In the last 24 hours, I've practically spent most of my waking moments doing something rowing/coxing related. We were loading up our boats onto the trailer last night (not before unloading the boats which were on the trailer first), and then this morning, we left at 8am to head to London for the Poplar Regatta. We were racing in the Women's Novice (Novice cos none of us had any points) 8+ category, which sadly only received 3 entries, of which one scratched before the race, so we were only racing Southampton University.

It was a race in pretty windy conditions, although on a very straight bit of the river - it had to be straight since it was right next to the London City Airport's runway. For some reason, I don't think I know how to steer a straight line, given that the River Cam is infinitely sinuous - which resulted me almost steering into Southampton right off the start as they pulled away (also due to the wind, we were both being blown in). In any case, we were neck to neck for about 20 strokes after that, before we pulled away seat by seat. The feeling of pulling away from another crew, even if it was just one other, was awesome. We finished first in our category, and hence we all got a little trophy, or "pots" as they call it.

The crew after the race, all changed into dry clothes...

Thereafter, I got back to college, and went straight for a nap, which I had so much trouble getting up from. I think I was just so drained from the race - trust me, it requires intense concentration during the race. Got up and did A LITTLE BIT of work, and then it was time to go for a coxing seminar - a talk organised by THE 2 coxes of the uni.. I was slightly disappointed by the talk to be honest, cos I went with slightly different expectations. The talk was kinda like a "how-to-cox" session for beginners, and I hardly found it insightful. But I suppose given that the standards of coxes at the talk was quite varied, it was hard to find a compromise.

Then at the end of the day, which was around 10pm, i finally have my dinner, reply to emails and sit down for a quick dose of anime, before catching up on work and now blogging... Gosh.. Can they postpone the exams please?

Labels: Poplar Regatta