Green Mountain Head 9/30/2012

Volunteered for the Green Mountain Head in Putney, VT this past weekend.  It is a 3 mile out and back rowing race on the Connecticut river.  Rowers row 1.5 miles down stream, around a buoy, then 1.5 miles upstream.  There were both singles, and doubles, but no 4s or 8s in this race.  It was a great race.  My goal earlier in the summer was to row in the race, but as the summer went on, rowing took a back seat to bike racing and training for the upcoming cross season.  I did not end up rowing at all after early August. 

I had signed up to assist with timing.  Due to some miscommunication, I was not aware that there had been a practice timing session thursday evening.  The folks who were at that session were already set up to man the stopwatches and note start and finish times for each rower.  So I would be an alternate, and just fill in if someone needed a break.  I got a text from work while the organizer was describing how the system works, so I was distracted when he was describing the process.   So it was just as well I was not going to be timing. 

The marshall needed someone to help him get rowers queued up.  I stood next to him with a pair of binoculars, and let him know if the rowers in each heat were lined up in order, and if there were any missing.  Then he would call out "number one, fire it up, two just after that" etc.  in order to get rowers moving.  Every once in a while someone would show up to the hole a few minutes late, having missed their start, and we would slot them in at the end of the heat.

It was cool to see all of the different boats out there.  We were standing close to the docks to get on/off the water as well, so we were in the center of the action.  One rower came in on the police launch ( motorboat).  He had cracked his carbon fiber scull out on the water, and had to get a ride back.  Bummer.  Did not get the details of what happened, it did not seem like he wanted to talk about it.

After the last rower got off, our job was done.  There was still another half hour or so until the last rower came in, but we were finished.  Got some food from the volunteer area and headed home.  A fun way to spend the morning.  Maybe next year I will get a bit more time on the water and enter this race.  I may be able to borrow a boat from the Putney rowing club, as I have no boat of my own.