The Club's Results

The recent cold weather had us figuring on a 50/50 chance of the race going ahead. Extensive ice on Plough Reach meant that the course was shortened from the spinning area on the reach to men's top finish. The cold made the wait on the reach unpleasant, but Mark kept our spirits up by making this the most medically educational marshaling I've ever experienced.

Matt told us to push hard as the race would be over before we realized, and I was worried that the first half would be spent warming our stiffened muscles.

We built the power nicely from our rolling start and maintained a comfortable 33 for most of the reach. We had been working on time into frontstops on the row up and this paid dividends as the rhythm was good, with enough length and ratio for me to sit comfortably in the 7 seat laying down power.

We wobbled under the railway bridge, and lost a bit of our rhythm and stride. I lost feeling in my fingers and implemented a novice death grip in an effort to make sure my hands stayed on the blade.

Our wind for the finish was scrappy, but did the job. Not very well paced on my part, but I guess pacing doesn't really come into bumps strategy anyway....

Thank you to Mark for braving the temperatures and super subbing, to Matt for braving my tiny bike and bank partying and Yimin for the sympathy measure of taking off his coat to bank party so he'd be cold too. (Julia A.)

Mark gave us a lot to think about on the row down (thank you!), being particularly persistent about eliminating the rush up the slide. Despite the long and carefree queueing, I think this took effect in the race. By carefree I mean focusing on keeping our hands warm and being reminded that hypothermia is one of eight causes of cardiac arrest.

The awareness of how short the race was made us really attack it in the way we hadn't done before, so the Reach felt strong and tidy. A very bad stroke under the Railway Bridge threw us off and we never really got it back completely, but the commitment was still there. Winding for the finish (bump) is something we have to work on, but this performance was definitely a step up.

The general consensus was that starting Bumps like that, or even more front-loaded, was perfectly fine, and that we have to implement that into our training. Definitely the best piece we've done so far. (Nina)