With the crew mood somewhere between nervously excited and terrified, the galactic unit known as W3 assembled at the boathouse for what was (for everyone except for lovely stand-in cox Ola) their first ever bumps. Despite having collectively trawled through hours of YouTube footage, we all weren’t entirely sure of what to expect, or crucially exactly how many bananas it was necessary to digest pre-race. Erring on the safe side, we loaded up Gretel with all the bananas we had, and set off to our marshalling point. We rowed confidently down, with only one minor disaster in the loss of one baby banana to the cruel Cam. Rest in peace little soul. We then paddled nicely up to our starting point, where we were welcomed by a very distressed dog, whose whines and screeches interfered somewhat with our attempts at a collective boat aura of calm. However, the poor beast did provide something tangible to push away from (in addition to Kings W2) so with this glass half full attitude we settled down and waited for the cannon, which coach Mark called expertly. The next four minutes flew past and finally it was time to go.
The cannon signalled blast off and it was launch time. While our start was solid, it was soon clear that Kings W2 had got off to a flying start and were almost upon us. Yet the valiant W3 spirit kicked in both metaphorically and literally, and with Ola’s calls for a second start sequence and more pressure on the footplates, we were able to hold them off…until they finally managed to catch us.
As first bumps races go, we conceded that while we wouldn’t be accessorising with foliage this time, we had done ourselves proud and we saluted Kings as worthy opponents. We rowed back content in the knowledge that our crew grit and determination were still strong and intact- and this positive mood was boosted further by the news that Richard had finally managed to capture his dream selfie shot (#woowoo) reminding us that anything is possible if you just believe and persevere. With that in mind, we are now looking forward to the next few days of racing…we’ve got the guts, we’ve got the grit and most importantly we’ve got the bananas to go out and do our boatclub proud. Bring it on.
We’d like to thank the amazing Ola and the equally amazing Emma H for subbing in for our cox and 3 respectively- we’re all really grateful you came aboard.
Nina Jones, 5, w3