SCBC

WEHoRR 2010 was the first time any of our crew had rowed on Tideway so we were all very excited. With a starting place of 287th we had hopes of moving up a few places and overtaking some boat alond the way!

We arrived in London in plenty of time to put the boat together and get ourselves sorted. Thanks to our very helpful bank party pushing off went smoothly and we rowed up to the start steady state. We soon got to the marshalling area and waited for our turn to row.

The marshals asked us to spin and then Emily left a big gap between us and Pembroke II in front of us, suspecting that we were faster than them. We did a rolling start to build us up to race pace as we crossed the start line. We didn't have a rating on our cox box but the rhythm felt good and most importantly sustainable.

The rating held steady as we came under Barnes railway bridge and we were already pushing into Pembroke. Emily called for firm pressure and a focus into our rhythm as we pulled up alongside Pembroke. As we were overtaking them, they were overtaking someone else on the inside, it was very exciting! We got past them but so did the boat behind us and they were catching us.

As were coming past the Chiswick Eyot they made their move and tried to overtake us. They came alongside us and their cox was shouting for us to move over, but Emily had already given them enough room and the best line so we held our ground. After a bit of confusion they pulled past us. We had prepared for being overtaken and now we focussed back into our race and kept pushing forward.

As we approched Hammersmith Bridge Emily told us that this was a new race, our supporters on the bridge were cheering and we all pushed off the bridge together. We were still rowing together, tidily and powerfully.

Coming up to the finish we put in a big push and the rating came up slightly and we crossed the finish line in style!

It was our best row of the term! We finished with a time of 21:37.8 in 176th place, well above where we started. Everyone really enjoyed the day and I was really rpoud of the way the whole crew performed.

It had been the first time Selwyn ladies had done WEHoRR for a few years so hopefully we have restarted the tradition and given a good starting spot to next years crew!