Win for Chesterton at The Great Ouse Marathon 2024

On the First Sunday in September the Isle of Ely Rowing Club hosts the Annual Great Ouse Marathon. The marathon starts at West Norfolk rowing club, 50 metres upstream from the iconic Denver Sluice that regulates the passage of the Great Ouse to the North Sea. After a rolling start the river Great Ouse winds 22km through the Fens toward Ely.

The Chesterton crews entered this year were Felicity Parker in a single scull and Steve Humphrey and myself, Lorraine Turvill in a Mas E Mixed Double Scull.

It was with some trepidation that we headed to WNRC on a fine morning. Steve and I have been rowing together as a Mixed Double for a little over a year and we’d come a long way since our first race together, a 550m sprint at the Cambridge Autumn Regatta almost a year ago to the day. We’d completed just a couple of long rows in preparation for the race, to try and ingrain that light and fluffy rhythm which is usually suggested for a race of this length, but mainly we’d tried to protect our hands in preparation for the long row.

With a last banana stuffed into my mouth we were off. We established a strong pace and a good rhythm but it was very promptly interrupted as we headed for the bank and got stuck in the reeds. Not a good start.

While it’s tempting to sprint ahead we kept in mind that it’s a marathon, endurance being the key. We stuck to our planned rhythm, focussing on consistent strokes and steady breathing, our heartbeats in sync.

Steve was in bow and expertly navigated the boat around the bends. We began to pass a few boats and a couple of faster crews slowly gained on us. We passed under Ten Mile Bank bridge and The Ship pub marking halfway. Our timings were good, helped by a gentle ENE breeze passing half way at 50 minutes, much faster than one hour we’d hoped for. We’d stocked the boat with bananas and gels and talked about stopping to refuel but we both felt strong and decided to press on not feeling the time taken stopping would be worth the added boost of fuel.

As we passed under Littleport Bridge we had the famous 5k straight to go to the finish. At this point there are distance markers every 1km. We began to count them down. At this stage muscles are starting to ache and blisters are starting to make their presence felt and we had to dig deep, pushing through the pain. We’re not just racing against others, we’re racing against ourselves, our limits and our doubts. Together we rallied through the fatigue, pushing our bodies to the max. With the finish line in sight, we poured every ounce of strength into our final push. As we crossed the line, realisation hit us, we did it!

We drifted to a stop and as the adrenaline seeps out of us, every blister and muscle is hurting as we row back to the boat club. With the boat out of the water and finally refueling with sausage rolls and cake we look at the results. Our final time was 1 hour 43 minutes. Ten minutes faster than our nearest rival. We’d won! Unlike the usual pots as prizes Isle of Ely gives the winners trees! We picked up a Malus Sylvestris (Flowering Crab Apple) and a Betula Pubescens (Downy Birch) which we’ll plant in the garden to remind us for years to come of our first win together.

CRA town bumps 2024

Well, here we are again: town bumps. Overall results: O4 - up 3; W3 - up 3; M3 - down 1; W2 - down 1; M2 - down 3; W1 - up 2; M1 - down 1; Overall +2, and 4th in the John Jenner trophy! O4 was Christ’s staff; M1 rowed in Christ’s lovely Filippi. Compare: 2023, 2022.

When not rowing I (William) was droning (occasionally at the expense of my stated marshalling and poling duties, but there was always someone there); my playlist is here. That list has a few from Jo; see more of her’s here.

Of M1

Crew: cox: Theo von Wilmowski, stroke Harry Bulstrode, Jon Hachett, Conor Burgess, Jonathon Pilgrim, Lars Okkenhaug, David O'Loughlin, William Connolley, Klaus Okkenhaug.

Tuesday: GPS. Harry's GoPro. Grey, stopped raining, river up. Arrived early for warmup on ergs and quick starts together. Good start outside Plough (1:25). Four minute gun just as we came onto station, mild panic but plenty of time. Ever so slightly over-angled at start, but start good, held City much better than expected, got 1 1/4, perhaps 1 length at end on Press, but alas they were by no means slow. But around First Post City got their act together and started coming up, and they got us between the Plough and Ditton. Note: they ended up with blades.

Wednesday: GPS. Harry's GoPro on my rigger. 6:59 (1:46). Nice Wx. I'm feeling slightly hassled due to my marshalling stuff-ups, but much less nervous than yesterday. Less faff on meet, but did some starts on the ergs. Decent row down, and the race... went all according to plan. Which doesn't often happen at bumps. We stayed on station with City for a while, they took out Press later than I expected, where they got us, and Nines weren't ever a threat.

Thursday: GPS. Harry's GoPro on JP's rigger. 7:02 (1:47). Another nice evening, perhaps even a touch on the warm side. The race again much as expected: in that - alas - we didn't catch Press or even get close; perhaps slightly unexpected was Nines rudely charging at us towards the end, but they did not pose a real threat. If they get encouraged and start their run-up a bit earlier tomorrow we might have to work harder.

Friday: GPS. Harry's GoPro on Theo's back. 7:02. A slightly duff start: we hit the end of the chain, bounced gently and turned a bit, and a slight wind blew us towards the shore, so that Harry's first stroke got a little caught on the weeds and we went down to bowside (this felt huge at the time but you can barely see it on the video). We recovered, but one or two more less-but-still-slightly duff strokes got us a not-tip-top start. However, it didn't matter: despite my unvoiced fears, Nines behind us did exactly the same as yesterday and waited until too late. Ahead, we didn't really sniff Press. And after the start we settled nicely, I front-loaded my effortly slightly as an anti-Nines anticipation.

