The main question ahead of the race was whether it would actually go ahead or not given the horrendous weather forecast. It did, and we happily set off for Peterborough, found a replacement cox (from Globe), as we found our cox drenched and freezing from an earlier race, which had not gone to plan. (The aftermath of this can be seen on the newsletter email page!) We boated in a rather choppy Nene river, and set off down the course to reach the starting line. Some strong tailwinds behind us meant whilst warming up in fours at a rate of 18 we our splits were sub 2:00, indicating the race would be somewhat of a challenge. After a perilous turn, we started and opted for a conservative rate on the choppy water. Needless to say the race felt very long…While we obviously did not put a record time down, we had some good practice in difficult waters…and we made back in one piece and relatively dry. We will be back, hopefully in more clement weather!
Words by Charles Petit
