our flight out of Austin was canceled abruptly when one of the baggage handlers noticed a tear in the outer hull of the aircraft. While this occurrence was wholly inconvenient, required us to reissue our tickets, and ultimately arrive in Boston three hours late, we were glad that the airplane didn’t rip apart in mid air. Never-the-less, we had planned on arriving in Boston, traveling around, grabbing some dinner and then making our way to the hotel, which was in Framingham, about 20 miles from Boston. But, being that it was 9:30pm and we had to be at the regatta venue at 7:30 the next morning, we got our car and headed straight out of town. It turns out that Framingham exists in a fold in space-time that is nearly impossible to get to from the Mass Pike unless you make a wrong turn and cut through the back lot of a shopping center. Despite this, we managed to find our hotel and got settled in for a quick night’s sleep.

The next morning, we awoke, got dressed in our racing attire, packed up snack food, water and Gatorade, and drove the remaining 30 miles to the official armpit of Massachusetts, Worcester. The regatta took place at Regatta Point on Lake Quinsigamond State Park, the same place where the Eastern Sprints occur, so it is thus a famous venue and they know how to hold regattas. This year, however, was the apparent exception to the rule. There were over 800 boats entered for races during the four day event, and we had a parking lot the size of most McDonald’s restaurants in which to park our trailers, unload our boats, rig them, and store them. Space was impossibly tight and the only place for us to set up camp was on a ridiculous 45 degree incline that we kept falling down on. But, once you were on the water, everything was wonderful. The course was a 1000m, seven lane course that was perfectly designed, complete with extremely straight lanes, nicely designed steakboat platforms (starting platforms), a fixed announcement podium at the start, and a photo finish system that captured video of the close finishes so that titles could be properly awarded. In addition, Lake Quinsigamond had very nice water and relatively low winds compared to some of the venues that we’ve been to. So, while the venue sucked, the course was great, so overall, the regatta was average.

The competition, however, was not average by any stretch of the imagination. Loaded with ex-olympians and collegiate title holders (and the added benefit of hundreds of years of rowing tradition in the northeast), it became apparent that we had our work cut out for us. Everyone was fast. Most boats had perfect form and perfect swing and looked as if they’d been rowing together for 50 years, as some of them had been. So, it was no surprise that we, in our many, many lineups, most of which had only been practiced a few times, had a hard time making it into the finals or medaling in any of the events. The mood of our group quickly turned from defiance to defeat as we struggled to find the lightness of spirit to enjoy the experience, the people we were rowing with, and the beautiful weather we were having. But, events of the day were trying very hard to occlude those feelings.

After a long, and relatively dismal day of 4th, 5th, and 6th place finishes, the mixed doubles heats came up for launch. I was rowing with my wife, and we usually have very nice rows together. This time however, was going to be different. We were out in the warm up area, minding our own business, when another double collided with us out of nowhere. They hit us at full speed on our port side, which means that they were on the wrong side of us. Before we knew what was happening, we both looked around to assess the damage and noticed that Rachel’s oar had been snapped clean in two! This, of course, was her personal set of oars and our race was set to begin in less that 15 minutes. The marshal arrived and helped us retrieve the severed oar blade while the people that hit us told us that the accident was our fault (we were just starting to move from a dead stop) and then proceeded to run away without ever offering to help pay for the damaged oar. So, I had to row the double over to the nearest dock and await replacement oars which were promptly delivered by our club president and savior, Paul Scripko. It was good to see him and it calmed us down from an extremely angry state to a manageable, but agitated one. We also thought that we would certainly miss our race, so we resigned an utter defeat. However, it turned out that they had held our race for us. So, we hurried to the starting line and the race started. This race was not our best 4 minutes, 29 seconds as husband and wife. We were doing OK until around the 500m mark when my favorite hat blew off in the 20 mph head wind and I could do nothing but watch the memories associated with that hat sink most unspectacularly into the black depths of Lake Quinsigamond. The hat loss, just another occurrence against us during this race, broke my concentration for long enough that we lost our hold on one of the other boats. Once we reached the last 250m, I was determined to make up for lost time, so I took up the stroke rating to 36spm, then to 38spm hoping to gain on them again so that we could at least scrape a 5th place finish out of it. But, Rachel was using the club oars, with grips that she wasn’t used to and she was having a hard time controlling them at that speed, and I was exhausted and angry and I wasn’t positioning my body correctly, which was destabilizing the boat. We had to slow down and ultimately finished 6th out of 6 boats, and not advancing to the finals. This race was dismal, but was thankfully the worst row of the race, and it occurred on the first day. The loss of her oars really shook Rachel and it took her a few days to get past it, but in the end all was well. A few of our boats that day did well. The Women’s coxed four came in 3rd with a time of 4:11:85, and Garrett and Melissa came in 3rd in their double with a time of 4:22:96, sending both boats into the finals (see results table below). Two boats also made it into the finals on day two as well. Arch Bell and Paul Scripko came in 3rd in the Men’s B pair and Don Kerth came in 3rd in the Men’s C single.

