After many months of training it has come to racing season, unfortunately I have had to pull out of the for the main race I/we were training for (The Head of the Yarra),
I did this for two reasons, the first, I did not think I would be fit enough, Yes I hear you all saying WHAT not fit enough after 6 1/2 months of training? well truth be told my 6.5 months was reduced down rapidly as I was hit by an unfortunate bout of bronchitis, I had put off going to my doctor thinking 'i'll be right, this will pass in a few days', It was when i struggled to walk 15 meters to the leterbox and back one day that i thought to myself... 'Nope I'm the fittest I have been for years, and I can't even walk 15 meters, Matty you have got to got to the doctors and you have to go NOW!"" So off to the doctor i trundled, where he proceeded to poke and prod my throat, and other lymph nodes, examined the back of my throat, and listened to my breathing, which he could already hear from across the room was strained before he even got the stethoscope out. His diagnosis, - I had a fairly severe infection in the lungs, and to confirm it I was off for a chest X-Ray and blood work before you can say Crews...Attention...Go.
Results came in, I was down 25% lung capacity in my right lung, left lung they were unable to determine due to the spread of the infection, blood work came back, high levels of some mumbo jumbo that i had no idea what it was, until the doc said, your out of the boat for at least 3 weeks, here is a script for an asthma spray, and a script for some really heavy duty antibiotics.
I scoffed at the 3 weeks, thinking yeah ok, I'll be back next weekend, I'm feeling good at the moment.... well....5 weeks later I was well enough to head to the shed, where my crew mates looked at me and the most common question was not 'how are you feeling?', but infact was 'should you be here?' along with the ''you look awful' comments, I took that as a sign of 'feeling good does not equal looking good' but 1 more week down and I was finally back in a boat, about 9k into training and I had the first coughing fit, but I made it back to the shed. Of course after a 6 week break out of the boat my hands were ripped to shreds on day one (See Photo below) but of course we all know and love this feeling don't we?
The second reason I had to pull out, which from the bottom of my heart I know is the real reason, is the fact that I won't even be in the country on the weekend of the race any more.
However having had to pull out the race, I was left with a feeling of now what? with out something to train for, what was the purpose of training? obviously I could have considered the health benefits, but if I wanted that then I could just go running, or walking or one of those other sports, but none of them really appealed to me, we all know there is nothing like the feeling you get when you take a good stroke. So I had a look, what regattas are coming up? and I found my answer, a regatta every second weekend until QLD state championships... and then onwards until Australian Nationals, why not I thought.
So here I am with a renewed vigour, I headed down to the shed, found a few extra bodies who wanted to race (ok so they may have found me) and off to the regattas we go.
Last weekend, first regatta off the blocks, a few scratchings due to other commitments (and the decision to go only being made 4 days before the regatta), but there were 3 of us. a quick car pool off to the course, breakfast of champions on the way, and here we were, all set to race, a single, a pair and a double. First cab off the rank for me was the Mens 2- it was only a Group 2 so 1500m not a full 2k. Now I should make mention that the pair that boated had 2 goals for the race,
1) Finish;
2) come back dry;
We set the second goal given that we had never rowed a pair together previously, and neither of us had been in a pair for roughly 16 years. We did infact achieve both goals, and even bettered our first, not only did we finish the race, but we infact came in 4th. from this wave of euphoria I scrambled out of the boat to hop into the single and get to the start line, now I approached this race differently, as I in reality had given up before I even got the single on the water. The single race was a Masters Handicapped race, only a 1000m - a sprint as some may consider, however after my foray into the masters state championships, and my 3rd placing at a 'state' level, along with my age (being younger then the other competitors in the race) I was slapped with a 51 second handicap, yes that's right, in a 4 minute race, I had nearly an extra minute.
With this on my mind, and having hoped out of the pair, and straight into the single, lungs still burning as they haven't healed fully from the infection, I had given myself very little chance in this race.
I am pleased to say, on adjusted times I did make up about 15 seconds, however on official times, I was still in last place.
2 weeks on, and we are approaching the second race for the season, a regatta in a country town, small, but great atmosphere to compete at. 4 of us are heading down, we have a 1x a 2-, and 2 4+ races the only issue is we are a 4- crew, so yet again, handicaps here we come. but we don't care, all we want to do is race, and have a good time, because if you aren't enjoying what you are doing then why do it? winning isn't always everything sometimes the sheer fact of just getting out and being with friends and like minded people is enough to remind me why I loved this sport so much, and why after so many years i missed it and couldn't wait to get back in to it.
A weekend away with friends, what more can you ask for?
perhaps one day I will look across the starting line and find you next to me, and if I do, then let us both just enjoy it for what it is.
As always
Matty