Head Of The Brisbane

I was really looking forward to this race. I was a sub in our #1 crew. In recent times I'd rowed with them enough to get over the 'don't make mistakes' mindset and into a row hard and make it count mindset. So started with a banana and plenty of water about an hour before. Had sunscreen on and did some warm up and stretching but clearly not enough. 

The Head of the Brisbane starts and finishes at the Toowong Rowing Club near the uni. Up stream was hard agaist the tide and wind. At the U turn I was stuffed. Luckilly I was rowing stroke side and we had a nice rest as bow side powered us round. As we completed the turn, Angus our cox called for an effort and for me it felt like a new race. With renewed energy I pushed my legs down.
We had pretty good rythm and the Vikings off our stern to keep us honest. The occasional reminder from Greg Carroll behind me for length and calls from Angus Blackwood for leg drive made this a good race for me.

And we came first!

 This is one exciting picture.  I'm up near the front obscured by the splash.  My footwell was full of water that took a while to dissipate throgh the boat.

It reduced our speed considerably.  Luckily our nemesis the Vikings were just behind us (Left of pic) and suffered the same fate with a similar speed reduction.

This is Ned's crew.
Makes me tense just looking at it.

And finally a bit of video of us and the viking
https://youtu.be/R5nZ8AJztBI