Norwich Head

We went to the Norwich Head which is in Norwich, oddly enough. There are two divisions, each of which is in two sections: the long course (4.2 k) and the short course (probably about 2 k). The finish is about 2 k away from the boating point; then the short course start; then the long course start. The short course goes off 15 mins before the long one, and hopefully that avoids overlaps. The river is quite a bit wider than the Cam, especially further away from the boating point, so you could easily get in 6 k pieces, which would be nice. Its not quite as scenic as the Cam, but not bad. It is tidal, though, which means results in different divisions are not directly comparable.

We trailered the boat on Friday night. Tom and Andy were doing the pair in the first division, so the rest of us got an easy time leaving Cambridge at 10:30 and meeting there around 12 to put the boat together and drink tea until our boating time of 1:39 for the division start at 2:30, though actually it was ~15 mins late. As usual there was a queue for boating and then unboating.

The pix below give some hint of what it is like. As James T texted to us: "Don't forget your wellies, it is like the Somme. Also, don't forget the riggers, like Press did...". yes, apparently poor X-Press did indeed manage to get their boat on the trailer but forgot to put the riggers in to, leading to many amusing suggestions about how they could punt or kayak their VIII.

We had a good strong steady row, nothing spectacular, but it didn't feel as though we weakened. Perhaps a little under rated, and maybe a little under-pushed. Hard to be sure. The Essex Boys came up on us off the start, and were on our tail after ~1/3 the course. Then we pushed back a bit and maybe they tired and we had the corner and we help them for a bit, before finally they had the inside of a bend and got past us. That took us to about 2/3 of the course, which is nearly back; just under the motorway bridge and home. Then a 2 k row to the boating place, and James T excelled himself by pushing us ahead in the queue in front of some 7 year old girls from Oundle in a quad; the poor things were far too well brought up to even notice his outrageous behaviour, much less complain.

And the end result? 15:28 for us and we were 5th in Division 2 4th of IM3 VIII's. I suppose we might have hoped for better, but we are just one small town boat club and Essex are an entire university, and only beat us by 30 seconds.

Afterwards, a bit of faff, some time in the pub, and a crew curry in the Maharajah. Perfect training for tomorrows half marathon.

GPS tracks: race and row to start.

And here we all are:

(photo courtesy of William Dulyea).