Results and reports by Event

W3 on a Friday afternoon - business as usual. Julie and Vashti rating men's boats, Olivia midway through an opera run, Katie enthusiastically saying hello to every passing puppy and me spouting general rubbish along the way. Marshalling took a while as we waited for everyone from the previous division to come through, but race sweets and great support from some of the guys (in the sunshine too) meant the chat kept flowing. A couple of bursts on the row up, game faces on and then yet more marshalling. Soon though, we began.

As we began the trek back down to the motorway bridge, the focus arrived and the nerves drifted away. 3 strokes to build, then bursting out the bridge. Having previously aimed at rate 30 the starting pace of 35 seemed terrifyingly quick. As we really lengthened 100m down the first stretch though, maintaining 32 comfortably, the speed felt incredible. First post arrived swiftly and although ended up being slightly wide, set us up perfectly for the next stretch. Continuous shouting from the towpath and some tidying up took us round grassy, followed by a power 10 to the plough. Having started with the crew in front of us in the far distance, we were edging closer and closer with no sign of slowing down.

Reset on the reach and still we were flying. I went to call strokes to the edge of the spinning zone, then suddenly realised that we'd already steamed past it. Tapering down - 5 strokes on this, 3 strokes on this. Still we were gaining on the crew in front. We finished with another build and brilliant acceleration, catching the crew in front as we crossed the line.

W3 has never qualified for lent bumps before so there's no precedent for the week ahead. We have a slightly different crew each day, but having beaten all the crews in our division at some point the outlook is good. The future is bright; the future is III.

Uploaded Saturday 25th February, 12:35