Robinson Head 2011

5/11 in M2 category - 9:44

A very wet afternoon greeted the crew upon arrival at the boathouse, with just the one sub for the race - Dr Scales had to write a paper instead of racing on a Friday afternoon, and hence Ryan jumped in the boat. The row to the start was, as is now normal, not fantastic, but I was confident that we'd pick it up on the way back.

The weather changed while we were sitting at the lock, with the sun coming out to try us out (and impair Lara's vision!). We hit the start at 33 1/2 before settling into the race rate of 32 half way down First Post reach. Some good work in the bows minimised the speed lost on the corners and we visibly took distance out of King's in front of us. Once on the reach, the rowing got a little worse as we tired, but the commitment remained, epitomised by a push up to rate 34 for the final minute.

In the end, the result was roughly what we had expected, we were the fastest 3rd division crew (faster than St. Edmund's M1), although not quite as far ahead of King's as we would have liked. However, the ability to keep the pressure up for the entire bumps course is reassuring in case things don't go to plan in a couple of weeks...