How can I figure out distance in a race? I have trouble figuring out how much is 500 meters, half way and so on. I have a sprint race coming up and I want to have a race plan and do a power ten at half way but how will I know where that it? Is there a sign?
There are typically large buoys that mark the 500m, 1000m, and 1500m marks along the course. The last 100-250m, depending on the course, are also usually all small, red buoys. Even if courses aren’t divided by buoyed lanes they should still have at the very least buoys marking each 500m.
Determining distances was always tricky for me too but I got creative and taught myself how to recognize 50m, 100m, 250m, 500m, etc., which is basically what you have to do. I got a map of the river and plotted out how far certain things were from each other (usually notable landmarks, like the distance from a bridge to the boathouse or this really obvious tree to the marina) and then forced myself to pay attention to how long it took us to go from Point A to Point B when we’d row past those landmarks. By getting a feel for what the distance looked and felt like, I was better able to guesstimate those same distances during races or pieces. It took a lot of time (at least a year or so) before I was really comfortable with it but it was worth it.
