Women's Rowing Diary - Kate Brewster-Duffy
3/22/2005 7:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
March 22, 2005
The definition of Armageddon according to Webster's dictionary is, "the site or time of a final and conclusive battle between the forces of good and evil, a usually vast decisive conflict or confrontation." In the lives of the Bucknell women's rowing team the good is the rower and the evil the ergometer. On the morning of Sunday, Feb. 27, my teammates and I gathered with other rowers from the surrounding colleges and universities in Davis Gym to face the most painful 2000 meters of our lives, the Erg Armageddon. The morning was nerve wracking, scary, and exciting. The months of indoor training culminated with this event. It was a chance to prove to my coaches, my teammates, and most importantly to myself that I had worked as hard as I could all winter long. I had to show that I could push myself beyond what I thought was physically possible.
To give you a visual image of the "battle field" let me take a moment to describe the set up of Davis Gym. On the front wall there is a large screen projecting a digital race course and each erg is represented by a yellow boat. As the rowers row the yellow boat will jump along the screen to simulate a 2,000-meter race. A few meters in front of the screen are the 10 ergs looking innocent enough, but evil has many faces right? These ergs are chained off from the spectators; the only person allowed near the rowers' erg is a coxswain. The coxswains can be a vital part of the rowers' ability to stay mentally tough and power through the moment of pain that most athletes refer to as "the wall." The wall is the point of pain when an athlete loses feeling in limbs, loses the mental capacity to comprehend anything other than the task at hand, and completely devotes him or herself to the race. When you hit the wall you know your doing it right. Hitting the wall is anticipated by the coaching staff who have conveniently placed biohazard bucket directly behind the erg. They are a daunting sight. As a novice rower my first thought was `Am I going to open up my body so much that I expel biohazard?' Revoltingly enough the answer is yes. As you can tell, Davis Gym was a room set up to be filled with all forms of emotion.
Uncertainty, anticipation, and hope engulfed my mind in the hours leading up to the race, but just before my race I got into a zone. It was a zone where all the anxiousness floated away and I was able to concentrate on the task at hand. My first indoor rowing competition is an experience I will never forget. I achieved my goal of a 1:55 split or better. And even more exciting is the fact that my teammate Ariel and I came in first and second, respectively. An outsider may see Erg Armageddon as voluntary torture, pain no one should experience, and a day of metal anguish, which in a way it is. But to the rowers it is a day to conquer. From uncertainty and anticipation came belief in myself and an achievement that gave me love for a newfound sport.
-Kate Brewster-Duffy `08