Feeling motivated and raring to go after our crew dinner the night before, we arrived to the boathouse ready to push away from Tit Hall and to go and bump Christs. We had decided to take the ‘fly or die’ approach, knowing that unless we caught Christ’s very early on, Tit Hall would likely bump us. Mark cautioned us to make sure that this ‘fly or die’ approach would only work if we rowed efficiently. With this in mind, we pushed off and headed towards the P&E for marshalling.
As we were preparing to race, the excitement and nerves were palpable in the boat. Everyone knew we would have to get Christs as quickly as we could. As we got pushed off, we were reminded to keep the rhythm strong and to keep our rowing efficient and strong. With the cannon going off, we set off very quickly, initially gaining on Christ’s and getting a whistle. Unfortunately, the excitement soon got the better of us, and despite all our efforts, as Tit Hall came ever closer our rhythm got rushier and rushier.
Just before First Post Corner Tit Hall bumped us, and we tucked in, a bit disappointed, both that we had failed to bump Christs and that our rowing hadn’t been as good as it was the previous day. We left the boathouse determined to make the race on Saturday some of our best, most efficient rowing yet, as it would be our final time rowing together as a crew.
Giulia Bollen Gandolfo, 2