All race reports for Penelope Jenkins
Event: Lent Bumps 2011 - Wednesday
Posted as: P. Jenkins
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Event: Lent Bumps 2011 - Saturday
Posted as: Penelope
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Josh, please promise me not to stroke again any time soon - I haven't felt this miserable since the beginning of Michaelmas.
Event: Cambridge Winter Head 2011 - Student Senior VIIIs
Posted as: Penelope
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After some impressive roll-ups and some nice basking in the sunshine in the queue to marshalling, we set off down First Post Reach at a nice, loose rhythm, steadily gaining on Tit Hall ahead of us. Staying sharp round the corners we pushed out of them nicely, gaining boat speed down the Gut and Plough Reach.
And then we heard Maggie behind us as we came onto the Reach. Individual decisions were made to take one for the team and push individually. A concerted move coming past the Kink pushed them away, but they were quick to respond. Off the Railway Bridge we managed to regain some rhythm and hold them off, but it was evident that we had lost the focus on rowing neatly and together and were just desperately trying to get rid of them. This unfortunately culminated in an exciting side-by-side race to the finish line.
A good race experience, we walk away from it knowing that we must be and stay more impassive and composed, that it's about us, not them.
Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2011 - 1st division
Posted as: Penelope
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Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2011 - Plate
Posted as: Penelope
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Event: Novice Fairbairn Cup 2011 - 2nd division
Posted as: Penelope
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But it was definitely worth it, if purely for the comedy value of yesterday afternoon, which involved Alex and I coxing from the bow and stroke seats of the tub and ignoring Jack; me (unnecessarily) diagonally sculling said tub whilst Jack tried to climb over me to help Alex put her seat back on, thereby nearly capsizing it; Aaron chasing down animals, talking some non-rowing nonsense at me and then telling me off for laughing at what he was saying; and me pushing the hardest in the NM5 Coastal during "race pace" pieces. As fun as they were, three hours to learn to row probably wasn't enough.
As for today, aside from my general spannering about, nearly catching three crabs and apparently catching early as well as not having finishes, this was a good row for an essentially scratch crew! Well done Ellie for staying so patient and keeping us relaxed all the way through, and thank you for the "Push for Penelope". Also, "AAANGEEER!!!" seemed to be a good call for this crew.
We should, however, learn some Christmas carols in their entirety. And to roar properly.
Event: Robinson Head 2012 - 1st division
Posted as: Penelope
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We fulfilled the objective of staying calm and composed despite a few strokes when things threatened to go terribly wrong. But we recovered well, maintaining a good rhythm down the Reach and sharpening into and pushing off the Railway Bridge. The power didn't seem to drop from then on, which was quite satisfying.
Finishing 10 seconds behind Robinson still baffles me, but we've decided to attribute it to our rather conservative race plan.
Same composure coupled with more roar should bode well for Pembroke Regatta.
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2012 - 1st division
Posted as: Penelope
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Event: Pembroke Regatta 2012 - 1st division
Posted as: Penelope
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Well done, boys! We can justifiably be proud and confident in our abilities.
Event: Lent Bumps 2012 - Thursday
Posted as: Penelope
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The row up to marshalling lacked confidence, I feel we were unsure as to whether we would be able to defy expectations that we would fall to Queens'. Shotgunning the bench next to Maggie's marshalling position was comical, but then we decided being antisocial would be more appropriate and edged back towards our bit of land. Our spirits were lifted upon hearing that W1 had bumped, and our row down to the start went better. Barrell apparently doesn't like being called a "good boy". He shall be from now on.
After a wobbly few strokes, we found some steadiness at 43 before an effective stride to 37 then 35. Jacob called the first push about 15 strokes before First Post Corner and the second just before coming out of it. Maggie going slightly wide at Grassy came into sight and I suddenly became ultra-keen for the perfect line. We pushed outside the Plough, had the usual wobble, and Queens' bowball appeared on my right as a nice reminder to stay tight round Ditton. A push into the corner and an all-mighty "flat-out" push round the corner made this possible.
Out of Ditton Queens' started to gain, and got to overlap probably around the railings. A series of bumps pushes down the Reach allowed us to fluctuate between at least a foot of overlap and 2 feet of clear water. Realising at the Railway Bridge that we could and would row over, we seemingly unanimously became very angry at the prospect of this not happening, and it would appear that we absorbed their push into the Bridge as their bowball faded out of sight. This allowed us to regain some composure and rhythm off the Bridge with a nice little reset around the Kink.
