Vesta’s Masters Head race day seemed to come around in a flash! Being a mixed VIII was a fantastic experience despite the fact that we’d had very little opportunity to train together as a full crew – I count twice!
We were fortunate with the weather, there had been a small risk of rain which luckily didn’t happen.
Marshalling seemed to take for ages, not helped by a pause in the race due to the unfortunate need for someone needing medical assistance in another boat, but finally we got started and crossed the start line full of adrenalin.
Having Jose as our amazing cox made the race fun and we all switched on with focussed rowing as best we could with his calm & consistent skill encouraging us throughout – it really helped sustain us over the 7km course from Chiswick to Putney.
With an average rate of 1.44 / 500m (our best being 1.38 in the last 500m 🙌) in our category against 11 boats we finished 4th (6th with age handicap added). Considering D category in isolation we finished 2nd out of 6!
With a quick pit stop at London Rowing Club in the return where Ainslie bumped into Imogen Grant (2024 Olympic gold medalist) we paddled back to the club feeling great!
