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..

80-76

Well, Cambridge didn't win the boat race. The series now stands in total 80 wins for Cambridge, 76 wins for Oxford. Although the result was a little disappointing, the whole day was great.

We met at the station Saturday around noon, and stocked up on edible goodies for the train. By 'we' I think there were about 12 of us travelling together, and we met more friends along the way. This time around, the ticket buying process was straightforward and we weren't harassed by any angry people. Always a plus. We managed to get a compartment on the train literally all to ourselves, so spread out our food and settled in.

Yes, that is beer. I know people who like to start early. I should note, however, it was at least past noon by this point. The whole journey was fun, while I played paparazzi with my friends.

Through the tube, a quick stop for food, and a walk to the river. We settled down to eat and wait, and situated ourselves in front of one of the big screens.

We staked out a spot by the wall so that we'd be able to actually see some of the racing as it went by! Since we were there so early we got to hang around there for a while. Fortunately, it was relatively warm (and dry!) so was quite pleasant.

Edibles along the wall. That meat was actually pork tongue.. Not mine, I hasten to add.

We waited and slowly but surely the crowds grew and grew.

I got decked out in Cambridge blue..

The helicopters started circling..

People used every possible vantage point.. (Sadly, I even know these guys..)

And the first race came into sight!!

First view coming under Hammersmith Bridge, and our boys are down. This is the reserve race, Goldie (the Cambridge crew) vs. Isis (the Oxford crew). The guys in the Gold are Goldie. Surprise.

Things aren't looking so great for the Light Blues..

The fleet that follows..

Between races some kind of James Bond boat went by..

We watched the rest of the race on the big screen, and sadly Isis won. Not be deflated, we turned our attention back to Hammersmith to wait for The Boat Race to come around the bend.

First view - see if you can spot the actual crews!

Here they come! Cambridge slightly behind.

But they were still in the game!

The fleet that follows..try and spot the Cambridge blue beanies, denoting old Blues who represented Cambridge in the Boat Race.

We watched the rest of the rest on the screen - although it was slightly obstructed..

After the race, we loitered for a while, watched the rest of the coverage on the big screen, and then headed back to the Tube to find a pub! We ended up going to Fleet Street, which is a lawyery, bankery district. Here are the Royal Courts of Justice.

View down Fleet Street, St. Paul's Cathedral in the dark distance

The pub we found was perfect, old and creaky and cramped, just how I like. Of course, that means it was very dark, so no decent pictures. Just a snap of us proclaiming our loyalty!

So, although it wasn't a great day for Cambridge, it was certainly fun. On Sunday, the rest of the university crews (Women, Women's Reserve, Lightweight Women, Lightweight Men) raced in Henley, and put in a good effort for Cambridge.

Since then, I've been living in the library. On the upside, I stopped in the local library today, and stocked up on non-academic goodies for some brain recharging. I just finished the book I had been working on for a while (The Yacoubian Building - I recommend) and want something that is distinctly unrelated to my looming exams. Trashy historical fiction it is!

GDBO!

Today's the day - the 157th Boat Race. Oxford v. Cambridge, the Championship Course, slightly more than 4 miles, from Putney to Mortlake, on the Thames in London.

The Boat Race is a huge piece of Oxford/Cambridge lore and tradition. First raced in 1829, when Cambridge challenged Oxford, it has been raced almost every year since, and is now a major sporting event, with around 250,000 lining the banks of the Thames to watch.

For the first time, I'm going to be one of them! In my first year, I watched Cambridge lose in an English pub in Paris. In second year, Cambridge lost whilst I was on an airplane. Last year, Cambridge won as I jumped up and down alone in our living room in Cleveland, streaming the BBC on my laptop. This year, I'm going to be there.

I am so so excited to finally get to experience this in person. I'm about to head down to the station to catch the train into London - cameras fully charged and ready to go!

GDBO.



(--- ---- bloody Oxford)

Women's Head of the River Race

Recap from Saturday's adventure - my crew and I ventured to London to race the Women's Head of the River Race(WeHoRR), 7k on the Thames.

We met for crew breakfast in hall, and then proceeded to the station to get the train into London. The adventures began right away, as we had an altercation with some people in the queue for tickets. It turns out you can only buy tickets one at a time on the machines, and there were seven of us. The plan had been for one person to get all the tickets to save time, but once we realised we had to get each one separately, we figured it made sense for us each to pay for them individually. Three separate people in the queue saw this and started freaking out, yelling at us about queue skipping, being foreign and not understanding the concept of queues, not considering other people's feelings, being inexcusably rude and ignorant, etc. It was really quite unpleasant. I'm not sure I've ever had anyone have a go at me quite like that. In the end, Julia ended up buying each ticket individually herself, because they couldn't handle us 'skipping the queue,' although it of course made no difference to the amount of time we had to wait. Three of us tried to explain to these people the situation, but they were having none of it. It was quite horrible actually, but we eventually got our tickets, although we missed the train we were aiming for. Fortunately, there is no shortage of trains on Saturday morning, so we hopped on the next one.

