The Sweet Taste of Victory

On Saturday I attended the American Youth Cup II regatta at Nathan Benderson Park. This is only the second event I’ve attended since my daughter, Catherine, started rowing with Sarasota Crew last summer. And I am proud to report that my daughter’s boat won their race!

A total of six boats competed in the under-15 women’s 8 bracket. All of the rowers were from the Sarasota Crew squad. There were several other teams competing in the tournament, but apparently none have such a well-developed program.

Billed as the “future of Sarasota Crew” this was the first time most of these young women had rowed the full 2,000-meter course. For those of you who don’t know, rowing is a grueling sport. The times for the boats in the race ranged from about 8 to 12 minutes.

Imagine a full-body exercise – pushing as hard as you can – for 10 minutes. Two minutes is tough. Four minutes is exhausting. Going for 8-12 minutes is arguably insane.

Here’s a photo of the two font-runners coming into the home stretch:

Catherine’s boat won the race with a time of 8:47. Afterwards she said she went through three “winds” – rowing to exhaustion twice before rallying to the finish line. Their coxswain – the woman in the red hat who was in charge of the boat – is an older, more experienced rower. She motivated Catherine’s team along the way shouting out distances and encouraging the girls to do their best.

Here she is after winning the race. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but she is tired and happy. When we saw Catherine after her team pulled their boat out of the water she showed us her hands. I was going to take a picture to show you her blisters. Her hands were pretty raw, but that didn’t seem to dampen her spirits. Ah, the sweet taste of victory!

Until next week,

Matthew Anderson, President
Milestone Marketing Associates, Inc.