Feeling quite confident after our last outing before the race, we pushed off from the boathouse after much faffing and bearing in our minds the very last words of our coach Matt to one of his friends cycling past : “I’m sure they’ll get on.”
But, as we rowed to the marshalling point, I started feeling a bit nervous and was eager to do a good nice race to feel more confident in the prospect of the oncoming Bumps. As we were meant to row at the very bottom of the men’s division, we knew we’d wait for quite a long time and enjoyed the Jelly Babies Amy brought to cheer us up. Waiting at the very bottom of the queue for spinning, we took the opportunity to have a look at the men’s crews doing their starts just in front of us. It seemed to last for ages, however, and, as nervousness crept up, we were getting colder and colder, to the point that, when Nadia told us to dekit, we were all very reluctant to do so.
And then, suddenly, after such a long time of marshalling and about an hour later than when we were meant to start our race, off we were for the most consistent race I’ve ever done. After a powerful rolling start, we settled into a nice rhythm that we managed to keep throughout the 2k, thanks to the encouraging shouts coming from the bank and the expectation of Reana’s long-renowned chocolate-chip-peanut-butter cookies awaiting us at the boathouse.
A very solid race after all, punctuated by various calls in the name of our absent coaches, that helped us to get on despite the freezing wind, the long wait, and the splashes of icy water. WELL HARD MECBC AND BRING ON BUMPS NOW!!!
Pauline Pilote – W2 stroke