Shortly after learning about my
friend's death, I coxed a race in Cambridge. It was good for me to do it - in the past I've found coxing to be a really good way of forcibly thinking about something else for a bit, whilst also getting outside and being in the company of other people. The crew (a men's four) was made up of a bunch of
alumni from my old college, including my boyfriend who (like one of the others)
had already rowed the full 4.3km course in the morning, before taking on the
shorter but not insignificant 3.4km course in the afternoon. We had hoped to
represent all our new clubs in our kit, but there was quite a lot of college
kit in the boat anyway! I was meant to be representing Staines, but my race
number covered up a lot of the 'Staines Boat Club' on my back, and my legs
aren't really long enough for the leggings to be seen clearly in photographs.
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| L-R: Cross Keys BC, Murray Edwards BC, City of Oxford RC, Reading RC, Staines BC. All ex-Peterhouse BC! |
The crew was put together very much
at the last minute: even about 15 minutes before the race, we didn't really know
which boat we would be using (we were borrowing one from another club), and we
hadn't settled a crew order until we all arrived at the boat house. Perhaps
most worryingly, the first stroke which the crew took all together was the
first stroke of our wind for the
race...so we really couldn't have had any less preparation if we'd tried! In
contrast, our main opposition (another alumni crew from our old college) had
had a reasonably long practice outing earlier in the day, which had in fact
been coxed by me. I was tempted to try and sabotage them, but decided that
wouldn't be very sportsmanlike. Instead, I used the knowledge of their
weaknesses to urge my own crew on!
Over the course, we did reasonably
well, considering that two of the four rowers were exhausted before they
started (and one of those rather worse for wear, being a few pints down...) and
one of the other two began having an asthma attack about halfway down the
river. Add these things to the pre-mentioned facts that a) we hadn't had ANY
practice and had no race plan and b) we'd never sat in the boat before, and we
felt pretty proud to come in seven whole seconds in front of the other crew!
Sure, we weren't fastest out of the whole field, but we did reasonably well
nonetheless and given that there could have been NOBODY less-prepared than us,
I think we were pretty outstanding. :)
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| It says a lot that this is the best photo of us from the dinner that followed the race. Now in matching blazers! |
The next weekend, I had two races in
the annual Cambridge Christmas Head – a fun race where people dress up and try
to win whilst trying to appear that they aren't taking it too seriously.
Firstly I was coxing a women's eight, then I was rowing at bow in a mixed four.
The first race went OK, although I was a bit annoyed that my line on the first
corner was messed up by a fisherman standing on the other side of it. I'm not
annoyed that he was there – I went nice and wide to avoid him, because I have
no interest in damaging his lines – but it was a shame that he was on that
corner, since they were using that corner to judge for a coxing prize! Never
mind; we had a pretty good row despite that corner, and despite the fact that
the timer was broken on the cox box, and halfway down the course I got very
close to permanently locking the iPhone that my 7-woman had lent me to use as a
timer, so I had to give up on trying to find times... It was the first race in
our newly-refurbished boat, so that was quite exciting.
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| Saving energy. |
After that, I GOT TO ROW! I was
rowing at bow in a college boat – one other girl rowing, two chaps, and a girl
coxing. We'd put the two chaps in stern pair and the girls in bow pair, mostly
so that I could have the maximum possible leverage for pulling the boat around
or helping it go in a straight line (I was by far the weakest person in the
boat, which doesn't bother me – I am disabled!). It was also quite good for me
to row on bowside instead of strokeside, since until this summer I'd never done
that, and it's something I'd like to be able to keep up with. Again, we didn't
win but we had a good time and for me it was just nice to get out in a boat and
be one of the ones with an oar in my hand instead of just holding the rudder
wires (which I do also enjoy, of course).
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| Rowing up to the start - I'm furthest away from the camera! |
After the race, I came home for
Christmas, which feels really good. I can now play with the dog all the time
and generally just relax a lot more. Nevertheless, I've done a fair bit of academic
work, especially after I went to my Masters graduation a few days ago and
learnt how much work one of my fellow first-year-PhD-students is doing (or
claims to be doing!).
Apart from that, I've had two other
interesting things happen, one of which is very short and can be imparted very
quickly – we have new jackets! In honour of my brilliant coach, the 'Cambridge
Para-Rowing' jacket is now A Thing, and
they look awesome. I designed it for her, then realised how much I would regret
it if I didn't get my own one. Then that turned into another Cambridge
para-rower getting one too, and another coach...so now we will all look
spectacular.
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| Behold the glory! |
The other thing is a little longer.
I went to see an Ehlers-Danlos specialist in London – an appointment I've been
waiting for for about a year! She was brilliant and just understood everything,
although I'm now annoyed with myself that I didn't remember to mention a few of
the more random things. I ended up having extra blood tests and X-rays done and
(I hope!) I am now on a waiting list for some inpatient rehab, which will teach
me more about EDS and about how to live with it, as well as giving me lots of
intensive physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, and all sorts of other therapies. It
sounds like hard work, but definitely something I'd like to do. The rehab is at
the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, so they clearly know what they're
doing. I expect it'll be quite a long time before I move to the top of the
list, but it does make me feel more positive that there will be something there
to help me cope.
Other than that, health has been strange. I'm much more wobbly on my legs at the moment than I have been in a while, and I've had one night of feeling (and being) very sick, which makes my heart go far too fast, which makes my arm ache until it all calms down, and makes me feel dizzier than usual. I've also had quite a naughty left knee, which has now popped in and out of place so much that it's all rather bruised and looks a bit manky now, to be honest! Still, being at home is good for me and I'm doing my best to be sensible and to look after myself.
Recently I've also been to the London
International Horse Show at Olympia – it was brilliant, of course, but I will
have to save that for the next post as my fingers and wrists are definitely
giving up now. I will leave you with a picture of Rosie, who has suddenly discovered that this brown blanket is heated.
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| Dog beds are so unnecessary when you have a heated blanket with a foot underneath it. |
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