The senior Fairbairns race on Friday was not quite what I expected. I got home late Thursday night after the BA Christmas party only to find an email saying that due to illness and injury, we were unable to field 2 boats for the race Friday. The remaining members of the first 2 novice boats were combined together into a single boat, and because there were too many bow side (aka starboard) rowers, I wasn’t in that boat.
At the crew photos on Friday morning I was informed that the person rowing bow had gotten completely lashed (british for trashed, wasted) and was unable to get out of bed, much less row 5km, so I was in. Out of 16 rowers in the top 2 novice boats, only 7 were actually able to row. The 8th, rowing stroke (furthest back, sets the rhythm for everyone else), was our usual cox, and we had a substitute cox. We had no chance to practice together; our first stroke as a crew was the start of the race.
Considering the circumstances, we did alright. We only crashed once on a very tight corner. The cox, trying to help bring us around, put her arm into the water. This is usually quite effective, but she unfortunately put the wrong arm into the water and sent is straight into the bank. By the time we got straightened out, the crew behind us was overtaking, so we had to wait and let them by.
We did not finish last, and even beat the 2nd Trinity alumni boat.
Also, our cox rowing in front of me had the splashiest stroke I’ve ever seen. Every stroke, for 5km (about 1000 strokes) I got absolutely drenched. Before we even passed the starting line I felt like I was swimming, not rowing.