Of W1

Crew: cox: Meg Richards, str: Lorraine Turvill, Rachel Newby, Eleanor Gordon, Beccy Garrill, Mareike Collis, Sarah Burgess, Louise Atkin, bow: Jo Raskin.

Tuesday Bump Up: First night for W1, and as we settled at our starting position 14 nerves were riding high, but we had a decent start at the canon with good build on our pace. We quickly closed in on Rob Roy 2 and we caught them in the Gut, just past first post corner. It was a bit of a surprise for

us and we were of course overjoyed. It was the first willow for W1 since 2018, first bump for several crew members and also for our boat Annie Eliza.

Wednesday Bump Up: Feeling buoyed by our Tuesday night success we were (ever so ever so cautiously) feeling anything could be possible while we did our pre-race planks. We did a great start outside the Plough, to our delight, and we rowed up to our new starting position 13. A shorter race this evening, slightly slower pace, but we delivered another bump to the Xpress1 crew just before first post corner where all chaos ensued resulting a broken blade (not ours, nor our fault!).

Thursday Relaxed Row Over: On setting out for our third outing of the week we weren’t sure what to expect on this lovely warm evening, but doing the maths we thought our worst outcome would be a row over. From position 12, we started well and eagerly built to our race pace and got in our stride. It soon became apparent that the two crews in front and the two crews behind had bumped out; once we were sure the coast was clear, we enjoyed a row to the finish allowing ourselves to take the rate down a few pips.

Friday Excruciatingly Close Row Over: Once again starting at position 12 we prepared ourselves for a ferocious final night. Our confidence boosted over the course of the week, we set our sights on bumping Nines 2 - a poignant race as we go into battle with a few old Chesterton crew mates in the boat ahead. We had a cracking start at the gun and we executed our plan to mow down our rivals, chomping up the space between our two boats. We got to about ¼ length between us, their cox was looking around anxiously as the whistles sounded, we so nearly got them… Alas, after our planned 4-minute attack, Nines pulled slightly ahead and we battled on for the rest of the course but we didn’t manage to catch them. It was a good fight well fought and we were proud of our week’s achievements despite not quite making the final bump we were after.

Back at the boat house prosecco was had and Annie Eliza got the christening she never had when she first joined the club. It was an exciting, exhilarating - if excruciating - crescendo to a fun bumps week!

Vets Head

To Vets Head, forsooth, propelled by the enthusiasm and organisational ability of our esteemed Captain, El Ralpho. This feels like the first smell of the Thames for the men for a fair few revolutions; was it really 2018, or have I been lax in my blogging?

Results are here. We came 9/16 in our MasD category in 20:09.5, which was a decent result. We were overtaken by very quick Upper Thames and Molesey early and o'took Peterborough #39 at finish.

We were: Cox: Meg Richards, Stroke William Connolley, Jon Hatchett, Ralph “El Capitano” Hancock, Chris Wood, Simon “I can’t see you” Emmings, Klaus Okkenhaug, Bow: Paul “I’m on the Thames at last” Szyszko. Thanks for support from Rachel Newby, Mihai and Joned.

We boated from Furnival as ever, though we trailered to Sons, leading to minor hilarity.

Winter League 2024

The theme of this year’s Winter League was Wet. Leg 1 escaped that, but leg 2 didn’t, with NovW being pulled due to Stream; and leg 3 was rainy.

Results can be found on Rowclock. Actually pasting them in here is tedious and unlikely to be very useful, so I won’t. The men’s MasC crew - our only men’s WL crew - came 3/8 in the MasBC category (and won the first leg), which was nice; the women’s ClubB crew was 3/7 in their class, and the WMasE was 3/5. Sadly the WNov crew let the side down by coming 2/5.

Norwich Head

Norwich head; or: Chesterton men leave the Cam for the first time in yonks.

GPS traces: short course; long course. Draw. I made a copy of the results here.

This is a quick post written well in arrears, just for the records.

We had a 4-, in divs 2 (short) and 3 (long); and the Dev VIII in div 3. We were the only 4- I think so had no chance for a pot. The 4- came 4th in div 2 in 7:20; and 7th in div 3 in 21:53. The VIII got 23:17.

Train to Norwich, walk station to rowing club (about 40 mins) we were trailered by… Champs?… and weren’t on till div 2 so didn’t have to get up too early. Due to the wet, wellies were needed for a 50 m stretch of the approach track, and the river edge itself was under water, but that wasn’t problematic. The club is good, there’s a lovely boathouse with wide views and nice cakes. The short course is in the into town upstream direction; the long is out of town. My, how I remember burning with anger when Dan stroked us at 30 all those years ago; I knew we should have upped the rate. Post races: into town to The Belgian Monk for food and drink. Train home.

Oh, who were we?

Long course 4-: Chris Wood (Stroke); Harry Bulstrode; Klaus Okkenhaug; William Connolley (Steer).

Short Course 4-: Ralph Hancock; Me; Dave Richards; Simon Emmings (Steer).

VIII: Cox: Simon. Stroke: Mihai, Dave, Joned, Jon, Owen, Nils, Chris Lloyd, Alex Caz.

We also went to Norwich in 2011: club blog post; my personal one.

Winter Head 2023

The Cantabs Winter head was a bright sunny day, which was just as well as there was a certain amount of waiting around marshalling. Full results are on RowClock: our men, Tramontana, was 9:54 raw and 9:39.1 as MasC; the women SuperHoops 4x 12:18.3 and 11:27.3 as MasE; and in Dawntreader 12:04.7 and 0:11:32.7 as MasD. We didn’t win (though the men were the fastest master’s VIII and would have won club B, had we entered it…).