We started with a sunny paddle up to the marshalling area. It felt very special to row past hundreds of strong junior, university, club and masters women on international women’s day. We were excited to row in Quintin colours for the first time, and put our hard work to the test.
After a short time marshalling, we stopped complaining about not bringing enough pre-race sweets and started manifesting a good race. We were number 150 so we were nestled amongst some strong crews, staying focused and relaxed was really important.
The race started straight into a headwind, but we stayed on it through Barnes bridge and around the bend towards Hammersmith. Settling into an efficient rate 30 rhythm. We past under Hammersmith bridge to friends cheering and whistling, catching up to two boats just waiting for us to overtake. Ellie did a phenomenal job of navigating these boats while maintaining our engagement through the “deadzone” (Despite calling “1000m to go” at the mile post, luckily we were too tired to calculate the difference!).
We finished the race with another overtake, passing the line of boats to the sound of the band on the embankment and cheers from Imperial Boatclub.
We all had an incredible day on the river, and thank Quintin for the opportunity to race for them.
