The Fairbairn Cup

Remember when I said the river was frozen and it was too cold to race?  Turns out Jesus Boat Club (which runs the Fairbairn Cup) got a barge to go up and down the river and break up all of the ice so that the novice crews could race today.  However, they did have to shorten the race, which in my opinion is all to the good since this is a really long race (it was 2700 m and I think we actually did something like 2k).  The morning was gorgeous and snowy and the ambiance was really fun, even though it was super super super cold!

The way the race works is different from Clare Regatta that I wrote about last week (and actually a lot less stressful!).  This race you only have to do once, and it isn't a head-to-head (because of how narrow the river is).  Boats start with 30 seconds in between, and you aren't allowed to overtake (well, you are once you reach the open bit, but the race today stopped before then).  If you're really keen and think that you'll overtake, you are supposed to say so in advance and get moved to a different slot.  But I'm getting away from the point.

Basically, this race is an opportunity to show what you've been doing in practice all term and just row against the clock, which is much more relaxed than rowing against another boat.  I was pretty nervous, since our last race was kind of a disaster, but I think we got that out of our system and rowed really well today.

There was one hiccup though.  As we came around a corner I could hear our coach yelling at us "easy there" which basically means stop, which is weird because we were in the middle of a race.  Once we did stop (it took a while to sink in because of the adrenaline. I was sitting there thinking, he said stop but we're still rowing, what do I do!?). It turned out that the two boats in front of us had collided and were just sitting in the middle of the river.  When they moved a little away, we just started up again, but it was quite strange and made the race harder (since it take more energy to get the boat moving from a stop) so we lost some time.  I think that the Marshals will subtract some from our time because of it, hopefully.  Kudos to our cox who was super calm and just had us start up again.  She's very relaxed in the boat, which helps you not panic or quit when you get really exhausted at the end!

All in all, it's been a great term of rowing.  I've loved being a part of something here at Churchill, because I feel like without it I just wouldn't spend any time here.  It's been fun getting to know the girls in my boat, many of whom are undergrads, and actually experience what it's like to be a British student here (most of the MCR, again, are from the US).  I think I'll definitely keep it up next term.  I can't wait for May term when it's warm and lovely on the river!

Here's our boat after we got back to the boathouse, decked out in Churchill pink!!!