Alex Dunne

My team had a really great showing at the Masters Nationals Rowing Championships down in Long Beach, CA last week. The MRA ended up winning the overall points trophy for the regatta, and I medaled in every event I was entered. (Which was payback of sorts — when I rowed at the World Championships two years ago, I got shut out of every event.) My final tally was a bronze, four silver medals, and a gold.

The weather was excellent, and the course was a mile-long strip of sandy beach that was purpose-built for rowing back in 1932 for the Olympics. It was a great spot to race in terms of weather, the beach, the calm wind conditions, parking, etc. We got a write-up in our local paper yesterday here.

What’s more, during breaks in our races we were able to watch the Olympic rowing events, including the eights’ finals, in which the US women took a gold and the US men took a bronze. That was inspirational.

With the conclusion of the summer 1k sprints, we’re now transitioning to 5k and 6k races this Fall. I won’t be making it to the Head of the Charles in Boston, unfortunately, but there are lots of local “head” races…

My rowing team (Marin) is getting ready for the Masters National Championships next week in Long Beach, CA. Hopefully we’ll do well; the competition should be fierce. I could be in up to 10 races over four days, which will be an endurance test. (Frankly I wanted to focus on just a few races, not this many, but our coach likes to go for the overall point trophy, which means entering as many events as possible and hoping for the best.)

On a different subject, here’s a vid (I just received) of the boat I was in that won the San Diego Crew Classic back in April. I’m the guy in the bow, black visor. We had a hell of a race!