Potty about Peterborough
Back in the office after a weekend away coxing at Peterborough.
P'boro is a two day regatta on a 4 lane lake. The first day is raced over a 1000 metre course, and the second is a 500 metre sprint.
The weather was rubbish. It rained. Lots. And, much like Henley the other weekend, there was a head/cross wind blowing down the lake, threatening to 'beach' us in the reeds at the side of the shallow warm-up lane every time we ventured towards the start. Scratch 8 went surprisingly well given 4 of the boat are recent novices and they'd only been rowing as an eight for a week. We got to the final via the repecharge, on both days. However, it was messy and an unpleasant row both days, more so because they BENT MY RUDDER putting the boat in on Saturday (while I was having my weight certificate checked by an official) so I was fighting to keep us in the lane and had no idea why until we got out. PLus the novice four could not be on time if you put a rocket up their behinds.
Which brings me on to my other problem - I woke on Sunday morning an hour or so before my alarm, and was turning over to go back to sleep when one of the novices came over to my tent and said "Do you fancy coxing us this morning?". They'd come to the regatta knowing that they didn't have a cox for Sunday and hadn't mentioned anything about it to me in advnace - I had 40 minutes to get up and get to the boat and was, needless to say, unimpressed. It also meant several quick changes between boats for me, and gave me a tally of 15 races by the the end of the weekend. To make things worse, on one of the severe clashes (19 minute turn around), having refused to scratch and just saying "let's see if we make it", they DAWDLED inbetween boats and seemed surprised when I snapped at them. Their races were also unpleasant - the balance was dreadful and I got soaked, even when it wasn't raining. I was very very close to boiling point all day, and whilst loading the trailer at the end of the day had to walk away before I actually screamed. Oh, and none of them said thank you for the HUGE favour I did them. I could have told them to F. Off, but then they couldn't have raced - they had me over a barrel and didn't have the decency to acknowledge that or to thank me. That's ignorant, arrogant and selfish to my mind.
Thank goodness then for my little rays of sunshine, the lightweight senior men's squad, who were the crew from Henley T&V the other weekend. Racing the Senior 4 category on Saturday over 1000 metres they rowed well, all the way through to the final, where in the first race in which they'd really been pushed all day they were strong, rowed a damn good middle 500, and won!
Yay for my first pot!
That meant going up a status to Senior 3 on Sunday for the 500 metre races. And by golly did they go up. The start I've been working on with them for the last few weeks suddenly clicked, and we weren't troubled by anyone at all in the heat and semi-final. We used one of our pushes in the semi, but only really to practice it! In fact, our spectators said it looked like we were rating about 25 over the line, which isn't quite what we were doing, but it was a relaxed long, powerful stroke that took us all the way home. So we went into the final fairly confident (and I secretly thought we had a good chance at that second pot).
Sure enough, the final went to form. We absolutely flew off the start, pushed away from the field by about 40 seconds in, but had decided not to take it down so powered alll the way over the line. We used a little game we play at the club after technical outings (how far can get the rate up before the landing stage) and cruised home at 39 strokes per minute; almost as quickly as we'd come off the start. Sure the boats behind us only finished a length off us, not two or three, but it was a final after all ;)
Yay for my second pot!
My first two pots, in as many days, have made me smile despite the rest. Oh, and beating my sister's university several times, and five of six Tab boats (various races) both days too.
However, I'm still ill, and camping and rain hasn't helped. I'm off home to Swansea later today, so can relax and switch off there, which will hopefully restore me. And throughout all this, I have a lovely man sending me delightfully flirtatious text messages, which is enough to make anyone smile!
P'boro is a two day regatta on a 4 lane lake. The first day is raced over a 1000 metre course, and the second is a 500 metre sprint.
The weather was rubbish. It rained. Lots. And, much like Henley the other weekend, there was a head/cross wind blowing down the lake, threatening to 'beach' us in the reeds at the side of the shallow warm-up lane every time we ventured towards the start. Scratch 8 went surprisingly well given 4 of the boat are recent novices and they'd only been rowing as an eight for a week. We got to the final via the repecharge, on both days. However, it was messy and an unpleasant row both days, more so because they BENT MY RUDDER putting the boat in on Saturday (while I was having my weight certificate checked by an official) so I was fighting to keep us in the lane and had no idea why until we got out. PLus the novice four could not be on time if you put a rocket up their behinds.
Which brings me on to my other problem - I woke on Sunday morning an hour or so before my alarm, and was turning over to go back to sleep when one of the novices came over to my tent and said "Do you fancy coxing us this morning?". They'd come to the regatta knowing that they didn't have a cox for Sunday and hadn't mentioned anything about it to me in advnace - I had 40 minutes to get up and get to the boat and was, needless to say, unimpressed. It also meant several quick changes between boats for me, and gave me a tally of 15 races by the the end of the weekend. To make things worse, on one of the severe clashes (19 minute turn around), having refused to scratch and just saying "let's see if we make it", they DAWDLED inbetween boats and seemed surprised when I snapped at them. Their races were also unpleasant - the balance was dreadful and I got soaked, even when it wasn't raining. I was very very close to boiling point all day, and whilst loading the trailer at the end of the day had to walk away before I actually screamed. Oh, and none of them said thank you for the HUGE favour I did them. I could have told them to F. Off, but then they couldn't have raced - they had me over a barrel and didn't have the decency to acknowledge that or to thank me. That's ignorant, arrogant and selfish to my mind.
Thank goodness then for my little rays of sunshine, the lightweight senior men's squad, who were the crew from Henley T&V the other weekend. Racing the Senior 4 category on Saturday over 1000 metres they rowed well, all the way through to the final, where in the first race in which they'd really been pushed all day they were strong, rowed a damn good middle 500, and won!
Yay for my first pot!
That meant going up a status to Senior 3 on Sunday for the 500 metre races. And by golly did they go up. The start I've been working on with them for the last few weeks suddenly clicked, and we weren't troubled by anyone at all in the heat and semi-final. We used one of our pushes in the semi, but only really to practice it! In fact, our spectators said it looked like we were rating about 25 over the line, which isn't quite what we were doing, but it was a relaxed long, powerful stroke that took us all the way home. So we went into the final fairly confident (and I secretly thought we had a good chance at that second pot).
Sure enough, the final went to form. We absolutely flew off the start, pushed away from the field by about 40 seconds in, but had decided not to take it down so powered alll the way over the line. We used a little game we play at the club after technical outings (how far can get the rate up before the landing stage) and cruised home at 39 strokes per minute; almost as quickly as we'd come off the start. Sure the boats behind us only finished a length off us, not two or three, but it was a final after all ;)
Yay for my second pot!
My first two pots, in as many days, have made me smile despite the rest. Oh, and beating my sister's university several times, and five of six Tab boats (various races) both days too.
However, I'm still ill, and camping and rain hasn't helped. I'm off home to Swansea later today, so can relax and switch off there, which will hopefully restore me. And throughout all this, I have a lovely man sending me delightfully flirtatious text messages, which is enough to make anyone smile!