Weather:  Broken clouds.  Warm, nearly 60 degrees.  Windy.  It looks like some kind of a front went through during my race.  It was a WNW wind at about 10mph, with gusts up to 23mph.  This is a pure head wind through the first 2 km of the course.  The water as nasty.

Here is the weather underground almanac for today from a station right on the Andover side of the river in the middle of the course.  The cursor is about 5 minutes after my start.

I was pleased with the race result.

I finished first among the Master D/E group.  And finished close to top guys in the Masters C group.  I know those guys and they are good scullers.

Looking at the map of my course, I am not all that happy with my line.  I messed up my approach to the bridge and it added about 30 meters to my course, or nearly 10 seconds to my time.  And I did not hug the big turn nearly close enough, that probably added another 30 to 50 meters of length to my course.  Having said that, I steered it bette rthan the guy behind me.  I think he could have beat me if he followed my line, but he went way wide around the turn.

Since the wind was from the WNW, the first half of the course until you were completely through the turn was straight into it, and the chop was pretty nasty, so the pace was really slow.  Once around the corner, it was a lot smoother and much less wind.  Still a few gusts to contend with, but much nicer water.  The splits reflect that

In the last 1000m I was coming up behind one of the boats from the Master C group.  I wanted to take the line along the buoys on the western shore, but he didn’t really give me a good line and I ended up nearly hitting one of the course buoys.  That pissed me off enough that I cut across his stern and spinted my guts out to the finish.  I nearly caught him at the line.  I can thank him for probably a 10 second better thime than I would have other wise had.  🙂

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_4320_|_24:38_|_2:51.1_|_456___|_18.5_|_09.5_|_141___|_warmup
Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_0340_|_03:17_|_4:49.3_|_038___|_11.6_|_08.9_|_126___|_in the chute
00360_|_4700_|_21:34_|_2:17.7_|_594___|_27.5_|_07.9_|_175___|_Race!
05060_|_1480_|_09:36_|_3:14.6_|_160___|_16.7_|_09.3_|_124___|_back to the dock

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00340_|_03:17_|_4:49.3_|_038___|_11.6_|_08.9_|_126___|_warmup
04700_|_21:34_|_2:17.7_|_594___|_27.5_|_07.9_|_175___|_Main set
01480_|_09:36_|_3:14.6_|_160___|_16.7_|_09.3_|_124___|_rest meters
06520_|_34:27_|_2:38.5_|_792___|_23.0_|_08.2_|_156___|_Total

Video will be coming a bit later.