Emma Jones, Stroke
Pushing off from the boat house for the first race of the year, and our first as a crew together, none of us were sure of what sort of result we could expect. We didn’t know what competition we were facing, nor did we even know what it would feel like to do a racing piece the length of the course (2.6km) in our new crew. With last year’s success to live up to however, we all wanted a victory, and we had a focused row up to the start as we prepared to do our best for the race. Being the second boat to arrive at the marshalling station, we had plenty of time to think about the race ahead while enjoying the sunshine. After Mark’s final pre-race chat, and Georgie’s attempts to get our focus in the boat, we began the paddle up to the starting line. On the call from Georgie, we began our wind strokes to bring our rate up to race pace as we passed under the motorway bridge where the course began, and we were off. We settled into a fairly solid rhythm and managed to keep the power up for the length of the race, doing a particularly effective rhythm change and push for ten coming onto the reach. Eleven minutes, twenty two seconds later we crossed the finish line, exhausted, but very happy with our row. When the results were published later in the afternoon, we were delighted to see that our efforts had paid off and that we had won the college W1 category! TANKARDS!! A great start to the new year for MECBC.