Head Of The Tweed 2

I rowed 24? km in the Head Of The Tweed in a mixed eight with 4 Grammarians (Men) and 4 ladies from Toowong.

I awoke partially and opened one eye and noted the bedside clock showing 3am.  My alarm was set at 4:20 but I figured I would wake at 4:00am.  One minute later and the alarm went off.

5:25 dropped Chris at BGS.
Started to drive to the coast.  Feeling a bit sleepy I figured on a coffee.  Dropped into Maccas just on the South side of the Story Bridge.  Absolutely terrible coffee. I had a couple of sips but gave up.  Luckily half way down and I pulled into a service station and got a somewhat better coffee.

On to 11am
We were queued to launch.  Launching is quite awkward and there was apparently only one place.  Yet as we stood waiting our turn we wondered why we could not launch at the little beach beside us.  Yes no bla bla and we went on got the oars. Luckily we did because we were the last crew to line up.

There was quite a lot of rowing up from where we were marshaled to the start line.  And the mixed eights were off.  Well we started rowing.  No race start.  It was take it away.  The stroke rate was slow.  Around 17 or 18.  We were all concentrating on a good drive, a slight pause at the finish and then steady hands away, rock over, up the slide and in for the next catch.

The nice thing was that the boat sat up and felt good with run although with this rate were not going to get anywhere fast.  The cox call for a rate increase and it was actually quite hard to get it to move up and keep any kind of timing and stability.  A legacy of a last minute crew and one where we had only ever had one training session.  (Last Wednesday).  I think we struggled up to abut 18.

By now all the other boats in the race were in front of us.

The cox called for an effort of 20.  This happened and went well and the rating moved up a point.

A bit later the next batch of eights (mens masters) including the Honey Badgers and the Shaddows from my Grammarians club over took us.  The boat was sitting up, running well and generally feeling good right up until the Shadows were beside us.  Then it began to flop and roll.  In the Stroke seat, I can not see who is doing what but my bet is that someone decided to turn their had and look at the Shadows.

40 minutes in and our first drinks break.  The way we do this is to drop out one pair of rowers at a time.  Starting with bow pair they stopped and had a drink.  There is quite a change to the dynamic feel to the boat when this happens.  I suspect that means that in a way we are not actually in time but rather there is some compensation happening between rowers such that the whole thing feels OK.  My bet is that having a coach outside the boat would be needed to work that out.

When it was my turn to have a drink I rummaged furiously through my bag of stuff and concluded I had inadvertently left my car keys behind.  A big problem given the other guys stuff was in my car.  oops!.  F***^%%.  Really annoying as I had held the keys in my hand while putting other useful stuff into the bag and had thought about it but obviously not followed through. Figured no need to distract others with this news.

Back on track and we were back rowing as an 8.   There is a bridge that we row under that marks the half way point.  We could hear the noise of a school girl boat.  And we passed it.  As we pulled away it was clear why a bunch of oldies could beat youth.  Their cox could not steer a straight line.  Maybe rowers were pulling hard and soft but when you weave all over the course and chatter and scream, you have no chance.

3/4 through the race and we over took another crew who had started in our race.  My suspicion is that our slow and steady start and focus on timing had helped us.  By now our rating was around 22.  I assume the crew we passed had burned too much early on.

Under a second bridge.  2k to go.  Someone called out were we going for a push.  We tried to take it up with a bit more power down on the legs and a slight increase in rating.  This seemed to last for about 5 strokes.  I figured lets stick with whats worked and keep the rhythm.  We continued on but with some increase in leg drive.

Over the finish line.
Landed.
Fessed up to Neil about the keys. Organised a lift for him back to Chininderra