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| Mairead Manke Biology Major Senior Varisity 4+ |
Tell me, how did you get into rowing?
Oh lordy, okay so it was the second day of school and I was still getting acquainted with everything and went down the hall to hang out with some friends my roommate had met. Later on, one of them said they were leaving to go to a meeting and I said I would go with her. It turned out to be the rowing meeting for the novices and Jamie and Adrian were there and they just talked about it and I just kind of put my email down and started coming to practice...and I never quit. I must have a real sadistic personality but it was good, it helped me meet a lot of my friends and create new outlets in college.
What was it like when you first got in a boat?
Well it was an old pocock and it had these clog shoes and I was thinking, "Good god this is gross, I hope we don't go in. I don't know what I'm doing" pretty much. I remember the first couple practices we didn't even get off the dock, we just sat in the boat and hung out on the docks because that was al we could do.
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Well I have a really competitive sports personality. I'm not competitive with board games and that stuff but with sports it's like I have to good and something and then I stick with it. Rowing was really different from any of the other sports I had played before, I was previously involved in hockey and softball which are more of contact sports and require certain skill sets. While rowing on the other hand is kind of like a free for all, you can be anybody and you can figure it out. It was really cool being able to adapt and be good at a spot that I had just started, I wouldn't have been able to do that with any other sport.
Why did you decide to be a rower instead of a coxswain?
(For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting Mairead, she stands just over 5'4" and is a lightweight)
As soon as a I learned what a coxswain was and what they did, I made sure to not become one. It's not that they sit back and don't do anything but they sit back and they steer and I'm not about that. I have to be in the action, so there was no way that was happening.
Just briefly describe the journey of going from sitting on a dock because that was all you could do, to racing down the finals at NCAA all in one year.
Well freshman year in particular was torturous, it was the hardest physical exertion period of time in my entire life. I've never been more exhausted and sore. And we had sort of a smaller team way back when and there were only 13 or 14 of us that were even eligible to row. I was able to squeak my way into the four and I remember at the time we had really competitive eight and a freshman four and we made it work. We got to go to NCAAs so we didn't mess it up that bad and Kristine and Leyla who were also in the four are still hanging around.
Sitting here now, what is it like on your way to your last NCAAs?
Ugh, well it's really exciting because the group of people we are going with are an exceptional group of people. They are really good at rowing first and foremost, and we always talk about team chemistry and how it's really important for speed in the boats and this year it seems like we seem to be clicking even though we're all from different corners of the world. And then, Sacramento. I mean come on it's going to be really fun and I think it's going to be a really good course since Indianapolis was always windy and was had to get a good row in at times so I think this course will be a really good test of our true speed.
And how have you had to adapt by being tinier than everyone else?
Oh sweet mama jamba, well... I have to try and eat more than I want to because caloric intake is really important for me to maintain the little weight that I have and we have a really rigorous training so it's hard to keep that weight on. I know that I'm never going to be big though, so instead of worrying about it I just know that I have to be the best the way that I am. I've been trying to optimize my length, that's been a huge thing I've been working on the past three and a half years and I think I've finally gotten to a point where it's really good. So with that it doesn't matter that my legs are rally short because I row the same length and the fact that I weight 20-30 pounds less than people is just an advantage for me because I don't bog anything down.
Would you say that rowing has changed you in any way?
Yeah, I thought I knew what blisters were before I started rowing and now I really know what blisters are. But yeah, it's taught me a lot about my mental limitations and being able to get past them. It's taught me about my physical limitations and how to exceed them through training. It's also taught me incredible things about her people and how to deal with the differences between you and how to incorporate different personalities into a competitive situations. I would say it's brought primarily positive things, aside from the sore butt and hurting hamstrings.
Last question, you know that's all going online right?
You're not going to transcribe everything... Oh that's awful, this is just twelve minutes of shenanigans.
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| Mairead and Taylor showing that Women's V8+ beat Barry by 2 seconds in the heats at Knecht Cup |
A big thanks to Mairead for letting me interview you, and for making me laugh multiple times throughout it!
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