A personal account of a ‘first outing’ by Steve Cooper
With Malcolm, Catherine, Chris, Terry, Steve, and John representing the DRC
The day started early with a 6 o’clock rendezvous at the river wall. Trailer hitched, we set off for Norwich Boat Club, picking up Chris on the way. This was my first race and I was pretty apprehensive as we fixed our numbers to the boats. Malcolm, Chris and I launched our singles and paddled towards to the start. Luckily, there was no chance of starting the race ‘cold’ with a 2.2km stretch to the finish line, and then a further 3.7km to the start. We lined up more or less in number order, and I got a chance to suss out the opposition. There seemed to be a few ‘novices’ wearing faded university boat club tee shirts, but I was not deterred.
Soon it was my turn: "26 come forwards….. 26 go!" and I was off. I was quickly passed by one of the other novice boats, last seen heading for somewhere near the top of the leader board. But I settled down, trying to keep a decent rhythm, and although I was passed by one more boat at about 2000m, I held off the rest and finished the 3700m course feeling I had made a reasonable account of myself, coming 7th out of 10 in the novice class. Malcolm finished an excellent 2nd in the VetC 1x class, and Chris came in 1min 6 secs ahead of me in a time of 17.41.
Once we got back to the NBC my relief at having finished the day’s racing unscathed was short‑lived when it transpired that an injury John was carrying was not getting any better, and that I would have to stand in for him in the experienced Davey-Churcher Open Vets double combo. Terry and I looked at each other. I was facing another 12km round trip, Terry was facing some emergency coaching.
We set off, with a 6km paddle to get into some semblance of order. My ‘novice single’ bad habits were soon apparent, made worse, I like to think, by the unfamiliarity of the boat. We progressed down to the start line to sounds of "Straighten your back….. Keep your hands level…. Don’t rush it…!"
Malcolm and Catherine were also sculling in the afternoon race, and Catherine as fellow first timer I think mirrored my slightly apprehensive expression.
Soon our number was called and we were off. Terry was at bow so I could just focus on being smoooooth. We overtook another double… Great. We pushed on and it was all feeling quite good, but after about 2000m we were closed down by two other boats that were going well. With heads down we managed to hold them off. As we approached the finish line there was encouragement from the bank by John - "COME ON DEBEN!!!" - and Terry counted me down: "5 more... 5 more... 10 more... " We finished strongly (17.04) and both of us had given it our best shot.
The Yare boat club hosted a tasty barbecue, and we politely applauded the winners, mostly from Norwich and Yare clubs. And then “Novice mixed double – Malcolm and Catherine from the DRC”. Well done, both of you (and really, I’m not sore that you beat Terry and me by 2 seconds….).
All in all great day out and a couple of pots for the DRC.
Steve C
