Races!

Competition, my sweet mistress, it had been too long!

Or in other words...

All that training was for something besides self respect?!



So the last two weekends were filled with out of town racing.  The first one was in London on the Thames - the Fullers Head of the River Fours event.  Bad news though, our stroke seat was deathly ill and though we went down and rigged up the boat hoping his condition would improve enough to race he showed up that morning looking absolutely ghoulish, so we scratched.  Nevertheless, we had a good time in London.

Geoff - our 2 seat, bow side, Hertford social secretary, Crew Date Logistical Mastermind

(Yes, the boat is bow rigged.  That's how we rowll.)

Peter Morten - Mens Capn', 3 seat, stroke sider, registered badass

***

This weekend we took a much longer road trip to the east side of jolly old for the Winter Head in Cambridge.  The town was much more subdued than Oxford - had a real stuffy feel to it.  Plus the fog was so dense it got scary out there.  Hertford sent four crews to compete so it was quite a party:  men's M1 senior 4s, men's novice A 8s, women's W1 senior 4s, and women's novice A 8s - almost 30 of us.

The Cam river is narrow just like the Isis in Oxford - too narrow for a line up so the events were all time trials.  The course was 2500 meters long and had two right angle turns in it.  Since our cox is a madman this was a good thing.  He out steered the Cambridge coxes on their own waterway.  The first race was an all student class with over twenty teams competing.  It was my first boat race ever so I was nervous.  We started at a punishing stroke count of 37 and then settled after about 1500 meters of that agony.  I was focused entirely on keeping up with the other guys which was some bad tunnel vision.  Though we didn't feel like we had done well because it wasn't a smooth run we actually made decent time coming in at about 10:31 and that earned us 6th place.  

 

In the afternoon we had an official Great Britain Rowing points category race with about ten or fifteen teams.  Having cured myself of the total novice jitters I was much more relaxed for this one.  It didn't feel like I was pushing to stay in time with the other guys, the boat just flowed together.  We kept it between 31 and 33 strokes per minute for the whole race and that went much better for us.  The boat stayed sat and just ran fast and hard.  The boys were in good rhythm and looking mean I must say.  

 Pure exultation after the second race.

We had started about 400 meters behind the four taking off ahead of us and overtook them at the finish line so that was outstanding fun.  When you commit fully from the first stroke there isn't much left in the tank come time for that final push.  James, our stroke man, was roaring like a lion in the last 1000 meters and his energy was infectious.  Our cox was like a braying demon and it definitely spurred us on having so much intensity coming across that loud speaker at our feet. Some highlights: "We've got two seats on them, I want another one in three strokes!  Press them out!  Long sends!  Blood in the water!" and "That's it boys, they've broken!  Twist the knife!"  

We didn't end up winning that race but did finish 4th overall with a time around 9:33.  The top four were all within about 5 seconds of each other so it was a close battle.  Despite the loss we were all jubilant afterward.  There was the definite sense that we had raced well and as a first day of competition with this four man setup it was a great feeling to know we could row like a real crew.  

We all breathed fire for ten minutes straight and rowed until our legs were filled with molten lead, then we did it again, only better.  We lived in a realm of absolute pain that first race, but we didn't buckle.  Then we found something incredible during the second go and it felt almost effortless for those first 1500 meters.  We chased perfection and seemed to touch her for the barest of moments.  Thunder roars in your veins when you reach that place...its a dimension of sublime agony.

The Crew after racing (from right to left: Geoff, Pete, Jon (cox), James, me)

The ladies senior fours won their division so congratulations to them for sure, they rowed hard and brought home some engraved hip flasks.  We are all looking forward to seeing them take some blades in the Torpids/Bumps event.  The mens novice 8 boat also did real well in their category - should be a great team for the Christ Church Novice Regatta this coming week.  

Next semester there are a ton more races.  There will be two more fours heads at least, one in Bristol and one in a location to be determined.  Plus the big all Oxford Torpids is eights bump racing on the Isis.  Apparently its carnage on the river everyday for a week.  Sounds like my kind of party.  Everyone has to try out for that boat so I'm stoked to train hard over the break and come back with a business face on.   

That's all for tonight.  Heading to bed for a bit of well earned slumber.