Natchitoches Rowing Marathon

I'm back in town after completion of my first on the water rowing marathon. We had a great time in this cool little town. The marathon was action packed with 24 crew eights competing. I think this may have been their biggest participation year yet as they ran out of T-shirts!

The Cane River made for an "attentive" row. Lots of winding curves and unfortunately some 20 mph (seemed like more in my scull) headwinds and at times crosswinds. The night before there was a big storm and the temperature dropped 20 degrees. Lots of tree limbs were hanging out in the river. I actually snagged one and afterwards was more cautious and tried to stay towards the middle of the river.

My goal was to finish the marathon in 4 hours, however, after fighting the wind for the first 10 miles, I decided finishing upright would be a more realistic goal. I finished in 4:43 minutes and I was unchallenged in my master's class. My boat number was #9 and so I thought the gal that started in front of me and had bow #8 was in my class. We went back and forth passing each other for the first 23 miles and then I realized that she looked really, really young for her age. Come to find out she was a college gal and not even in my class.

Kathy and Rebecca kicked some serious butt. They rowed so well that despite high winds--they still managed to set a course record in the Women's Master A class. I was so proud of them! During the course of the race there was a college men's 2X that stopped to take a rest when they caught up to me. I saw Kathy and Rebecca in the distance and told them that 2 girls were about to pass them up. That got them rowing! It's kinda fun to bring down those young kids huge egos for entertainment. I have no doubt that Kathy and Rebecca eventually passed them up.

Dave did great too. It's really hard to row a single in the wind and he took a beating from it. He jokingly said he should have quit at the 12 mile mark... but we know he wouldn't have. His family and friends were there and they were so wonderful. They whisked our boats away and unrigged them after the race and helped set up before. My M-I-L Wanda made the trip with me and was my "pit crew" so to speak. She drove me everywhere and knew the town like the back of her hand within a day. Plus she braved cold winds to shoot some pictures from the Front Street bridge. It certainly wouldn't have been as much fun without her. AND most importantly, she somehow tricked me into eating tomatoes. Fried green tomatoes! Anyone that knows me knows how I feel about raw tomatoes so this was a major breakthrough for me. I actually ordered them on my own the last night. However, I assure you all that I still do not like red tomatoes.

I'll upload all the pictures and add a link to the photo page soon. Also, I'm sure Rebecca--who is far more diligent with her blog than I-- will have lots of pictures as well. CLICK HERE for her blog Stained Glass. Also see pictures as the Arizona Outlaw blog is updated. There's some great pictures of the Hot Head that Rebecca took. CLICK HERE for Arizona Outlaw blog.


Sporting our gold medals... which look silver. We were assured that they were "Gold" in theory. Lots of people were looking at their "Gold" medals saying "These aren't Gold!" So we were content to sport them as is.


Rebecca posing for a picture with me while getting my scull ready to go.



Here's Dave finishing out the race.