The GAR Masters hadn’t rowed in the Sunshine State Games since 2004. On Saturday we returned with a ten member team and had a good day of racing. Of eight GAR boats that started, six medaled and the other two placed 4th. Brian won the Men’s LW 1X and placed second in the Men’s Masters 1X. The Women’s Masters 2X was third overall and first in their age division. The men’s quad placed 3rd in the Open 4X and then turned around and finished 2nd on the Masters 4X (and rowed 24 seconds faster). The men’s quad should have a new t-shirt that says “Row Tired”. The most memorable race for our team was the Women’s Masters 4X. Our quad rowed to a convincing 28.6 second win. The mixed 8+, sporting a borrowed cox’n, rowed hard and kept itself in the race all the way, finishing 4th (The official time couldn’t be right. It was a lot closer than that).

Thank you to Coach Justin for taking the time, on top of preparations for Nationals, to do our lineups, ride herd on the registrations and keep tabs on us from afar. Coach Clay, you did a masterful job of procuring, adapting and providing for all of our last second and unexpected needs. No one will argue the fact that you’re very handy to have around on and around race day. Between the last minute replacement of the wiring in Gungnir, de-rigging, towing and the rest, you gave us a lot of your time and effort and we really appreciate it.

Overall we demonstrated, once again, we are a team and there really is no team I’d rather row with. Great job GAR!