This past weekend I was fortunate enough to row in the 53rd Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The weekend was surreal as well as so much fun, and it was the homecoming I could have only ever dreamed of. Penn State Crew literally won the lottery to have boats racing in the Head of the Charles. As the largest and the most prestigious head race in the world, this regatta has a lottery system for crew clubs to receive bids. A fall head race differs from a spring 2k race in that it is longer, typically between 4 - 6 kilometers, and instead of boats starting in heats and racing at the same time, they are started a certain interval of time apart. In the Head of the Charles, this interval is 2-3 boat lengths which works out to about 15-20 seconds or so. Crews can retain their lottery bid by finishing in the top 50% of times for their event, and they can earn priority in next year's lottery if they finish in the next 25% of their event. But for the bottom 25% of each event, the bid is lost and they must re-enter the lottery the following year. Penn State Crew had no bids coming into this year, but won the lottery and received bids for a men's collegiate 8+ and a women's lightweight 4+. I grew up just about 15 miles from the Charles River in Bedford, Massachusetts. This event was one that I attended a number of times growing up, especially in high school. Back then I never even considered that I would ever, or could ever, row. It costs thousands of dollars a year to row at a private club in the Boston area, plus I was already committed to my 3 high school varsity sports. I stumbled upon Penn State Crew at the involvement fair during Spring of my freshman year. This discovery came at a perfect time in my life, when I was wallowing in an abundance of free time due to a lack of structure in my day that I was so accustomed to receiving from sports. Crew is the perfect fit for me. My sports in high school (field hockey, alpine ski racing, lacrosse) were talent based. I could show off skill and score goals myself, but beyond that they never gave me the fulfilling feeling that crew has done. In rowing, you are not an individual, rather you are simply a body and one part of a machine. You can't stand out, all you can do is row with correct form and pull hard. The sport relies on hard work, mental toughness, and teamwork over everything else. It is "the ultimate team sport". Rowing has made me a college student who wakes up at 5:30am 6 days a week and works out on average 9 times per week. To add to that, rowing is a club sport at Penn State, so I pay lofty dues to have the privilege of experiencing this suffering. It is my fourth semester on the team currently. I serve on the team's officer board as the Secretary and I was voted captain of the women's team this fall. I fell hard into crew, and now it consumes me. I love the sport and I love the friends I have made from it, crew has really come to define my time at Penn State. As mentioned before, the Head of the Charles was a homecoming regatta for me. My family hosted 9 rowers/ coxswains at our home while the rest stayed in a hotel, but we had 17 for breakfast and dinner every day. It was a ton of fun, and while my parents seemed a bit frazzled, they executed the hosting perfectly and the team was super appreciative of their hard work for us to have a smooth regatta weekend.
The regatta weekend was blessed with the most gorgeous weather. Both Saturday and Sunday were around 70 degrees and sunny. Saturday saw a slight breeze while Sunday there was almost no wind, and any breeze was actually a tailwind for boats going down the course. Going into this regatta high wind had been my largest concern, due to the fact that my boat was a 4, and a lightweight one at that, which means that we would have been blown around and clean strokes would have been made difficult. For the actual race my boat put together a great piece. We had been practicing a ton this fall and it was super rewarding to see it all come together into one really fantastic row. Our event included boats from Harvard, BU, MIT, Princeton, Georgetown, and other top tier rowing programs, so winning this race would have been nothing short of a miracle. Simply lining up with these crews and rowing in this historic regatta was a win for us. Typically a 5k row feels like it lasts forever, but this race flew by. It was so surreal to row down the Charles with crowds of spectators on the banks, which I had been in just a few years earlier. After the race I got to see my mom, dad, and older sister in what was our first time being all together since Thanksgiving of last year, so 11 months. I also got to see my Aunt, some of my dad's friends, and four of my friends throughout the weekend. Seeing all of these important people in my life was definitely a highlight of the weekend. We did not retain our bid for next year, so it remains uncertain as to if I will ever row in this regatta again, at least as a part of Penn State Crew. I knew this going into the regatta, so I did my best to take it in and enjoy the weekend as it happened. Starting the race pointed towards Cambridge but staring at the Boston skyline is something I will never forget, I am so thankful to have been able to compete in the Head of the Charles. I am currently half way through my ARO (Adventure Rec Orientation) semester for my new job as a guide at Penn State Adventure Rec. Weekly classroom sessions have been the bulk of this training, but this past weekend we had our second field training experience. For this training, we went backpacking in Loyalsock State Forest on the Old Logger's Path. My ARO group consists of 6 AROs and our two leaders, so 8 in total. We drove up to Loyalsock on Friday evening and camped pretty close to our vehicles. On Saturday we started our hiking, and did around 6 miles that day. On Sunday our hike out to our cars was somewhere around 5 miles. When I did The Long Trail in 2016 typical mileage for a day would be between 15-20, so this backpacking trip was definitely not challenging as far as actual hiking went. Additionally, elevation change on the trail was never very large or steep so the hiking was very pleasant. The goal of this trip was not to get in as many miles or mountain peaks as possible, but rather to get hands on practical experience being with a group in the backcountry, as well as to learn how to teach. Throughout the weekend we (the AROs) took turns teaching the rest of the group lessons we had prepared. After each lesson we would have in depth feedback sessions in an effort to make us effective outdoor educators. There is no powerpoint to read off, no book to follow along with, and typically participants will need to be really engaged in order to get anything out of a lesson in the backcountry. This creates a nice challenge for us as budding outdoor educators. The first lesson taught by two members of the group was on Friday night. It was about Leave No Trace's principle #3 "Dispose of Waste Properly" aka how to go to the bathroom in the woods. Next, on Saturday evening I, along with my partner, taught the group how to hang a bear bag, which is a rope system for making your food unreachable by a bear during the nighttime. Following that, the final partnership taught the group how to use our MSR Dragonfly stoves. All three subjects were topics that the whole group already knew how to do, but again the point of teaching the lesson was not to teach us but rather to learn how to teach. Saturday night was a good time. For dinner we made a build your own burrito buffet and we ate by the campfire. Later on in the evening we made s'mores and read Paul Petzoldt's Teton Tales. The trip was overall very enjoyable and pleasant, although it was hard to miss a Penn State Football game. One thing that did damper the weekend just a little bit though was a small fever I developed some time Saturday afternoon. Being that body-uncomfortable in the backcountry is never nice, and while the worst of the fever did not hit until after I was back at Penn State, it's not fun to be sweaty at night when its 38 degrees outside. Fever aside, it was super fun to be backpacking, its been a little while since I last went. I am learning a ton from being in ARO and am really looking forward to leading trips next semester.
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