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!

British Rowing Championships 2013

On Saturday 19th October and Sunday 20^th October it was the British Rowing Championships 2013. This is a compulsory event for all athletes wishing to trial for GB for the 2013/2014 season. The event consists of a 1900m time trial followed by being positioned into the relevant 2000m semi-final, and then concludes with a 2000m final race.

I raced only on the Saturday and as there were no single sculling events I teamed up with a fellow lightweight squad member in a double scull. There were 49 entries in this category all together; lightweights, U23s and open weight athletes all race against each other so that racing is much closer and more enjoyable. Unfortunately there is only a medal for the top three places so as a lightweight double we never really had a chance at gaining one of those medal positions, especially when nearly the entire current GB team entered. It was going to be a challenging day of racing!

Our aim for the day was to get as high up in the rankings as possible and with 49 entries we were required to race hard. The day started with the time trial for all crews so that we could be placed into the relevant semi-finals A/B, C/D, E/F or G/H. We ranked 17th so got placed into the C/D semi-final. We now aimed to come in the top 3 of our relevant semi-final so as to be placed into the C final. We had a great race and finished a very close 2nd, with the current U23 GB squad members (who gained a bronze medal at the U23 World Championships 2013) just beating us. We made it into the C final and were both as determined as each other to win this. We had another great race and pushed from 5th position at the start to come through and gain 2nd place in the C final. We had no chance of catching the winner of this race, a U23 open weight double, who smashed it from the start but it was a great race, I loved every minute and couldn’t have asked more from my partner in crime!

Overall, we finished 14th out of the 49 crews that entered, we were the 4th fastest lightweight crew and I can proudly say I was the fastest U23 lightweight athlete that entered as a lightweight :) My double partner didn’t fall into the U23 criteria so we were unable to enter that category but the leading U23 lightweight crew came 18th overall.

My next big event will be trials on 16th and 17th November where I will need to perform a 2km ergo and a 5km water test, so I am training hard for that. I am feeling pretty ready and determined so roll on 16^th November!