The Wehorr

Today was a day of two firsts. One, I got to row in London. Two, I raced the longest crew race I ever have - 7 km.

Our boat had a great day as we traveled down to London to race in The Wehorr(women's eight's head of the river race).

Here are the results from the Cambridge colleges, out of a total of 300 boats:
95 Downing College 21:07.21 (won the novice academic category)
97 First and Third Trinity 21:07.97 104 Queens College 21:11.30
105 Christs College 21:11.49 107 Pembroke College 21:12.15 128 Trinity Hall 21:26.52
144 Churchill College 21:34.68
147 Hughes Hall 21:35.71 155 Sidney Sussex College 21:41.36 173 Magdalene 21:52.30 195 Girton College 22:01.20 220 Fitzwilliam 22:18.80 240 New Hall 22:42.13
246 Robinson 22:50.53

We started 269/300, which meant marshaling seemed to take forever! (about 2 hours in fact). Although this meant we did get to watch the top boats racing past. At around 7km, this is the longest race we've experienced. However, we settled into a good rhythm, with myself calling for pushes whenever I felt the crew was slacking off a bit! We were chasing Christ's with Downing directly behind. Calls that we were 'gaining on the crew in front' came very early, unfortunately it wasn't Christ's we were gaining on, and we overtook a couple of slow crews. Downing had started a boat length behind, and drew level in the mid section of the race. We raced together neck and neck for a long time, which made overtaking the next couple of slow boats quite tricky - even the wide Thames struggles to accommodate 3 boats side by side, especially when one particularly slow crew decided to ignore Lorna's yells and steer directly into our line rather than move aside. Eventually Downing did pull ahead of us, and with nothing in view but clear water (the slow crews having disappeared far into the distance) the race became a bit more boring, and it was harder to distract our thoughts from the pain. However, soon after this we were under Hammersmith Bridge and into the end section of the race. We say end section. It's nearly 3km. But anyhow... we kept pushing, the rating stayed right up where we wanted it, and everyone gave their all in the big build for the finish. Downing hadn't got away far, only about a length ahead as we crossed the line.

We're pleased with the end result, we said we'd be pleased to come under 150 so 144 is great. We know we've got loads to work on, this is encouraging because it means we've got potential to be a lot faster!

We had a great day, the atmosphere on the riverbank was buzzing, absolutely crammed with boats/trailers/lycra(spandex) clad women . And rowing on a BIG river, in the same race as the best crews from across the country (and beyond), passing the boatrace landmarks, is very special. Although we are very jealous of Westminster School's lovely boathouse.