Clare Novices’ Regatta

I just competed in my first rowing race! I woke up at some crazy time to get to the boat house before dawn. The weather today was about the coldest I’ve seen here: just above freezing with thick fog and off and on light drizzle. Keeping body parts from going numb while waiting around for the race to start was not easy.

The regatta itself was a tournament where each round is ~800 m side by side race between 2 VIIIs. The first round we faced St. Edmunds which was supposed to be one of our biggest challengers. They pulled ahead early and seemed to just keep pulling. Late in the race, however, they started to fall apart and we held it together to pull ahead right before the line.

The second round against Wolfson was, unfortunately, quite the opposite. We quickly pulled ahead by about 2 boat lengths, and things seemed to be going great. However, in the last 200m-300m our timing fell apart, strokes got short, and overall just went to hell. So we’re out, and thats why I’m back here writing this instead of still racing. At least I can feel my hands now.

Next week is the Fairbairn Cup: a head (time-trial) race. We are entering in both the novice division (2.7km) and the senior division (4.3km).

Rowing Update

Rowing is going great. Yesterday it was raining and only a little above freezing and we rowed until almost dark. I also have new respect and apreciation for the fantastic senior coxes that have been helping train us. We had a novice cox on that outing and things were… interesting. I lost track of the number of things we ran into, but I know that we never had any warning. I think he once quietly and calmly said “watch your blades” as the blades were all smashing into an enormous sign on the side of the river. We did, however, get all 8 of us rowing together for the first time, and no serious crabs were caught. For those of you who don’t row, a crab is when the blade gets stuck in the water, causing all sorts of not fun things. Here is a YouTube example (sponsored by Heineken, apparently)

The rain continued all last night, so the river was very full today. Our nice dock was completely submerged, so todays outing was a little wetter than usual. The path along the river was also flooded in places, making things more interesting for our coach on the bank.

Tonight I’m off to a boaty formal swap with Trinity Hall.