Wednesday night, we ate dinner in Framingham at this place called Skipjack’s. We settled on this place after spending about an hour driving around the Framingham, Natick area looking for another restaurant called The Naked Fish, which apparently only exists in another universe because we couldn’t find it. Anyway, Skipjack’s was pretty good. Everyone seemed to be in the mood for good seafood (except for Rachel because she hates seafood), and they had plenty of it. We spent about 1.5 hours there and then we finally went back to the hotel to get ready for more races (the pictures from the entire weekend can be found in the Photos section).

Friday was our first day of finals at the regatta and it was another day of hard racing and non-medaling finishes. However, in the middle of the day, Garrett Heifrin and Camille Jobe pulled out a silver medal in the Women’s A pair! It was so nice to finally have a medal for our team, we were all very proud of them and their win called for celebration that night.

So, Friday night we ventured into Boston for a taste of some fantastic Italian food. Boston is well known for many different kinds of food from its legendary Chowdah to its lobster. Boston also has a historic section of town known as the North End. Among other things, this area has some of the most authentic and delicious Italian food you can get in the US. The narrow streets have an extremely European feel to them and you can walk up to most restaurants and peruse their menus to decide if the fare and cost are what you are looking for. Most restaurants are very small and feel like you’ve walked into someone’s home, but the food is always excellent. We had planned on walking a little way into the North End to gander at all the restaurants and take in all of the sights, but we could only get about two blocks into the neighborhood because a sewer fire had caused five manholes to explode, issuing forth flames and sulfuric-smalling smoke. So, we ended up at a little place called Mother Anna’s which is located on the very edge of the North End. Rachel and I had been to this restaurant many years ago and liked it a lot, and it didn’t disappoint again. The food was wonderful, the service was great, and everyone had a great time. On the way back to Framingham, we made a stop on the Boston University Campus for some famous frozen yogurt from Angora’s, a haunt much frequented by Rachel during her tenure as a BU student.

Saturday, the final day of the regatta was by far our most successful day as a team. The day finished out with four of our boats in medaling positions. Two of the boats were bronze medal winners: Don Kerth and Kris Villamin finished with a time of 3:46 in the lightweight Men’s B 2x, and Don Kerth, Kris Villamin, Vince Perez, and Kourt DeHaas finished with a time of 3:32 in the lightweight Men’s A-C 4x. Also, Arch Bell, Tim Jones, Garrett Heifrin, and Camille Jobe finished with a silver medal in the Mixed A 4x with a time of 3:25. Finally, and most notably, our lone gold medal winners were Camille Jobe, Garrett Heifrin, Melissa Gabriel, and Rachel Berman in the Women’s club A 4x with a time of 3:36! We were so proud of all of our medal winners that day for vindicating our rowing club and bringing home the medals. The events of the week were definitely a call for celebration.

So, that night we returned to Boston to eat at a very old restaurant with great lobster called Durgin Park located in Faneuil Hall. We made it to the restaurant right as they were closing the kitchen, and we managed to get the last six lobsters they had in the place. It was a great celebratory dinner complete with a toast to our team and coach, and with lots of wine flowing. Afterward, we started to hit the bars in the Government Center area with a vengeance. Much drinking, dancing, stumbling and hilarity ensued as the night progressed toward last call at 2am (see the pictures section). Then, we gathered everyone up into the two cars we had arrived in, and headed back to our hotel. One car made it back without incident, but the other car was forced to exit the Mass Pike due to some vomiting and bladder issues, which resulted in them getting thoroughly lost in the suburbs of Boston. Finally, around 3:45am, they had found their way back to the hotel, and we all went to sleep, wary of the fact that we were all flying out of Boston early the next morning.

This regatta was by far the most difficult and high level regatta that I’ve ever been to. The competition was stiff and we just simply had not practiced our boats to the point of being able to hold our own with the other crews that were there. I believe that we had the appropriate physical fitness and the ability to do well, but without rowing in lineups that were very well practiced, we didn’t have a chance of catching some of these people. All in all, we had a great time. The people on our team are all wonderful, fun, and supportive people and we always have a great time together. I look forward to future regattas and to being able to compete at a higher level at next year’s Masters National Championship.

Well, it has obviously been a while since I’ve posted here, and hopefully, I haven’t lost all of my readership (all five of you). But, the truth is that I’ve been working really hard on writing my manuscripts and my dissertation and I just don’t have any writing left in me at the end of the day. I did start a write up on my last regatta, and I think I’m just moved enough to write something about Katrina, so, keep checking back here, I promise I’ll write a little here and there, when I have a second. I’m also pretty sure that my writing will pick up after I’ve FINALLY managed to defend, even though no one believes that I’ll ever finish.

