Nottingham Autumn Head and 2km TEST!

Sunday 3^rd November was the first head race of the season. It was hosted by Nottingham Rowing Club and saw a large entry of local athletes along with some who travelled over to Nottingham. It was a 5450m race downstream in singles for division one and a 3850m race downstream in crew boats for division two. I only raced in division one but helped marshal the second division in the afternoon up at the start. It was interesting to see how difficult this part of an event is and I now appreciate the people who do this at all events, it’s not easy!

After a cold, wet and windy week building up to the race day, it was very up in the air whether the race would go ahead. Turning up at 7:15am for a pre-paddle I can’t say I was looking forward to racing in the conditions that I was staring at from the boathouse. The landing stage we (the HP squad) use was underwater so wellies were scattered everywhere. Once boated, a challenge in itself, the paddle to the start began…with what felt like an eternity I eventually made it to the start line and prepared myself to race down as best I could. It was a very fast stream so steering was a crucial part of the race not just pace. I have to say I had a fantastic race down and couldn’t have steered myself down the river any better. But the sight of the landing stage and thought of me getting out of my boat was heaven…I had only been in it for over 2 hours!

Dry clothes, warmth and food were on the agenda next whilst I waited for the results to be released. A hot chocolate has never tasted so good J  You know when the results are out as everyone rushes around one person who appears to be holding sheets of RESULTS! I won my category, WSen1x, came 3^rd out of 21 female entries and positioned 40^th out of 80 entries including both males and females. I was chuffed with my performance and now feel very prepared for the 5km water trial on 17^th November.

But there is no rest for the wicked…Wednesday 6^th November was a 2km ergo test to prepare us for the 2km ergo part of trials on the 16^th November. This is an extremely challenging ergo and pushes you to your limits. I approached this as a mini run through of what I will do at trials from the warm up, mental preparations to the plan of how to approach the 2km. I felt rather relaxed throughout the test and came out in the end with a PB – 7:14.9 J not bad for a U23 lightweight.

Final preparations and sharpening up for the rest of the week until I make my journey over to Boston for the 2 day GB trials; I am extremely excited and raring to go!