And then with 40 strokes to go their bowball turns up on my left for some reason. We push again. 30 strokes to go and it's still there, eager to pounce forwards. But we sharpen up with 20 strokes left, I start steering even more evasively, and they slowly start to fall back, rowing over 2 metres behind us according to McKelvie.
I feel that this race has truly brought us together as a crew and shown how far we've come; that we know for sure that every other person in the boat will believe in us as a unit for as long as we believe in us; that we can say that we are a top 5 crew with confidence and pride - cheering from Downing and Pembroke on the row home would suggest so too. And for that I am most grateful to Queens' who put up an excellent fight!
I am so proud of you, boys; more of the same tomorrow, but let's keep them further away.
Event: Cardinal's Regatta 2012 - Fancy Dress
Posted as: Penelope
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After Bumps, we coxes turned our attention to the most important race of the year: Catz Cardinals. Our strict training plan advocated five outings in the VIII between the Saturday before the race and raceday, not to mention countless tubbing and coastal sessions beforehand. Needless to say Saturday's second session took place in the pub, Sunday was spent pottering about the river much to the entertainment of everyone in the vicinity, Monday pondering over costumes, we enjoyed Tuesday as a day off, and decorated fairy cakes on Wednesday.
The sun was out, our bribes were excellent, our costumes infallible, and good connections got us a by to the afternoon races. Victory was in the air as we sauntered down to the boathouse. Ellie most skillfully transformed us into fearsome lions, wacky headdress and lifejackets were donned, Ali sported some one piece long johns creation, conveniently red to blame any crashes on incompetent Maggie coxing, and the seediest hat he could find.
We had an excellent crashless row up to marshalling. There was entertainment in the form of rowing stern pair and 3 and 4 only, as well as some wonderfully confusing call which resulted in Alasdair being the only person rowing to get us round a corner. Unfortunately this did not turn the boat the wrong way.
We would have won the marshalling prize had there been one: Ali seeking the marshalls' attention with "OI!", raving it up riverside by playing music through the coxbox, being unable to describe our fancy dress theme to another equally baffling crew, and just general abuse of everything around us. And thus we headed off unto the Reach full of certainty that, having just perfected our roar, we would terrify the opposition into negative cover and dominate the event. All the way down the Reach we held the Spares pause-paddling behind us. This boded well.
Tit Hall chose flight over fight, and so we were served Geoboat, who unfortunately managed to talk their way into racing someone less imposing. The marshalls kindly gave us cowboys and aliens with whom to play. A worthier opponent.
And then the race occurred. We held them a quarter of a length up for the first stroke, that was exciting, before it became apparent that they could *actually* row. Spoilsports rowed through us with no attempt to look special. The rest of the race itself was rather uneventful: we all rowed at half-slide, I blew up before the Railings, Ali went in for a blade clash, Em shrieked on every stroke, and other spastic things most certainly happened.
The row home was some of the best paddling we'd done: Ali sung to us beautifully and got propositioned by a couple of barge owners, we took small naps inbetween strokes and performed very accurate slap-catches; Lianne would be most proud. Thornton then decided we should look like real rowers and demanded pause-paddling followed by low rate work. The latter was outstanding if one discounts the rush creeping in every fourth stroke. So much so that someone in the Clare II Blue Boat felt the need to strip.
Having recovered from all this exertion with crew Tatties, we have now set our sights on entering May Bumps and overbumping a silly figure to Head of the River 2012. Caius, watch out!
Event: Nottingham City Regatta 2012 - Senior3 IV+
Posted as: Penelope
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All in all a much better race than we had expected. After a warm-up which seemed slightly shaky with too much focus outside the boat, we had a particularly nice first km, followed by a rather artificial and forced third 500 and a seriously painful last 500.
Oh and somewhere around 1300m in "we seem[ed] to have caught up with Goldie". That was exciting.
Event: Champion of the Thames Eights Head 2012 - Men's 2nd Div. Mays
Posted as: Penelope
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Personally speaking marshalling was great: I befriended the Maggie M2 bowman as we held on to one another to avoid drifting across the Reach, and the King's M1 cox has no sense of camaraderie or cooperation as he turned down my suggestion to do the same whilst he was actually failing even more than I was to stay tucked in. Not at all bitter.
Event: City Sprints 2012 - Men's Mays Division1
Posted as: Penelope
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Event: City Sprints 2012 - Men's Mays Division1
Posted as: Penelope
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Whilst bringing several of us our first pot with FaT, it felt rather confusing and perhaps slightly easy.
