Saturday - Regatta
You have to get up at around 5.15 am this morning because you have to have a shower, do your hair, get dressed, have breakfast, pack your bag and be at school for 6.30am. The bus leaves school at 6.30 to take you to the regatta. Beware. The bus does not have a roll book. It goes at 6.30 on the dot. And if you miss it, you have to go down in your car yourself, and parents are not usually happy with that idea.
When you get to the regatta site, you wait for the boats to arrive. When the boats arrive, guess what you must do now? Well, theres no riggers on the boats at the moment. And with no riggers, you can't put the oars in. And it's really difficult to row a boat with no oars. So you have to unload the trailer and go through all the hassle of putting the riggers back on the boats now. Did you remember your spanner? If you didn't, you better hide from the coaches, because they will kill you. And don't bother standing in a crowded place either. Rowing coaches don't have the brain capacity to care about witnesses.
Once you have the boats rigged, it's time for some 'crew bonding' before your race. This is basically your crew sitting down, talking about how you are going to lose the race. Along with some pathetic jokes, you will notice that this 'crew bonding' session is not usually attended by the coach. In fact, the coach generally doesn't turn up until 10 minutes before you launch, and give you a little pep talk. This is what it generally is like :
"Good luck out there guys. Have a good race. Don't worry if you don't win, just get out there and do your best. Now go run. "
After your run, you have to walk with your boat on your shoulders through a crowd of people, while attempting to look like its really easy. Hmm. Try to make a good impression on the spectators please. Knocking old granies with your boat does not a good impression make.
Then you launch. And you have to warm up on your way to the start line. No matter how cool and calm you tell yourself you are, this is when you get butterflies. Big butterflies. But there's no turning back now.
Finally it is time for your race. You have to line up at the start line with umpires yelling at you, other crews yelling at out, crews crashing into you and so on. You also have to sit at your start position the whole time, being completely ready because you are always caught by surprise when the starter says