Author: Henrike Schulte To Buehne

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Winter Head 2013 Ariel Race Report

Having been on the Cam since 10am, we waited until 11:40am to push off. We warmed up rowing up to the start line and set into a nice rhythm, nervously wondering how our first race, as a novice crew, would go.
Four minutes into the race, after building up our strokes, and after pushing a strong 10 power strokes, we started catching up with the boat in front of us. After overtaking, we realized we had actually gone past two boats! No words can express the amount of adrenaline and emotions filling us, although we still had more than half of the race to go. When Owen passed under the last bridge all we had to do is keep our rhythm and push it to the finish line.
It took us 12:08min, and more than 360 strokes. 360 opportunities to catch a ‘crab’, 360 opportunities for something to go wrong. We focused at one stroke at a time. With minor mistakes here and there – we conquered each new stroke with every push of the legs, looking at the girl in front, squaring up early, synchronizing each movement until the very end.

More work to come, but it already feels amazing to be part of a team that is eager to do its best in order to win!!!

Polina Ceastuhina

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Queens’ Ergs 2013: Pocahontas Race Report

‘Queens ergs’ is the best experience to introduce novices to the competitive environment filled with adrenaline that rowing provides. This year it must have been the combination of loud, deafening music plus the shouting, and the massive screen that helped us ‘push back’ and ‘stretch those legs’ faster and harder. We had a very promising start and managed to stay on the third position for most of the time, struggling to overcome Christ’s and Clare! We finished on the eighth place, but this was by all means a great victory as it made us all understand better the notion of team playing and seeded the desire to get better!! After the competition I could still feel the adrenaline and the excitement, and all this made me question once more: who needs anything else when you have rowing??

Andreea Dogar

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Winter Head 2013 W1 Race Report

After a week of slightly disrupted outings, nerves were high as we pushed out from the boat house to make our way up to the marshalling point at the start line. Race conditions could not have been better, however, with relatively mild temperatures and barely any wind, and we soon relaxed into a solid row up, reassured by a strong practice push for ten through the corners.
Since we were racing in the first division of the day, marshalling time was surprisingly short, and we just had time to sample one of Holly’s interesting home-made protein balls, before we were told to row up to the lock and spin in preparation for the start of the race. Rowing down towards the start line at the motorway bridge, we established a strong platform, and when Christina called for us to take it up for the start, we pushed into a good powerful rhythm, and started the race with a power ten off the bridge.
Spurred on by Christina’s motivating calls, and pushing for Georgie whose back injury meant she had to watch from the bank, we made excellent progress through the corners in the first half of the race, and coming onto the reach we were catching up on the crew from Hertford College, Oxford, in front. Inspired by Mark’s calls for us to attempt an overtake, we tried to push on and close the gap between us.
We made progress at first, with Mark blowing his whistle in bumps style to indicate we were a length away, but we lost some of the control we had had in the first half of the race, and didn’t quite make it past them. We stayed close on their tail for the rest of the course, however, and as we came under the motorway bridge, Christina called for a mental restart and a final push into a sprint finish. We pushed on, but, pretty tired by now, we were unable to gain the same power we had at the start.
Still, we gave it all we could up to the finish, and ended up with a time of 10.18 minutes, which placed us third of all women’s crews behind FaT and Emma. Although not quite the winning result we were hoping for, we were happy with the race, and it has given us areas to focus on as we come into the last weeks of training. Bring on Fairbairns!

Emma Jones

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Autumn Head 2013 – W1

After pushing off, W1 had a really solid row down on the way to the start of the race. Being the first race of term, we were all thoroughly excited and also nervous about what the competition may bring. After building the rate up over 5, we soon settled into a really nice sustainable rhythm. With a “push for 10” off every corner and any landmark, we really felt that Octopussy flew down the river now and again! After a long 2.6km, we had finally finished. Coach Mark had timed us and we had come in at about 11:10 min, which we were all happy about as it beat our time from last year. When the official results were released later, we discovered our finishing time was in fact 11.07 min, even better! With this, we managed to beat all the other College W1’s and get our first tankard of the term. Well done W1!!!

Jess Manning, Stroke