We found fremitus, GB trials and IV's head

So once again it's been a while; somehow balancing rowing, vetting and maybe the occasional social event means writing our blog goes a little by the wayside. Ultimately this means we suddenly realise quite how much we've done and how much we've got to tell you of our trialling adventure this year.

Since we last wrote we've been to GB trials and raced IV's head, as well as sitting a couple of exams (as clinical vets we now how multiple exams a term and have come to realise #everytermisexamterm can be read in more than one way!). Plus, we're getting to do more stereotypical vet activities - yes we did have a cow rectaling practical and are still struggling to understand how our non-vetty friends don't find the revelation that we managed to locate fremitus and various organs inside the cows as exciting as we did.

Back in mid-November we adventured to Boston, and to probably one of the few stretches of river in the country that can match Ely for blandness in parts, although both do provide views of the Cathedrals from the water:

The first day of trials was a 2k erg test. Being used to doing these in Goldie (the University boathouse in Cambridge) surrounded by the rest of our team-mates, with loud pumping up music and the members of the squad not testing cheering you on, we found ourselves in a very different atmosphere. We were tested in a sports hall with two lines of ergs and different groups of people being tested every 15 minutes, meaning you get to witness the pain of the 2k many times over before you have to do your own. However, it was exciting, knowing that you're in a room of future Olympians does helps you raise your game. Day 2 then bought the 5k single scull, always an interesting one for predominantly sweep rowers used to only one blade and having a cox to tell us what to do. Never the less we finished, stayed dry and managed to pretty much hold our ranking positions from the 2ks. More excitingly the end of the 5k also heralded the end of our autumn soiree into sculling and our return to sweep rowing in preparation for IV's head.

IV's head was our first Tideway race for the season and the first race representing CUW for many of the new members of our squad. With most of our boats going off in the 400s it made it almost a test of bladder strength, staying warm  and not getting too hungry before we even started the race. After our couple of hours of marshalling though and some interesting start orders we were off amongst many junior crews with the plus of giving us lots of crews to overtake but also the negative of having to negotiate a river filled with crews. After our first taste of Tideway racing for the year we started to look forward to our next taste of the Tideway with our Trial VIIIs race later and our  first chance to race the 2015 Boat Race course side by side and on the Boat Race tide- a daunting yet incredibly exciting prospect.We'll let you know our thoughts on Trial VIIIs in the next installment, it definitely deserves it's own post!