MeHoRR... like WeHoRR, only more manly. We men had, after an heroic training programme (strictly limiting ourselves to at most two outings a week) and a mad scramble for a sub (thanks to Scott-from-Essex) arrived on the sunny banks of the Thames to find the boat left for us by the ladies from yesterday. Everyone turned up, even a surprisingly unbloodied Steve P, and all was ready in time. Top tip: the queue for the loo is much shorter at AK than Furnival.

TL; DR: 20:29, start 219 finish 183; three overtakes; a good row.

Boating was uncontroversial, as was getting across the river and warming up and getting to our marshalling point. Except... where exactly was our marshalling point? We got somewhere, but it seemed empty, so we went further... and further... until a marshall told us we'd come too far. We needed to spin, go back, and re-park lower down. Which was fine, as we wanted to do some rowing with the stream anyway. A little later we did an impromptu 360 due to some rather unkind positioning by another crew, but then we all started moving up as the racing crews came down, and before you knew it we were above Chiswick waiting for our turn to spin... a few strokes down to the bridge to settle ourselves... and we're off.

After that, we did 20:29 minutes of largely undifferentiated rowing, which is how it should be in a head race. Apparently 5 and 6 couldn't hear Keith because the middle speaker was broken, but that's fine, you don't need to hear the cox anyway :-). My GPS trace, and Steve P's, says we got a pretty good line except perhaps around the big bend - I bet it has a proper name, I'll call it the bend opposite Furnival - where we cut the corner a bit. We overtook three crews, which also called for a bit more push to squeeze past them, and had 221 coming for us on the finish line. After which comes the traditional "it's a bit further back to Furnival from here than I thought". Then de-rigging and splitting and a pint, and we're off back to the calmer waters of the Cam.

Which reminds me: Wx today: pretty good really. Well, it wasn't cancelled, for one thing. No rain, some sun, little wind, perhaps a bit of a headwind but nothing to complain about.

Vidz

* The Keithcam
* My riggercam
* A truely fascinating video of us taking the boat out at Furnival and de-rigging it, in case you wonder what Funival looks like.

Comparisons

Conor pulled out all the Cambridge crews. We didn't beat Pembroke or Tabs 1 or Nines first crew... well, you get the idea. But we were only a second behind Nines 2, and Robs; and we beat Jesus and Queens and Kings and Peterhouse.

Pembroke - 19:13.4 - 50
Trinity Hall - 19:28.8 - 72
Nines C - 19:32.0 - 77
Robinson - 19:39.6 - 94
Downing - 19:45.9 - 107
Cantabs A - 19:55.9 - 125
Clare - 20:01.8 - 138
Magdalene - 20:03.0 - 140
Fitzwilliam - 20:10.0 - 155
City A - 20:11.8 - 158
Caius - 20:16.9 - 163
FaT A - 20:17.5 - 164
Corpus - 20:23.3 - 174
Emmanuel - 20:23.8 - 175
Nines B - 20:28.8 - 180
Rob Roy - 20:29.5 - 182
Chesterton - 20:29.6 - 183
St Catz - 20:29.8 - 184
Hughes Hall - 20:36.1 - 194
Jesus - 20:41.4 - 200
King’s - 20:42.4 - 202
FaT B - 20:46.1 - 206
Queens’ - 20:49.2 - 213
Peterhouse - 20:58.6 - 223
Sidney - 21:02.7 - 227
Nines A - 21:12.8 - 233
Cantabs B - 21:14.1 - 235
Champs - 21:15.9 - 237
Trinity Hall B - 21:20.3 - 240
City B - 21:36.3 - 254
Emma B - 21:49.0 - 260

Thoughts

Out technique is of course by no means perfect, but actually it is pretty good. As Steve P and I agreed amongst ourselves afterwards. We are now - in fact we have been for some time - at the stage where we're fairly well jelled together, and know each others styles, and can work within that. What we aren't - and I'm leading the charge here - is strong enough.