Head Of The Dee 2014

   Yesterday was such an exciting day for me as I had my first ever rowing race! It's safe to say I was stupidly nervous and it was the most tiring but amazing day and such a great experience. The race was in Chester, so we had to leave at 7am to get there on time! There were four different teams racing from Salford, two senior quads and two fresher eights. There were loads of races going on at the same time, but the event organisers split the day into two divisions, with roughly 120 boats in each division, so it's safe to say the river was pretty hectic throughout the day!

   As soon as we arrived, after about an hour's journey, we had to help unpack the trailer and put the eight back together as we had to take it apart the night before in order to be able to fit it onto the trailer. We had to begin by carrying the boat down a muddy slope to find a space before we could put it on the trestles, this took aaaaages as there were so many boats around! Then we had to fit it together, screw it and go about placing and screwing all the riggers and seats in place. Although we all worked quickly and efficiently it still took a fair bit of time as we had to make sure it was perfectly put together so that we didn't have any accidents on the water! 

   The boys were racing at 10am, and originally we were racing at 12noon but this got pushed back to 2pm due to the tide. The race was 4km long, and before we could even start the race we had to get in at the finish and row all the way to the start, so basically it was an 8km race rather than a 4! Us girls had it slightly luckier than the boys, as they had to row against the tide, so they were absolutely exhausted by the finish, whereas, although we were exhausted too, we were rowing with the tide, which made it slightly easier for us to get a fast time. Both teams had to row facing the sun, which was absolutely killer as it was so so hard for anyone to be able to see! Thankfully, we had an amazing cox, Charlie, who was able to tell us exactly what we had to do to avoid any accidents or collisions. 

   Before our own race we went to support the boys eight and the two senior teams, as a little support can really help you keep going when you're so exhausted towards the end. Standing amongst hundreds of supporters all cheering and clapping politely, we did feel a bit common when we saw our three boats and started shouting and screaming "COME ON SALFORD!". However, it seemed to work as we could see our crews smiling and they sped up for the final run.

   When it was finally time for us to enter the water and row to the start it's safe to say we were all absolutely petrified! It was cold and windy and we were all so nervous! There were 5 of us freshers, and 3 senior girls. We all did our best and our captain and cox were both incredibly proud of us, particularly seeing as it was our first race. We managed to do it in 19 minutes! We would have been faster but unfortunately I managed to catch two crabs, meaning we had to stop briefly so I could recover it. I managed to whack myself in the jaw the first time, and I will warn you now, it is painful as hell and the bruise and swelling you get the next day is fabulous! My whole jaw went numb and I was in a ridiculous amount of pain and stupid as it may sound, it did shake me up a fair bit. However, it has made me even more determined to train harder and keep going and pushing myself further and further so that my future races are more successful and we get faster times! It was such an amazing day and such an amazing experience, now the first race is done I know we can only get better and produce amazing results!