White Rose Head 2014

   Yesterday saw me in my second rowing race, the White Rose Head 2014. I was ridiculously excited to be racing again, because despite injuring myself in my first one, the adrenaline rush and the atmosphere of a race is absolutely incredible. Once again, we were up at 6am to meet everyone at 7am and set off for York. Instead of going in cars, this time we had a minibus, and I think more or less everyone slept on the journey there! Despite the fact we all had hundreds of layers on it still didn't keep us warm, it was absolutely freezing! All any of us wanted to do was get set up, on the water and race as quickly as possible.
   Despite being freshers, we were racing as seniors, due to the fact we had our captain, Ciara, in our boat, and York know from last year that she's a senior. However, Ciara said we shouldn't let this put us off as she would compare our time with the other freshers instead. When we began rigging up BSE it all started to go wrong. In order to split her on Friday night to go on the trailer, the footplate at number 4 had to be removed and then put back on after she'd been split. However, when the footplate had been reattached it hadn't been tightened as securely as it should have been. This meant that when she was on the trailer travelling to York the vibrations had caused the footplate to come loose and it had fallen off. Obviously you can't row when you're missing a footplate... There was absolutely no way we were going to be able to race at 10:30am as we were supposed to, and despite hunting for a spare footplate there weren't any as they're not really something you tend to carry around with you. Therefore, Ellen and Frankie went on a hunt to borrow a boat we could use, as there was no way we could race with BSE. It's safe to say it was a very stressful and hectic morning, none of us knew what was happening! Ellen and Frankie couldn't find us a boat to allow us to race in Division 1, but they could get us one for Division 2, but this meant we would need a different cox, as both Ellen and Charlie were either racing or coxing in Division 2. This is when all the chaos really started! Ciara went running round asking everyone if they had a spare cox, and the University of Hull came to our rescue, providing us with both a cox and a boat for Division 2, so we were going to be able to race after all!
   It was all a bit hectic from then on, as we only had nine minutes to get in the water before penalties started, and we were all in an unfamiliar boat with an unfamiliar cox and it was all just a bit crazy! Anyway, we managed to get to our starting position, the penultimate boat, and then had to sit and wait until it was our turn to start. It's safe to say by the time we did start we were absolutely freezing so were desperate to get warmed up! It was a slightly shorter race than in Cheshire, only 3km instead of 4. We were in a men's boat which was absolutely rubbish because the shoes are soooo much bigger than in a woman's, but we all managed and we were all really impressed with how well we kept a decent rate going throughout. It was just the most amazing feeling to be racing again, and I didn't catch a crab this time so I was absolutely over the moon about that! We got a lot of support from Hull supporters, as being in their boat and having their cox, I think we confused everyone a fair bit!
   After we'd finished we went back and surprised Abi with her birthday cake and just had a laugh on the journey back. Then it was all about getting showered and ready to go out and celebrate Abi's birthday! Overall, it was just the most amazing day and it was the most incredible feeling to be racing again. I could definitely tell I'd improved since the last race, and how much the intensive training last weekend benefited me as well as I felt my technique was much sharper than it has been previously. We were absolutely over the moon to find out we'd gone and won, bring on the next one!