So, why on earth did I decide to join the rowing team? Truth be told, I never really heard about rowing until the Royal Wedding when I heard Kate Middleton rowed at St. Andrew's. When I heard this, I thought why not? Challenge accepted!
Unfortunately for me, I am considered short, so I was a cox (I laughed too). It was great learning how to steer a boat using both the rudder and the rowers. I also faced many challenges with the infamous Elvet Bridge and competed in a few races. I got to participate in the training though which was great! I rowed in an 8 with the boys, got a chance to row in the tank, and participated in circuit training where I flipped big tires! Check out this link if you want to see me rowing in the Maiden Castle Rowing Tank. Plus me leading a tank session.
The River Wear
The River Wear is the river that flows through Durham. This is the river where we would train in coxed 4, sculling, and double boats. Sometimes we would train at 7 in the morning, and other times we would train in the afternoon. We basically trained whenever the coaches were available.
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| The straight part of the river |
Below is the Prince Bishop. This is some kind of party cruise, bar ship deal. Anyway, it is always in the way when boats are trying to go through Elvet Bridge. Coxes try to get as close to this as possible in order to get the right angle to go through the arches of the bridge.
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| The Prince Bishop |
Many people know that I have gone for an unwanted swim in the River Wear, which resulted in me becoming ill for weeks. I would usually cox for the girls, but I was asked to cox for the guys so they could do some time pieces. Wade, the big guy in Maiden Castle was coaching us. Something had been off with the guys hand heights the entire time, so Wade was trying to fix this. We were preparing to begin a time piece from frontstops when we started to tip. One guy thought we were going in for sure (because he has fallen in before) and decided to lean toward the river. That move made us slowly flip the boat. You could literally see your fate coming at you. It is sad because we weren't even moving. Below is the bloody spot where it happened.
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| The infamous spot where we flipped the boat... in front of Wade... |
Below are some pictures of Elvet Bridge. I want to show these pictures because these arches are a pain to get through as a novice cox! Arch 1 is much easier, but because you have to stay to the right side of the river, so you must use arch 2 when going down to the bottom. I have made it through the number 2 arch twice without blades even touching the sides! We will not discuss other times... but coxing through these arches is just like a video game... so it's rather fun to do! Tip: try to line yourself up where the arch comes to a point. If you are even the slightest bit crooked, blades will touch the bridge.
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| Elvet Bridge |
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| The 4x on the left went through arch 1, the double on the right is going through arch 2... they hit the bridge |
A big thing in Durham is to dress up in crazy costumes and themes if you are going out with a group or club. DUBC is no exception. Here are some pics from the "Anything but clothes," "Bow vs. Stroke (vs. Cox)," and pre-season socials for the Freshers.
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| Anything But Clothes: Rachel H., Isobel, Rachel S., Kitty, & Me |
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| George, Me, & Isobel |
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| Bow (green) vs. Stroke (red) vs. Cox (yellow) |
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| Hannah, Rachel H., Me & Mary in Grey's Bar |
During this social, Seb, Kitty, and Amy were trying very hard to teach me proper English. Let's just say I need more practice.
You may question what is going on in the picture directly below... but we were faced with the challenge to fit as many people into a phone booth as possible. My team won with 8 people! And rowers aren't small!
Challenge Accepted.
You can see me on the top left of the booth. I was hugging Rachel Shaw and Rachel Howarth at the top!
We are a classy bunch. So once a year, DUBC dresses in their best for the DUBC formal. We have a few guest speakers, a nice meal, and a dance floor. It is a great night to hang out with everyone outside of their kit.
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| DUBC Formal |
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| George, Seb, Helen, Kitty, Me, George, Rachel S. & Mary |
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| The Boys |
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| James A., Helen, & James H. |
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| Fred and George |
We are an accomplished bunch I would say! Not only are we attending a top university, but we also win gold medals! Click this link to see a bit from BUCS. It is a bow loader, so you can just barely see my head. Here are a few from our races in the Epiphany Term. One of our "trophies" was a wine glass. I say this one is rather useful! The other was a ribbonless medal.
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| 1st place at Durham Head of the River |
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| 1st place 4+ at BUCS |
My teammates were lovely! I loved each of the girls: Jo, Becky, Rachel S., Rachel H., Mary, Helen, Kitty, Hannah, Mel, Louisa, Amy, Anna, & Tilly. The boys were great as well! They were all like little brothers: Ginger George, Bodybuilder George, Seb, Ben M., James C., James A., James H., Rowan, Niel, Fred, Chris and Little Matt. The coaches were pretty chill too: Debbie and Matt.
Memes became really big while I was in Durham. Below is one that can describe coxing perfectly:
Yea Durham! x
Thank-you Alicia. That was fun to read. It gives your Mom a real sense of what rowing is all about there in Durham. Sounds like you are all having a lot of fun although it is also a lot of hard work.
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