A beautiful day for an adventure

Obviously, we had provisions for the train. Percy Pig makes an appearance again

It was an absolutely stunning day

From King's Cross, we grabbed the Tube to Hammersmith (I love the Tube! I love London!)

We walked from the station to Hammersmith Bridge/the river - the tide was up and the river was sparkling!

We were using the facilities of Auriol Kensington Rowing Club, which is where we had a week-long training camp at the start of this term. (Actually, that is blog worthy, at some point). In any case, we were pretty familiar with the area, and the boathouse. It's located in between two pubs, and lots of people were out enjoying the weather and activity.

Once we had settled in, we had to deal with our boat. In order to get it from Cambridge to London, we had to de-rig (take off all the metal bits, etc., and take the boat apart (it divides into two halves)), and put it on a trailer to get to London. Unfortunately, the trailer was parked very very (very) far away from where we were putting the boat on the water, so there was a lot of carrying to be done.

Putting the boat back together

Look what I found!

Our blades, ready to go

Getting on the water (this was so much easier than on training camp, when the tide was always out. Will do a 'then and now' picture for side-by-side comparison)

(in January)

A) Note the weather. B) Not sure you can quite tell from the photo, but that is a metal grated ramp at about a forty five degree angle. When carrying a boat that weighs rather a lot, this entire process was pretty unpleasant. Going straight out onto the pontoon this weekend was a treat! (Of course, by the time the race was over, the tide was considerably lower so we did have to go up the ramp.. but that's another story).

On the water - my blade. Notice how flat the water is. This is not normal for the Tideway! Because it's such a big river, it's usually pretty choppy. We were very lucky.

Whole crew while we're waiting for the start. There are more than 300 crews that race WeHoRR, so there is a lot of loitering while all the crews get into position.

Whilst we were waiting around, I took advantage of the opportunity to recline. Yes, I am lying down in the boat.

Obviously I don't have any photos from the race, but because it's quite a big race, there are a lot of professional photographers taking pictures for purchase. Here are a couple links to some of these.

The race itself was ok, ish. We were missing 3 members of our Lents crew, and had about three outings together before the race, and our lack of experience and consistency showed during the race. Of course, we knew going into the race that we didn't have the experience in the boat, so we didn't have huge expectations. At least it was sunny!

By the time we got off the water, the sun was setting, and the river was even more beautiful.

Once we had dealt with the boat (de-rig again, carry it back to the trailer, etc.) we got changed and joined current and past members of First & Third for a pub crawl. There is an annual 'Boat Race pub crawl' (usually nearer to the actual Boat Race, but whatever), which visits pubs along the Boat Race course (the reverse of the WeHoRR course). They got started whilst we were racing (this meant we got a massive cheer as we rowed past them during the race :) ), and we joined them at pub number six, The Old Ship.

By this point, my camera battery was dying, but I did manage to get a photo of the 'super moon.' (I didn't actually know about this in advance, but I certainly noticed once the sun had set!

We continued on to The Black Lion, The Bull's Head, Ye White Hart, and ending at The Ship. This was quite enough for me, no lunch + racing meant my pint or two (or three) of cider was felt quite quickly. Nevertheless, wandering around London was awesome, as was pub crawling. At the end, we stopped for food at a Thai/curry place, as by that point we were all very very desperate for some sustenance. I had some simple egg fried noodles, which were tasty and did the job. It was a good way to finish off the night!

All in all, it was another surreal experience - visiting lots of British pubs with lots of British people, just one of the crowd! It was really great fun. There was, however, quite a lot of walking. The boat race course is 7k long, and we joined in about 2k in.. We also had to walk probably another 25-30 minutes to get to my friend's car. (She drove down from Cambridge and volunteered to take me back, as I wasn't hugely keen on cycling back from the Cambridge station post-several pints, plus I'd forgotten my bicycle lights). When we finally reached the car, I promptly fell asleep until we were essentially outside my door.

Yesterday was spent sleeping, eating, procrastinating, erging, and hanging out with friends before I begin the serious holiday work. (I've inaugurated that today by writing this mammoth post.. Hmm..)

This afternoon the plan is to attempt to go out (rowing) in a double (two people, four oars, high likelihood of falling in. Yikes). Will see how that goes!