Torpids Rush

Imagine running, sprinting at top speed. Imagine that feeling, being totally out of breath and feeling like you're hyperventilating. That was the feeling today at Torpids. I looked up, and realized that we hadn't even made it to Donnington bridge - maybe 1/8th of the race course. It was like sprinting for a 100 m, and then realizing that there is still a kilometer to go. You just...can't sprint for so long. So. It was completely insane. But we bumped a boat (caught up to a boat in front of us - the whole point of the race)! It was a bit strange, since we rowed right into the stern of St Anthony's (sorry, StAntz cox - i think i really whacked you there) and i thought we'd bumped them. But our cox gave the call to keep rowing at race pace, so we did, and it turned out that St Ants had already bumped out. So we got Wolfson/Lincoln - who did we get? Anyway, we did what we set out to do. And it felt damn good - to make it through the first day of Torpids. I thought my chest might explode. And then after we bumped and settled, it was such adrenaline rush i was shaking and then hyper for about an hour.

If you have no idea what i'm talking about - its the rules of bumps racing and its a strange and funny beast - where you're trying to overtake another boat in front of you - called "bumping". There are several ways this can be achieved, one of which is actually making physical contact with a boat - bumping into them.

Stay tuned. Next race tomorrow.