Have oar, will travel: Alexander rows to titles

Published 11:53 am Monday, March 3, 2008

RICHMOND BEACH

The walls of Rachel Alexander’s insurance agency office are splashed with images of her, oar in hand, pursuing her life’s passion.

Alexander, 48, has rowed for 30 years and she’s traveled around the country and abroad, collecting countless medals and memories along the way.

In September, the Shoreline resident won six gold medals at the World Masters Rowing Championships in Princeton, N.J. She also won six golds at the U.S. Masters Nationals at Green Lake in August.

Alexander competes in pairs, fours and eights with friend B.J. Connolly, 53, of Sammamish.

In the past decade, Alexander and Connolly have won more than 40 national U.S. rowing titles.

“You just do it because you love it,” Alexander said. “If you do well, you do well, and we do well a lot.”

For Alexander, a native of Indiana, her love affair with rowing began when she came west to attend college at Seattle Pacific University in 1977.

Alexander joined the fledgling Falcons team as a freshman and by her senior year in 1981, the Falcons’ four-person boat finished third in the NCAA women’s nationals.

Alexander drew attention from that showing and she subsequently made the pre-elite U.S. National Team. She competed in a two-person boat as a member of the U.S. National Team at the World Championships in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1982.

Alexander, who stands 5-foot-10, considered trying out for the 1984 Olympic team but many of the rowers who sat out the 1980 Olympics because of the U.S. boycott ended up taking those spots.

Alexander put down the oars for more than 10 years and focused instead on running and cycling.

“The biggest challenge for me was in 1983 to not continue trying to train and make the U.S. team,” Alexander said. “That was really tough for me. That’s why I took a break from rowing. I love the sport so much and it wasn’t going to be, for me.”

In 1996, Alexander started seriously competing in master’s rowing events. Masters rowing is for rowers age 26 and older.

Alexander and Connolly got to know each other in 1997 as members of the Lake Washington Rowing Club. Connolly’s pair partner had to quit because she was pregnant and Alexander stepped in. They’ve been racing ever since.

“It’s pretty rare in rowing to get a pair partner or doubles partner where everything just clicks into place,” Connolly said, noting that they’ve never had an argument in 10 years. “She’s like the sister I never had.”

Alexander also competes in four-woman and eight-woman boats as well as mixed-fours and mixed-eights (four men, four women).

Some of her teammates are from the Seattle area, while others hail from Long Beach, Calif., and Dresden, Germany.

Alexander and Connolly met their two German teammates in 1997 and started competing with them at the Nike World Masters Games in 1998 in Vancouver, Wash. The Germans, who learned how to row while living in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany), don’t train with Alexander and Connolly, they only compete with them. But the foursome has never lost a race.

One of the most thrilling victories for Alexander and Connolly was a race in Hamburg, Germany, in 2003. They teamed up with their German teammates and four others from Berlin to beat an English team the Germans hadn’t defeated in 12 years.

Alexander and Connolly couldn’t understand the coxswain (the person who faces the rowers at the head of the boat and barks instructions) since he was speaking German. So they just put their heads down and rowed.

“The boat just clicked for whatever reason,” Connolly said. “We didn’t even know about this rivalry with these two crews. It was just fun to share this race with them.”

Rowing is one of the fastest- growing sports in the country, especially among women. Top high- school girl rowers can earn college scholarships. The growth is among all age groups and includes many with no experience, Alexander said.

Young women rowers often tell Alexander and Connolly they are an inspiration because they compete at such a high level for their age, Connolly said.

“The level of rowing in masters rowing has gone through the roof,” Alexander said.

The bible of the sport, The Rowing News, even featured a photo of Alexander at a U.S. Nationals regatta on its cover in 2000.

Alexander, who lives in Shoreline with her husband, Arthur, has run a State Farm Insurance Agency in Richmond Beach for 17 years. She majored in psychology with the hope of becoming a sports psychologist but eventually turned to selling insurance.

Rowing is an oasis, a break from work and family.

“I love being on the water,” Alexander said. “There’s nothing like being that connected to nature. There’s a lot of beautiful mornings before the world wakes up.”

Plus, Alexander said, “it keeps me really healthy and fit.”

Alexander and Connolly started their own rowing club, Watercat Rowing Club, in 2004. The club isn’t housed in a physical space, it exists only on paper. Alexander and Connolly invited some of their rower friends to join and the club numbers about 35 right now. The club includes members from around the world and fields boats in various regattas.

“I’m thankful every day when I’m out there,” Alexander said. “It gives me back more than I can verbalize in many different ways.”