On this very breezy Saturday morning, W1 arrived at the boathouse determined to show they had earned their seat in this newly formed crew by the sweat of their brow, and could flex their muscles!
After a quick warm-up, we got down to the flooded bank to take Octopussy out, quickly boated and pushed out. Chesterton Footbridge’s traffic lights were soon upon us, and with them, the usual mess, made even crazier by the horrendously fast-flowing waters of the Cam. After marshalling for a bit at the P&E, we were off again. Ying was now cycling alongside, filming (as always) and ensuring we stayed focused on power and technique. Two good practise starts later, we reached the Motorway Bridge, starting line of this soon to start race.
Under Christina’s instructions, we rowed our way through a very chaotic lock, where boats were all over the place, trying to spin and marshall. We finally parked ourselves, giving Ying yet another occasion to take very flattering pictures of the crew… As the minutes went by, we all got into a very focused mindset; we knew from the row up the race was going to be long and difficult.
Before long, we were off. As we started racing, the gusty wind, and insane stream, combined with a reluctant cox box, displaying a taunting rate 0, made it hard to tell whether the boat was rating as planned. However, as Christina called for the first power ten on the legs, we could feel the boat moving faster, in slighlty more sheltered conditions, and were keeping up with Jesus W1. After an intense big Grassy Corner for bow side, with Christina’s calls for power, and Ying encouragments, the crew went for a decent push past the Plough. Getting around Ditton corner, one for stroke side, marked the heaviest moment of the race, as we were entering a even more windy reach. Back into a straight stretch of river, we all knew the race was coming to its end, and lifted the boat towards the Railway Bridge. With a final call to empty the tanks from Christina, echoed by some raging sounds coming from the middle of the boat, we sprinted our way to the finish line. The whistle was blown, we winded it down. With a time of 12:10:17 minutes, we placed joint fourth with Jesus, behind FaT, Emmanuel, and Clare, which is a rather encouraging result showing our potential as a crew.
On the technical row back, Christina reminded us of Reana’s amazing race baking awaiting us at the boathouse… What better way to motivate a bunch of tired rowers!
Laurane (W1)