RECENT NEWS

We have had a wonderful time having Paige from Rowsbeforehoes as our guest blogger for the past couple of weeks. We wish all the best to her and her crew as they continue their rowing journey. In her last installment she has written and sung with the help of her friend Ariel McDonnell parody of “I Can’t Stand It” by Never Shout Never. There is a link to the original song at the end of this post but we think you will probably want to keep hitting the “replay” button on this version instead!

Take it away Paige!

This song is sung by real rowers, and written by a rower.

The pictures were sent in by rowers, and I hope this conveys the spirit of rowing! :)

PS: Since it's sung by rowers, and we're not exactly Broadway stars the vocals can be a little rough. Please be nice!

Writer: Anna Paige Padilla

Vocals: Ariel McDonnell and Anna Paige Padilla

I hope you like it. Thank you so much for everything!

Paige Padilla

Lyrics:

Rowing I love you

I just want my 2k low

The more I erg it out

The more that I just want to row

Cuz everything I do

Is super duper Crew

And I can’t stop it

I’ve been searching for

A sport that’s just like crew

I wanna row–my resolute

Rowing I love you

I just want my 2k low

The more I erg it out

The more that I just want to row

Cuz everything I do

Is super duper Crew

And I can’t stop it

Let’s buy a new boat

And row away

Into the ocean blue

Then they’ll all know

That we love crew,-ew

Rowing I love you

I just want my 2k low

The more I erg it out

The more that I just want to row

Cuz everything I do

Is super duper Crew

And I can’t stop it

And Crew-ew 

You’ve got me where I want me

Cuz I’ll do-ew anything to improve

Just to make it through

The next erg pause test

crew-ew, I saw you cross the lake and I knew-ew

That I was gonna row

And that’s something—wonderful-ul-ul

Crew’s wonderful

Rowing I love you

I just want my 2k low

The more I erg it out

The more that I just want to row

Cuz everything I do

Is super duper Crew

And I can’t stop it

Click here for the original tune.

Paige is back with a great video montage of her and the Dallas United Crew (formerly Highland Park Crew) adventures at the Head of the Hooch last fall. And it was an adventure! Just ask her about her silver medal.

Out of the airplane window I saw the blinking white light of a wing tip. The light flashed at a steady 32 strokes per minute. Oh wow. I was definitely still in Regatta mode. I took a deep breath and heard the hum of voices in the plane. My 79 teammates. My family.

My hand clutched the silver medal I wore around my neck. I hadn’t taken it off since my coach placed it around my neck. Well, minus the walk through airport security. Apparently my medal could be a “bomb threat,” so I had to take it off and put it in one of the little buckets. Out of my entire team’s history only two novice boats had ever placed at Head of the Hooch. I had been part of the boat. I swelled with pride.

The man next me asked, “What’s the medal for?”

“Second out of twenty-four boats.”

“How fast did you go?”

“18:45, I think. 5000 meters.”

“How many in your boat?”

“Eight.”

He chuckled. “Not bad for girls.”

That I laughed at. If only he knew.

“It was actually a mixed boat. Four men and four women.”

“Ah.”

“We had a headwind.” I added, unnecessarily.

As I thought about the weekend, it seemed to have elapsed over a year’s time. I was more tired than I could remember being in a long long time. Out of my entire team, I had raced more than anyone, but I was not complaining at all. I counted myself lucky.

I touched the medal around my neck again, smiling a little, but it was tinged with sadness.

 The race I had medaled in would be my last novice race ever. However, it wasn’t just that. It had been a long year.

I was given a varsity seat after two months, lost my novice year, lost my coach, switched teams, earned a seat in the 1^st V4+, then lost it again, been made a novice again (well half a novice because I was racing Varsity too), and on top of all that, somehow managed to run a blog about Rowing, and gone to school. The metal signified everything I had been through, everything I had worked for.

Yes. This was the end of my novice career…

But it was the start of the rest of my rowing career… and I couldn’t be more proud.

The first race of the day is a bit like getting off the ski lift for the first time all season. You might have done it a million times and yet you are still suddenly overcome with the fear that you have forgotten everything.

As I rowed up my 8+ to the start of Pumpkinhead, I started to run through my checklist. My oar? Obviously. My Resolute? Solid. My uni? Well, I was not naked so I assumed I had gotten it on. My sunscreen? Ah, I had "forgotten" to put it on. My confidence? That was building with every stroke. After 11 months of a mixture of novice and varsity (narsity for short) I had yet to win a medal. 30 races and a new team later, there I was rowing my first ever novice 8+. (Up until then I had only rowed varsity 8's.) A million things ran through my mind on the way up to the start. The competition, the scenery, the race plan, my grumbling stomach…

Then my coxswain called a power 10 and my mind focused on nothing but the stroke. It seemed like a blink of an eye, and as quick as the start came, my 5000 meters were over.

I gasped for air, exhausted. I didn't know it then but I had just won my first medal.

A silver pumpkin shaped one, at that.

In her second installment Paige from Roesbeforehoes talks about making the Varsity seat.

The Resolute Team is excited to have our very first guest blogger for our Recent News blog. Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks for her insights into the rowing world. So without further adieu: welcome Paige.

Hello tumblr and the world-wide rowing community! My name is Anna Paige Padilla, though please call me Paige, and I run the blog Rowsbeforehoes. Currently, I row for Highland Park Crew in Dallas, Texas, though last year I rowed for White Rock Boathouse Juniors. Since most people ask my stats the second they  find out I’m a rower here they are: I’m 5’ 4” and my 2k PR is a 7:56.2.

As for my team - Highland Park Crew was founded in 2002 by a handful of students interested in rowing. Now, ten years later, we have grown to a program 79 strong. It’s kind of crazy switching teams, but I must say I entered a family. I also picked an opportune time to make the switch because my team has some big plans for the immediate future, one of which is our name change to Dallas United Crew! We are all very excited to see what the future holds for this team, and hopefully we’ll qualify as many boats as we can for Nationals!

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I’m here to tell you what exactly I’ll be doing on this blog! All last season I’ve compiled videos, slide shows, and text posts about my fabulous team and the Resolute Racing shells we compete in. I hope you all enjoy watching and reading them, as much as I enjoyed making them.

Rowing has changed my life in so many ways, and I can’t believe that I’ve only been doing it for two seasons! I am not sure who I would be, or what my life would be like without it.