End of a Season, 2007; and Head of the Charles

The Pioneer Press has this story today about our Masters Women's 4+ that went to Boston to row on the Charles River:

St. Paul / Minnesota rowers win Boston regatta
Pioneer Press Article
Last Updated: 10/22/2007 08:22:59 PM CDT

Richard Chin

They were up against a team that won a silver medal in the Olympics in Barcelona, but it was rowers from the St. Paul-based Minnesota Boat Club who came out on top of the prestigious Head of the Charles rowing regatta last weekend in Boston.

The Minnesota boat - rowers Jacqueline Hamilton, 40, West St. Paul; Michele Bassett, 41, St. Paul; Patti Koehler, 39, St. Paul; Susan Weeks, 46, Hudson, Wis., and coxswain Erika Twedt, 29, St. Paul - took first place in the women's masters four race, in which the rowers have to have an average age of 40 or older.

They beat 22 other boats in the 5-kilometer race, including the 1992 Olympic veterans who took first place last year at the Charles River regatta. The Head of the Charles is the biggest and one of the most prestigious rowing regattas in the world. The Minnesota boat came in second last year.

"We've been gunning for them. We've been training our hearts out," Bassett said.

I'm so very happy for these guys - they worked extremely hard this fall.

And on that note, I'm also excited because after this morning's practice (when the girl in front of me came off the water with frost on her baseball cap - which probably means I had frost on mine, too), our coach announced that today was the last 5:30am practice of the season. It's getting too dark and too cold (see frost comment above), and a couple other reasons. I'm so excited! We only have one more Saturday morning practice, and then I'm done. Back to the erg room for the winter.