A redo 12 years later

For all of you who knew the Henry kids back in Sierra Vista, let me ask this question: If 16 years ago someone asked you to place a bet on which kid was a NCAA Division I college athlete, who would you have picked?

A. Laura

B. Jennifer

C. Christopher

I’m sure it would have been a pretty even split between B & C. All of you would have been WRONG! Yup, this musical theater girl was the one who went on to college sports. Now that might be a little exaggeration since it was only a semester, but I still competed!

Twelve years ago on my first day at George Mason University, a girl in my history class asked if I would like to go to the activity fair with her. She wanted to check out the rowing team, mainly for the hot guys. As she was talking to some of the team members, the large Russian coach pointed at me and said “You! Can you come to practice tomorrow?” I was shocked! I knew nothing about rowing, but obviously I had some unknown talent to make the coach pick me out of the crowd. I was now a walk-on to the novice rowing (crew) team. Here was my chance to prove my athletic prowess!

It turns out that the ideal body for crew is tall and muscular, except for one member of the team. Now for my AZ friends who are used to bridges spanning dry river beds, you probably don’t know much about rowing. In a boat of 8 rowers, there’s 1 person who sits in the front called the coxswain. The coxswain guides the boat with a contraption that is a little like reins for a horse. She also needs to direct and coach the rowers. The other important part is that the coxswain is lightweight since the rowers have to carry her weight.

Now that I look back, I've decided I was predestined to be a coxswain. When I was about 8 or 9, my brother and sister were talking to my aunt and uncle about all their sports activities. I piped up and said “Well, I like bike riding because I can sit down and still exercise.” Everyone found this hilarious. It was very fitting that in college I stumbled into a sport where not only did I sit down, but the less I moved the better it was for the team!

At the time I was less than 120 lbs, so I met the weight requirement. As for the other requirements, I pretty much failed. I was terrible at steering the boat and learning all the terminology. But the worst part was the coaching and directing. I needed to be assertive and command respect:

“Hey, seat 4, get your oar out of the water,”

“Seat 2, you are moving too fast. Follow stroke,”

“Where’s the power? We’re barely moving!”

I just couldn’t do it. I sounded more like a 9^th grade cheerleader squeaking into the cox box (microphone),

“C’mon girls. Good job kind of, oops, boat’s tipping a little, straighten up…OH! going into the weeds, someone row harder”

A weak coxswain is one of the most annoying things for a rower. The girls tried to give me pointers, but it just wasn't in me. I did one regatta. I think we came in 6^th or 8^th place. I don’t even have pictures of it. It was a fun experience, but by early November I was pretty much done with being at the river at 5 am, sitting in a boat shivering, and failing miserably at being assertive. I handed back all my great workout gear. (I will say it was so much fun to wear a GMU Gortex windsuit at practice. Since I never went beyond 6^th grade ponytail softball, I never got all those team uniforms in high school.)

So why am I talking about this today? This week I attempted to redeem my rowing career. The Rochester Rowing Club offered an adult Learn-to-Row camp: M-F 6-8:30 pm. I was very excited. I checked with Chris since it meant he was pretty much pulling a single dad week for me to do it. He looked at me skeptically and I promised him I'd last the whole week...from past experiences with me trying new things he has reason to be skeptical.

To my surprise, there aren’t that many people who will give up 12 hours in one week to learn how to row. I was sure it would sell out. As of 2 weeks ago, only 3 people had signed up. By Monday they got 7 rowers, all women, mainly in their 40s. I was the youngest. We had one main coach and some great high school rowers to help out. In the first 10 minutes one of the high schoolers said my form was really good. I, of course, blurted out “oh, I was a coxswain in college so I've done a little bit of rowing.” What a mistake! They thought I'd know all the lingo and technique.  I never learned all the terminology 10 years ago, so I definitely wasn't going to remember it now!

But overall the experience has been great. We did 3 days on the water and 2 days in the gym doing drills. The workouts were tough (my hamstrings and back could use a massage). Besides one downpour tonight, the weather was perfect. I met a really nice group of ladies…once they realized I was over 21 they invited me to happy hour.

Since I've completed the Learn-to-Row class, I can now join the rowing club and row with other beginner adults. I think I'll join. You know, I do tend to like the sports where I can sit down and exercise. 

I'm bow (last person in the boat which is the exact opposite of where I sat in college).