Head of the Charles 2009
You can tell that something funky is going on with the weather these days when it is beautiful and sunny, but 40 to 50 degrees on a Saturday and snowing, raining, and sleeting and 30-40 degrees the next day. I am not sure if any of you live in the Boston area, but Sunday’s weather was a little out of the ordinary. For instance, it was 42 degrees F, but it was snowing snowflakes the size of golf balls. However, even though it was snowing, it also was raining–the two forms of precipitation could be distinguished clearly from each other, and they definitely were happening at the same time. Sometimes it would rain, sometimes it would snow, and other times it would be a complete mixture.
In any case, the Head of the Charles still continued on. Even though a winter wonderland mixture was falling from the sky or a torrential downpour was occurring, the races still went on as a planned. I am not sure of the actual head count this year in terms of viewers, but from working in the sales tent, we definitely noticed that the weather was not drawing in a crowd at this year’s Head of the Charles. However, the dedicated fans were still there and ready to take on the New England weather, and the race was a success as always.
Wondering about some of the highlights? Well, one special moment was when a 60 year old, Jim Dietz, won the 60+ singles race to take his 11th singles title. It was also his 21st or 22nd Charles win since he started rowing this race in 1965. In the collegiate world on the men’s side, Cal’s 8 was able to take the top honors, a mere 0.2 seconds ahead of Washington. For the women’s 8s, Yale took top honors (and 2nd place overall), followed by Washington, Princeton, Virginia, and Brown. While Washington was 16 seconds behind Yale, the rest of the schools were all within a second and a half of each other.
Even though the rain was able to draw some people away from the races, the event was a great success! It just goes to show that the weather is crazy in New England and that you always should be prepared!
