Saturday heralded not only the end of Britain's got Talent but of course Summer Eights too! This of course subsequently meant the end of early morning training sessions, erging and various other fitness practices. Strangely enough, I kind of miss rowing already despite the fact that I'm sure I'll benefit from the extra time I will gain for the last 3 weeks of term.
Summer Eights dominated fifth week which was particularly chaotic as a result (fittingly, chaos was my essay topic...) though on the upside, I didn't have time for introspection and the traditional "5th week Blues" which everyone gets.
Anyhow, Wednesday was our first race. In this first test for the Jesus Men's IV (though we were technically the IIIs), we had a hard draw. We basically had to bump Somerville II before we got bumped by Green Templeton I (unfair that they're in our division as they include 3 OLYMPIANS?!?). Anyhow, it was a tall order but our tactic was to go out hard and fast...which we did and it *worked*! We slammed into Somerville II and then a split second later, Green Templeton rammed into us! Phew..what a close one! The graduates of Green Templeton weren't amused at being beaten by a men's IV crew! As we bumped, we had to race another time literally straight after as we were now promoted to the division above so no one chasing us though we were chasing St Hilda's I. Oh dear...within a few strokes, I caught a crab!! It was horrendous...if you don't know what this is...well, let's just say it slows down the boat a lot! Luckily, I recovered quickly but I still felt soooooo guilty as I've never caught a crab in all our training sessions before! Though feedback from others suggested we weren't going to catch them anyway but still... :( I apologised profusely.
Thursday's racing again had two races. The first one, we simply had to 'row on' as we didn't have anyone to chase but were being chased. We did this successfully. However, I got the biggest leg cramp EVER straight after so had to do a lot of painful stretching out...my calf was positively quivering. Regardless though, I didn't want to let the team down so set my mind on the second race. With this, we knew we had to bump otherwise we would once again face Green Templeton who were climbing up the divisions after us. However, this time bow's seat broke so we were an unbalanced 7 man crew for most of the time! No chance of a bump here either. OH CRAP. I'm glad it was an equipment problem and not something that I did...I was properly scared that I was going to catch another crab; especially as I had only 3 hours of sleep as I had finished my essay at 6am :(
Friday was kind of inevitable. With no one to bump, we would have had to row over the whole 1.5km without getting bumped by Green Templeton though unfortunately this didn't happen (would have been a miracle if it did!). We did scrap the bank which made their bump even more easier!
Saturday was the final day and although we were now chasing Green Templeton, our aim really was to 'row over' and not get bumped by Lincoln III. However, what happened nobody could have anticipated! The start gun went around 10 seconds faster than everyone expected but we reacted quickly and got a quick bump on Green Templeton who looked as if they had steered into the bank in an unexpected start! WOOPEE! However, the calls of bow meant that our celebrations were short lived as a second later, we had steered into the bank with me (number 2) and bow getting scratched by a bush of nettles and bow hit his head on the stone bank! My rigger was bent and crushed and the oar had been sanded down. The bow had to be sent to hospital though luckily he returned later in good condition. As for the bump, Green Templeton (sore losers) appealed and their appeal stood!?! Not sure why as EVERYONE was unprepared by the unexpected start gun! Despite the protests (even by Jesus's head of law tutor), our counter-appeals weren't listened to. ARH! Annoying and a very anticlimatic end to our Summer Eights campaign though overall, we did ourselves proud as Jesus's Men's IV crew.
I'm definitely pleased I took up rowing for a whole year as I tried new things and met new people so all good in my book!
P.S. Phew. What a long post! Back to my essay :)
EDIT: Changed the picture to a *REAL* one of our first race (found on facebook!) - look how close Green Templeton were to bumping us! We're the 'middle' boat!
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