May Bumps 2011, Days 1 & 2

For those who need a little reminder of how bumps works, see my old post here, or the explanation by one of the boat clubs here.

Day 1
Our first day was absolutely epic and possibly the most pain I've ever experienced from exercising.  Thanks to the brother of one of our rowers, you can watch a video of one of the crucial moments here.  We come into view rounding the corner about 35 seconds in, wearing white t-shirts.  You can see the two boats in front of us bump and move aside, and we take a very wide course around the corner in order to avoid them.

We were something like 6 boat lengths behind the boat we now had to chase; we and everyone on the bank thought we were destined for a rowover (just finishing out the course).  But the coaches kept yelling at us to try for the overbump, telling us that we were now only 4 lengths behind, then two (for a long time), then 1.5...And right at the very end of a 2K course, we actually bumped them! I was in so much pain trying to breathe, it was not remotely funny.  We've all developed "rower's cough" -- which sounds like we've got tuberculosis or something.

Day 2

We came into today feeling fairly confident.  Thanks to moving up three places with our overbump, we were starting at #2 in our division.  It was a close one, though.  The boat behind us was inching closer to us as we inched up on our prey...We were actually overlapping them for quite a while, but at that point in the course, you have to physically touch to earn a bump, and they were taking evasive action.  Eventually, though, they hit a corner and had to turn, bringing themselves nicely into contact with our bow.

Then the hard part came.  Having reached the head of our division (yay!), we became the "sandwich boat" -- i.e., we were now also the bottom rung of the next division up.  We had a 45-minute break, and then we had to try again.  We came out swinging, but our coaches soon told us to back off and save our energy.  So we slowly finished out the course (no one chasing, since we were the bottom).  It was somewhat disappointing, because it means we have to do the same thing tomorrow -- and potentially the next day, too.  But on we go!

In the Stanford Band, we have a saying: "If every week were Big Game Week, we'd all be dead."  I think the same applies to Bumps.  But by golly, I want to win blades!