We won! Not the whole thing, naturally, but our own little section: the IM3 mixed VIII's. It was not a crowded section, there were two boats in it, but nonetheless we felt we'd rowed well, and it was really nice to get a pot for it. Note: this was on Saturday 28 March 2015; I'm behind in my posts.

Originally, we were going to be a MasC mixed VIII, which left us rather stuck with Bailee, who unlike the rest of us is Young. We hadn't quite made the unpalatable choice between kicking her out (nooooo!) or keeping her, and giving back a pot if we won it (nooooo!), when Vesta made it for us, by opening the race to non-Vet crews.

Full results are available at http://d8qhkz6a47cpe.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/FINAL_results.pdf. We got 21:34, beating Bradford by nearly two minutes. But we would have won the MasC category, since our average age was well into the 40's, beating Sons of the Thames / AK by nearly 3 seconds, and two others in that category.

If you care to watch it, there's a GoPro video from the 6 seat, showing mostly Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ6amR1hrtI.

Here we all are: James Tidy; Bailee Stratton; Sarah Coates-Holland; William Connolley; Chris Wood; Dave Byrne; Dave Richards; Meg Richards; Anne Roberts.

Afterwards, to the Bull just a few hundred yards away on the river front, and very good it was too. And we talked, of our glorious race, but also of What To Do About Tomorrow: because tomorrow was the HoRR, and the weather forecast was Bad. And we'd been burnt last year. There was a real safety concern (we'd have at least one tideway novice) and a rather less focussed but real concern that turning up, possibly faffing on the river for hours, only to see it cancelled, would be depressing. Opinions varied; in the end, we essentially went for scrubbing it, which I still somewhat regret, because the HoRR did turn out to be on, though conditions were clearly non-optimal. hey ho, so it goes.

Outside the pub, long after the race, the Thames has shrunk to a thread. Deeply symbolic of something, I imagine.

Oh, yes: and I should add: we trailered with Champs (thanks!) to ULBC. Which is even further out than Sons. So, its convenient to get to, and they have a nice big boathouse and serve food and drink. And its easy to park nearby. All big plusses. The big minus is, of course, the row back after the race. As it happened, this one time, we were rowing so well that it really wasn't a problem. However, in a strong wind (like there would have been on the Sunday) or in a crew making heavy going, it would have been hell.