First outing with the ladies' crew

This was my first outing with the ladies’ crew. Max was coxing and Jo was coaching.

The boat looked like this:

Stroke – Anne

7 – Beth

6 – Fran

5 – me

4 – Kathy

3 – Becky

2 – Vicky

Bow – Danielle

We used cleavers and I told Jo that I was going to be rubbish before we started. It took me half the outing to not feel completely unco with the blade, the balance was chronically down on bowside, Fran in front of me was bum-shoving in a big way and Max was abusing me for catching late. Jo called something out to me early on but I couldn’t hear her. I think it was about drawing up at the finish. I concentrated on that and might have improved. Jo had us doing some lifting exercises where we had to push with our legs so hard that we came off the seat. I think we all did it successfully and as a result the boat moved very well. We did some starts with three draws, five winds, five powers and five lengthens, and rowing fast fixed the balance, but I was shocked at the seriousness and aggression of what was happening. All the fast rowing absolutely shredded my left hand. I ended up with five really nasty and deep blisters on my palm. On top of everything, the boat was really heavy to lift, but that’s probably because we are all girls and not Rich and Zak.

I came out of that session feeling rather depressed.