Michaelmas is a hectic term on the Cam. Seniors and novices of MECBC fight for river space in the attempt to test their stamina in longer pieces, to perform in the landmarks that are Winter and Autumn Head, and to push towards the ultimate goal of winning Fairbairns.
Unlike on novice race day, there was little wind to hinder our efforts – a good sign for all involved. We focused our thoughts on the race ahead and Chloe (our cox for the day) coxed us through our short row up to Jesus Lock, where we spun and pulled in just past the Fort. Coach Mark was not the only one to offer a motivational speech; for the first time in recent MECBC history, W1 were greeted by the President of our College, Dame Barbara Stocking, who kindly volunteered to join our bank party for the first part of the race.
Chasing Jesus Women’s VIII, our start sequence of seven drives and a power ten took us thundering past their boat house. Our start was hard and fast and before we knew it Chloe called for a push off Chesterton footbridge to bring us closer to the P&E.
After the railway bridge, the crew were moving together but it was becoming apparent that we were all a little tired. With so much of the race still left, we needed a pick up to refocus our attention. A ‘push for Georgie’, who was supporting us from the Plough, made us give another surge of power.
On our way to the motorway bridge shouts from the bank informed us that we were making ground on Jesus but the length of the race was certainly taking its toll. Chloe called for a string of power tens and we gave everything we had left to the finish line.
Clocked at 17:32.3 mins, we were placed joint third with Queen’s behind FaT and Downing. Unfortunately, this was not quite the result we had been looking for, but one to be proud of nevertheless. The row back to the boathouse allowed us to reflect on our experiences as a crew and get excited about Fairbairn’s dinner!
Finally, no race report would be complete without a shout out to ‘New Hall Men’s’ IV’, who were sporting some surprisingly stretchy MECBC lycra and coming second out of all Men’s invitational IVs with a time of 12:51.2 mins.
Rowanne Willet, W1