The Psychology of the Great Texas 300
By Mike Rohrer 6/2012
The Great Texas 300 is a huge event and takes tremendous
preparation to sail/race 300 miles on the open ocean in a small open craft. Teams are often working out details months in
advance and preparing for months prior.
Have you ever wondered what the competitors are thinking and feeling
about this race? If you have ever raced,
you may have experienced the adrenaline that happens during the starts at
regattas and a little of the angst while setting up on the beach especially if
the conditions are extreme. This is just
a small sense of the feelings and thoughts that you experience prior to and
during the Great Texas. There is an
interesting psychology about this race that I have come familiar with after
having done this so many times. What
motivates a person to spend 4 days on an 18 foot catamaran on the open
ocean? How do you
stay focused and complete all the preparations? How do you deal with the fear and
butterflies? What is
it like to blast through the surf knowing you will not be returning to that
beach? How do
your feelings and thoughts change throughout the race? What is it like to finish the 300 miles? I will explore these questions and more.
Motivation
What motivates individuals to give up a week of vacation and
family time to place themselves in potentially dangerous situations on the open
ocean in an 18 foot catamaran? Any
extreme sportsman will likely give you a similar answer. Overall, it’s the adventure. Each year it’s the same beach, but a
different adventure. Yes we all love sailing
and going fast downwind and the beach scene, but there is a real sense of
adventure whenever you place yourself in remote locations with only your skill
and preparation to carry you to your destination. Men need adventure. The bigger the adventure, the bigger the
sense of accomplishment you can experience.
The GT300 is a great way to have an adventure doing something that is so
fun and that we love to do.
Focus
How do you stay focused and complete all the preparations
over months of anticipation? I think
this comes with the experience of failure.
If you don’t prepare, you often times suffer the consequences. This can come in many forms including, boat
breakdowns, subpar equipment, poor performance, physical ailments, an unhappy
boat, and further difficulty. All these
things can make the experience less fun and more laborious. If you want to do your best and enjoy the
adventure to the fullest, preparation is the biggest thing you can do to place
yourself in position to succeed. Also,
when you are prepared you often are more able to relax knowing you have done
everything you know to do.
Butterflies
Weeks prior to the event our bodies are already undergoing
physical changes. Part of this is driven
by fear or worry which can also be categorized as stress. We know what can happen. We hope for great weather, but we could be in
situations none of us would otherwise willingly place ourselves in. How do we deal with it? I often feel the stress building as I worry
that I will not finish all my preparations.
If I complete my task lists, this subsides. Unfortunately, the list has a way of growing
faster than I can sometimes cope with especially since we are racing hard in
the spring. If you can be finished with
boat stuff a couple of weeks out, then it makes a huge difference. A day or two before the race, the real butterflies
start. It’s the feeling in your stomach
that reminds you that your about to do something difficult. You start finding it hard to eat. The doubts and fears begin to attack. You must remind yourself you can do it, you
have done it before, it’s going to be fine.
You have to eat more frequently and just eat smaller meals or
snacks. Most of us have learned the
foods and the methods to combat this. If
you don’t eat properly, you can run out of steam and it will affect your
performance. We even take special foods
along with us to be sure we maintain proper energy levels. It’s really important to stay ahead of this. Once the race starts this generally gets much
easier. I have found sailing the day
before the race really helps to help manage the butterflies and the next
morning you already feel like you are in a routine. I can also tell you if you are not rushing to
the start, it’s better also. This year
we made sure the boat was completely ready the practice day and packed for the
race leaving much less for us to deal with.
We also started earlier each morning to leave time for Murphy and we
found ourselves with plenty of time and consequently much less stress.
Adrenaline
What is it like to Lemans start and blast through the surf
knowing you will not be returning to that beach? It’s a huge adrenaline rush. Minutes before the gun goes off, your heart
rate has already increases and so does your breathing. You keep looking at the waves convincing
yourself, you will get out without mishap.
Of course the amount of convincing is proportional to the size of the
waves and wind condition. Your body is
responding to get you ready for the push and sprint through the surf. If often times take significant energy and
skill to get through the surf. The
skipper usually has both hands busy with the rudder and the mainsheet. So you have to hang on with your feet and
legs each time a wave hits. The crew is
calling waves, getting boards down, and adjusting the settings. If you don’t keep your wits, it can get
ugly. We all know the consequences of
screwing up can mean a broken boat parts and the potential end of the race. There is a huge feeling of elation when you
exit the surf cleanly and turn north especially if you look back and see other
boats still struggling to get out of the surf.
Often you can ride the adrenaline for hours after the start.
The thought process
How do your feelings and thoughts change throughout the
race? The first two legs are long and
can be punishing. You must move around
to prevent cramping and limbs going numb and your neck locking on you. It can be a great sail, but it can also be
physically punishing. Often, the last
two hours you just want to be done. You
often question your sanity and why you are out there. I have a saying on the first day “It’s not
fun until it’s done.” For me the fun
really starts when I hit the beach the first day. By then you have erased the doubts and
settled the butterflies. Now you are
really in the groove and can enjoy having just completed the longest and many
times toughest leg. The second day is
long, but usually a reach and fast. Then
you know it just gets easier and more fun normally. You start to relax and think more about your
strategies and the details of the race.
Difficulties of the race begin to be overshadowed by the adventure and
the fun. By the last leg you are wishing
there was more.
The Finish Line
Each day it is so cool to run up on the beach and
finish. There is usually plenty of
cheering and congratulations. Then you
can enjoy the accomplishment, eat, and drink without the salt water spraying in
your face. It can be just as challenging
to beach the boat as to launch it. It
takes good judgment to pick the right gybe angle and approach. Even so you have to make corrections to line
up the finish line. You have to pay
careful attention to the braking waves to not get caught sideways or driven
straight in. All the while your crew
gives you instructions on where the flags are while rapidly getting the boards
up and secured many times while flying the kite. Done right you generally hit the beach with a
good head of steam and the boat well under control and the boat does a nice
little pivot on the beach. Done wrong,
well you can feel pretty stupid and spend time swimming or dragging the boat
back to the line. On the final day, it
is usually really cool because you may have family there and you certainly have
a larger crowd cheering. The final day
is usually short, but it’s the culmination of 4 days of racing. When you hit the beach you realize the
accomplishment of completing another Great Texas 300. Many times you check and monitor the time
because minutes and even seconds can count even on the final day in your
overall placement. I personally have won
and lost this event by seconds in the past when there has been over 20 hours of
elapsed sailing time. It’s hard to do
anything but celebrate and congratulate each of the teams finishing. It’s a great feeling. It’s the Great Texas 300.
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