Race Hard : Women’s Head of the River – part 5

And so the results are out!

Women’s Head of the River (WeHoRR) 2013 Results

We missed out on winning the Women’s Novice category by just 16 seconds, behind winners Lea!

As summarised by Jon, our boat per category came …

• Novice club – 2nd out of 39
• Novice academic – 3rd (by 0.2 of a second) out of 58
• Novice combined – 4th (again by 0.2 of a second) out of 97
• IM3 – 13th out of 110
• IM2 – 16th out of 30

And overall, 71st out of 302 boats, in an international competition with competitors travelling from all over Europe to take part – not bad going given that we’ve been training for less than !

We also managed to beat Thames’ own IM3 crew, therefore coming 4th out of 8 Thames crews!

Very exciting stuff, and very much looking forward to the summer racing!

 

I just need to fight off this rotten cough before then, and get myself fighting fit!

Henley 2013 …

Race Hard : Women’s Head of the River – part 4

We did it!

Just got back in to the club, and feeling pretty good!

The race itself went well. The marshalling seemed to go on for ages, however once we got in to position to start, it was a quick turnaround and we were off.

 

Chiswick Bridge to Barnes Bridge

This seemed to go ever so quickly – it felt really smooth, we seemed to be in time with each other, and it didn’t take long to get the rating up.

The water was good, and the conditions were great – it was fairly mild, which made life easier. I think we were rating 28-30.

 

Barnes Bridge to Hammersmith Bridge

Compared to the Hammersmith Head, the water was much less choppy, and with Marie’s motivation, this part of the race seemed to go much quicker than we’d feared!

There did feel a brief drop in momentum, however I think this is more to do with the fact we’d got into a consistent rhythm, having got the initial burst of excitement and adrenalin out at the start.

 

Hammersmith Bridge to Putney Bridge

The cheers from Hammersmith did just as we’d hoped! Fresh legs for the last burst of the race.

Marie kept up the inspirational talk, and as we got towards Harrods, she told us how proud she was of us, and how well we were doing. The pain was starting to set in here, however the adrenalin was enough to keep the momentum, and I believe we even sped up at this point!

As we got level with the club, we could hear the cheers from the balcony, and you could feel the pace of the boat pick up another peg or two. The last 30 strokes were hard, and Marie called for us to empty the tanks and give it everything we had, and we definitely did that!

 

Despite us catching 3 crabs over the course of the race, I think we did pretty well. As we pulled up by the club, the coaches came over with our wellies and helped us out, and said we looked like we were moving nicely down the home straight. Marie told us we could walk out of the boat with our heads held high, that she was proud of our performance, and that she knew we’d given it our all.

A proud moment – an emotional release

I think we all had a little cry as we came through under Putney Bridge.

It’s quite surprising the release of emotion you feel at the end of a race. Six months of training were poured into that race, and so crossing the finish line was a big relief – the tension of the day was over, all the pressure we had felt as a crew was gone as there was nothing more we could do, and our bodies could finally relax.

It was a great feeling stepping out of the boat – pride from having rowed well, and rowed hard (except for the feeling of cramp in my calf as I initially tried to stand up!) – and being able to confidently say that we’d given it everything.

Let’s see how we do in the results!

Fingers crossed, we should find out before the end of the night! … 🙂

Race Hard : Women’s Head of the River – part 3

Race Plan

So, we huddle round the crew table in the main hall, and Marie gets out her map of the river.

She talks us through her plan, and the key points she wants to use to help us along the route.

• Barnes Bridge is the first point – this first stretch is fairly easy, and the water is fairly quick running
• Chiswick Eyot, second – this is just before the bend round to Hammersmith Bridge. This is one of the hardest parts of the course – the river is at it’s widest here, and it’s a long stretch from Barnes bridge round to Hammersmith, so Marie will have to make sure we keep focussed, and keep the power on as we get to the bend
• Hammersmith Bridge, the third point, and this is where the race restarts. Fresh legs from here, as we’re used to rowing from Hammsmith to the club, so the distance is ingrained, and having people cheering on the bridge should be enough for us to give a fresh push
• the Milepost – this is the marker for the last mile to the finish! Another little push from here onto the next point,
• Fulham Football Club – close to home, and more than halfway between Hammersmith Bridge and the finish
• TRC – family and friends will be gathered out here, to give us the very last push to the finish – we need to work from the cheers, and power home to the finish
• Putney Pier – the finish, but we won’t take the power off until we reach Putney Bridge

 

That’s the game plan … let’s see how it goes!

 

 

Race Hard : Women’s Head of the River – part 2

Race Prep

Just back in from our outing in Shackleton, and the crew decision is to stick with it for the race!

It was decided that despite the sensitivity to balance and the lack of practice in it to this point, the difference in weight and the ability to get the rate up quicker far outweighs the Noel. Plus, it looks pretty slick! 😉

Now time to relax and prep – 80% of the prep for a race is psychological.

The clubhouse is full – there’s 4 Novice crews racing today from our squad, plus 3 Intermediate crews and a Masters crew. That’s just TRCs contribution to the bodies in the building! There are also several other clubs that have been camping overnight in the gym, and are using the facilities to prep for the race. It’s manic here! Finding a space to relax and mentally prepare could be interesting!

Race Hard : Women’s Head of the River

Just on my way to the club for our last outing to test out the ‘black ninja’ – also known as Shackleton – before the big race …

NERVOUS!

but at the same time, incredibly, incredibly excited! 🙂