Head of the river race

A few weeks ago I found myself in crew for The Head of the River Race’s one hundredth anniversary. This is the biggest head race (long distance rowing race) in the country, hosting crews not just from the country but the world, in all 375 crews were entered, totalling 3,000 rowers.

Whilst I hadn’t really been competing this season, nor had I planned to, my old coach dropped me a message asking if I could fill a gap and I found myself in 7 seat of the third boat, I think my words were ‘sounds like fun’. It’s hard to sell something like this as fun when you’re describing it as smashing yourself down the reverse boat race course on a freezing spring morning, especially if you’ve only been training twice a week max, but I swear it is.

Coming of the water having completed the course and completely exhausted myself I had a smile on my face. It wasn’t the best result I had had at this race, last year I finished 125th, this year 220th. But it was a good row, we all have our all and most importantly, we beat the boats I wanted to beat. Going out there wasn’t really about winning this year, it was about getting out there with friends, showing myself I can still push it and filling a seat that meant my teammates could also race, for all those things it was a great success.