Indoor rowing championships produce six world records

Want to make eight minutes feel like an eternity? Hop aboard a Concept2 Model D ergometer rowing machine with 70 or so of your closest friends and try to rip through 2,000 meters as fast as you can. Rarely have I seen so many people suffering from motion sickness while going absolutely nowhere.

Welcome to the CRASH-B Sprints, better known as the Indoor Rowing World Championships, held in February in Boston.

"With 500 meters to go, I promise my body, 'Just don't embarrass me. Don't let me throw up or pass out, and I'll never do this again,' " said 75-year-old Robert Sleigh of Amherst, Mass., managing a wry grin after winning the top spot in the veterans lightweight 75-79 category. "Then, of course, the memory of the pain fades afterwards, and I break my promise."

Sleigh was one of more than 2,100 competitors of all ages, representing more than 18 countries, to descend on Boston University's Agganis Arena for the 27th annual CRASH-B sprints. Many stumbled away from their machines post-race like zombies, teetering on the edge of nausea. Others could be found retching in bathrooms.
 
"I'm feeling a little light-headed," acknowledged Dave Bauer, 72, of Denver, after winning the veterans lightweight 70-74 title with a time of 7:28. "It's a great workout."
While the age and gender categories -- 58 in all -- are designed to provide a level playing field, some competitors relished moving up in age categories.
 
"I was the new kid on the block," exclaimed Sleigh, a former UMass-Amherst philosophy professor who rowed during his college years at Dartmouth and still rows outdoors today. "So many of my peers are moaning about being 75. I couldn't wait!"

CRASH-B is an acronym for the Charles River All-Star Has-Beens, an intrepid group of outdoor rowers, many members of the 1976-80 Olympic and national teams, that first started putting on these irreverent competitions more than a quarter century ago at Harvard's Newell Boathouse. The first races featured Concept2's innovative (at that time) Model A rowing ergometers, which featured a bicycle wheel, wooden handle and an odometer.

Since, the event has grown consistently, requiring moves from Newell to several area college locales and finally to BU's Agganis Arena (thanks, no doubt, to the influence of BU crew coach Holly Hatton, who serves on the CRASH-B board). Winners are presented medals and a trophy hammer, a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Tiff Wood, the original CRASH-B commodore.

"That was Tiff's nickname," explained current CRASH-B Commodore Linda Muri. "In rowing, a 'hammer' is someone who is really strong, and rows really hard, but not always with the best technique."

Today's CRASH-B sprints, however, have the best available technology. The Agganis Arena floor was divided into two sections -- warm-up and competition stage -- each with 82 Concept2 Model D ergometer rowers, a sophisticated, high-tech training device. The Concept2 measuring equipment is so precise, in fact, that volunteers had to spray the rubberized Agganis floor with water to prevent static electricity (created by the ice rink under the covering) from interrupting the ergometers' super-sensitive display.

Highlighting the 2008 CRASH-B event was six world-record performances, including four in the veterans (ages 50-and-over) categories. Perhaps the biggest surprise came from 55-year-old Sue (Morgan) Hooten of Granite Bay, Calif., who stunned Anna Bailey of the United Kingdom with a world-record time of 7:23:7.

Hooten, a pediatrician and mother of three, rowed at UC Santa Barbara and was a member of the United States national team in the 1970s, which included a showing at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Two years ago, the rowing itch returned, and Hooten entered the Golden State Indoor Rowing Championships in Sacramento, finishing third in the 2,000 meters.

"I thought I could do better," Hooten said, clearly an understatement in light of her record performance in Boston.

Bailey came into the 2008 CRASH-B sprints holding all eight world records in her age-category -- the 500 meters, 1,000 meters, 2,000 meters, 5,000 meters, 6,000 meters, 10,000 meters, half-marathon (meters) and full marathon (meters). She also lays claim to the world 30-minute and one-hour marks. "I hold every record but one, after today," said Bailey, managing a smile. "I beat my world-record time, but so did Susan."

Still, Bailey was pleased with her effort, which capped a successful return to top-flight competition after sustaining several serious wrist and shoulder injuries.

Bailey represents one of two distinct camps at the CRASH-Bs -- competitors who row almost strictly indoors, on stationary machines. Hooten and Sleigh represent the second camp -- those who row primarily outdoors but use the ERG rowers to supplement their training, especially during the winter months. The competition, says Sleigh, is the key.

"I admire people who can stay fit jut to stay fit," he said. "I couldn't do it without some competition. I need that carrot."

Chris Cooper, a 56-year-old from Oakland, Calif., was competing in the CRASH-B sprints for the first time. An outrigger canoe aficionado, he took up indoor rowing three months prior to the CRASH-B sprints, in part to take advantage of his powerful legs. In Boston, he narrowly pulled off an upset to rival Hooten's, finishing second to Germany's Raimund Schuster, less than a second off Shuster's record time of 6:20.9. "The competition was tougher than I thought," Cooper said. "I was close. I knew I probably had to set a world record, and the guy who won it did.

"It's very hard," said Cooper of indoor rowing, or "ERGing." "It's as difficult mentally as it is physically. Next year we'll find out if I'm willing to pay the price to get to the top."

The opportunity to compete is, clearly, only one of the sport's many benefits. Bauer, a retired aerospace engineer, was a former top-ranked age-group runner who developed sciatic pain as a result of his training regimen. "So I took up rowing, and took it up with a vengeance, at 55," he said. "I have six or seven world championships, and I have no sciatic nerve trouble. So that's the attraction."

Others, like Paul Randall of Elkhart, Ind., see rowing as the perfect foil to Father Time. Randall, at 90, was the oldest competitor in Boston, and went home with his sixth hammer in six attempts. He won a Concept2 Model B machine in the first event he entered, 20 years ago, and has been hooked since. "I feel electric about being involved in this," he said after posting a winning time of 10:03. "It's absolutely thrilling. It's my sport, and I can win."

Despite collecting another hammer, Randall wasn't happy with his time, admitting that he lost close to 30 seconds due to a glitch at the start. "I'm mad that I didn't do my best," he said. "They'll have to invite me back."

Bailey expects to return as well, noting that the camaraderie is a huge draw. "This is a sport where everyone respects what everyone else does," she said. "It doesn't matter if you're a world champion or a first-timer. The effort is the same, and the pain is the same."

Sixty-nine-year old Luanne Milles of Seattle, Wash., winner of the Veteran Lightweight 65-69 category, agreed. Asked what the attraction of the CRASH-B competition is, Milles, representing the Pocock Rowing Club and a member of the U.S. Indoor Rowing team, spoke of the joys of being fit and "the people you meet from all over the world."

Pressed to name the best part of the competition, though, Milles simply laughed and answered: "When you get done."