Things are going pretty well. I’ve been writing like a fiend and getting my stuff done. My first manuscript is finished and in rough form (my professor currently has that one), and my second manuscript is nearly finished. Both of these papers will be whole chapters in my dissertation, once I paste them in. Afterward, I will one have one more chapter that needs writing from scratch. That chapter is perhaps the most daunting of them all, the discussion. In this chapter, I’m supposed to come up with some brilliant insight into what all of my work means in relation to all that is known about alcoholism and the brain. A few committee members have already expressed that they will not let me graduate without something profound written in my discussion. This task is looming indeed, but I feel that I’ll be able to piece it together well since I now have the rest of my conclusions all put together. So, I continue to stay home and write as much as I can in a day. I seem to only have about four continuous hours of writing in me per day, but I’ve been extending that to six these last few days. I need to try to get as much done as possible so that I don’t lose too much time being out of town this week.

Which brings me to my next subject, being out of town this week. For the last three months, my rowing team has been training very hard for the US Rowing Masters National Championship Regatta, being held this year in Worcester, MA on Lake Quinsigamond. This race has been stressing me out due to the fact that it will cause me to be out of town for an extended period of time, a time when I need to be here working as much as possible. I’ve recently found my self wondering how I could have committed to a four day race in Massachusetts when I have so much writing to get done. But, I have committed and I’m going, so there’s no reason to freak out about it. I’m rowing in four races for this trip. It doesn’t seem like a lot until you consider that if I make it into the finals for all of them, it will end up being seven races. That’s a lot in four days, especially on the national level. I’m racing in a Men’s quad, a Mixed double with Rachel, a Men’s coxed four, and a Mixed Quad. Most people are going in with the attitude that we want to get into the finals for as many races as we can. I’m going in with the attitude that I want to row my best in everything. Winning is certainly important to me, and I don’t discount that it is possible for us to win. But, we will be racing against ex-olympic rowers and people who are really good, and really strong from all over the country. I’m not going to delude myself into thinking that I’m naturally good enough to contend with this type of competition. So, I’ve decided that I’m going for the experience and that I’ll be happy with any outcome. That won’t take away from any of my competitive spirit, believe me. When ever I’m up next to another boat, no matter who it is, the crazy competitive gene kicks in and I drive as hard as I can. But, I’ll still be happy with anything.

Anyway, I guess that the point of all of this is to say, as the title suggests, I’m tired and there’s a lot going on in my life. But, I’m happy. I’m moving forward with everything, everything is going well, and I’m happy with the work that I’m doing. And with that, I’m off to get some writing done that is not in my blog.

This last weekend, my recreational crew, the Rowtinis, had our chance to test our mettle in a friendly competition with the rest of the recreational crews at the Austin Rowing Club. This race is called the Dan Merrick cup and it is held once a year for the sheer benefit of having the rec crews compete with each other. The Rowtinis have won for the last two years, and we were determined to win this year also. We were a little worried, however, because we were up against an all men’s crew that rows more than once per week, and we only practice on Wednesdays. They were by far our greatest competition, so we had to turn up the intimidation factor.

We always create team shirts to wear during the race, and this year’s design topped them all. It didn’t make any sense, but it was great anyway. Since the main theme for the Rowtinis is that we’re a drinking team with a rowing problem, the image on the front of the shirt depicted a martini glass tipping over and spilling its contents while our Rowtini eight person boat rowed out of the glass and over the spill. The best part is that the boat and its inhabitants were glowing and on fire! The background of the image was a psychedelic mixture of blue and purple and donned the title, “Rowtinis”, in menacing 3D black and shiny letters at the top. As always, each shirt had a letter on the back that, when all eight people were in the boat, spelled rowtinis from stern to bow.

Well, the intimidation seems to have worked. We pulled ahead of the Men’s boat almost immediately and ended up 8 seconds ahead of them at the finish, almost two full boat lengths, and we have three women rowers in our boat! We were at least 30 seconds ahead of all the other boats, which was just kinda sad for them, but they’re new and getting much better every time they row. The second heat, which was more for fun this year, was a little closer of a race. One of the other crews, The Strokes of Genius, were given a 30 second lead on us and the Men’s Wrec crew. We started and immediately had our lead on the Men. But, they were either pulling harder, or we weren’t pulling as hard, because we spent 3/4 of the race stern to bow with them, just barely ahead. Well, we ended up catching up to the Strokes, and pulling ahead of them by 1/2 a boat length, and we took up our stroke rating a bit at the end and pulled ahead of the Men by about one length. It was a much closer race, but we won anyhow. So, for the third year in a row, the Rowtinis have taken the Dan Merrick cup! Does anyone dare defeat us?