ManHoRR

Finally made it to Atlanta, and after some internet issues in Mom's apartment, all connected and ready to blog.

First things first - recap of London adventures on Saturday. Our 1st Men's VIII was competiting in the Head of the River Race, the men's version of the race I competed in two weeks ago. (Man HoRR.. Get it?) Since I am basically a groupie, I went along with a few friends. We decided to camp out on Hammersmith Bridge to get the best view of the river.

So much bigger than the Cam!

The second reason we wanted the spot on Hammersmith was because I brought along our club flag to hang off the bridge, so the boys would see it as they came under the bridge.

That's our club emblem, the 'cat and buns', along with the motto, 'Fama super aethera notus' (Our fame is known to the heaven's above) which comes from the Aeneid. Modest I know. :)

We arrived in plenty of time to make sure we got a good spot, and thus got to see the boys rowing up to the start.

We cheered to make sure they knew we were there. Hammersmith is about 5k into a 7k race, so it's nice to have something to push off for the final (horrific) 2ishk.

The bridge filled up, as crews continued rowing up to the start.

When the race started, we proved to have an awesome view. I put on the zoom lens and proceeded to photo-stalk. A selection:

These two crews are Leander and Molesey - probably the two best clubs in Britain.

Our boys.

For some reason someone had hung a Union Jack on the bridge..

There were over 400 crews competing, so after about 250 we decided to start walking down to the finish at Putney to meet the guys after their race. Plus, the path was along the river so we got to continue watching the action.

When we managed to find the boys, we loitered for a while as they put their boat back on the trailer, got changed, etc., and then we set out in search of a quick bite to eat before heading back to Cam. As we walked, the sun set.

Last picture of the night...Earl's Court Underground station..