Julie Phair, a longtime Bonita resident, won the SoCal Regional Erg Rowing Championship Feb. 3 in Long Beach, which qualiyies her to compete in the world championships Feb. 16-17 in Alexandria, Va.
Competing against seven women rowers, Phair, 60, won the masters race despite many of the other women in the 40-64 age bracket race being much younger.
Phair was a cross country and track and field coach at Bonita Vista High School along with her husband Jeff.
Although new to rowing, competing at a high level in sports is not new to her. Phair was an all-ClF runner in track at Hilltop High School. She has frequently been a Masters division winner in running races at distances from 5K to the marathon.
In 2015, the eight-person Phair Family relay team completed the 24-hour, 168-mile Rogue River Run over the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, finishing 14th out of more than 100 teams.
In 2013, she won the Western States Challenge the Mountain Quadrathlon in Big Bear. The event consisted of a three-mile snowshoe run, a six-mile canoe race, a 25-mile bike leg, and a six-mile mountain run.
“Julie not only won the women’s Masters division (50 and over), she won the women’s open division as well,” Jeff Phair said. “The next three finishers were all under the age of 30.”
“I started rowing two years ago because of the wear and tear on my knees from over 60,000 miles of running over the past 45 years,” Julie Phair said.
“I joined the 100-year-old ZLAC women’s rowing club in Mission Bay. We start at 5 a.m. in the dark, wearing head1amps. Each morning I get to see the sunrise over the water. The boats are often joined by dolphins and sea lions that swim beside us. It is beautiful way to start the day.”
“To qualify for the world championships after only two years of rowing is quite remarkable,”
Jeff Phair said. “Many rowers try for five, 10, or 15 years to qualify in their age group”.
An estimated 2,500 rowers (men and women) from around the world will be competing in the World Erg Rowing Championships.
