DIARY FOR: SUNDAY 15TH MARCH, 2009

Caradon 3 Rivers Race - Saltash.

I am typing this email with one finger as its the only one that still works after
yesterdays race!!!  I have no skin left on the palm of my left hand, but hey......I
am not going to whinge toooooo much about it as it was worth it!

What a day, the weather was gorgeous. Naomi picked me up at 6.15am, armed with my
bacon butties and jelly babies....off we set. I got dropped off at Pip and Alex's
farm to travel with them.  I take my hat off to Pip as she was very poorly (I wont
give too much information about it just in case you are having your dinner!!)  What
a team player.....not one to let the side down for sure.  We got to Saltash and the
river was a mill pond...beautiful.  We just had time for a toilet stop (or should I
say 'a Pip stop!') before it was all systems go.  We had to climb across all the
boats to ours (I was very tempted to pull all the plugs as we climb through but the
sports woman in me made me behave!!) 

It was Jack's Birthday (35 ........apparently!!!) so we just had time to sing him
happy birthday before we had to line up (other boats joined in the singing too,
which was nice.)     

We set off at a steady pace and had decided to use the race as a training day and
endurance lesson rather than a full pace race.  We rowed for 65 minutes at a lovely
pace.  There were 34 gigs in total and Jack thinks we were about middle for the
results.  We even had time to listen to a little sing song from Jack!  This made us
all speed up to the finish!!!!  It was very good for us all to have such a long race
before the Scilly's, we all know what we now have to do to improve ourselves.  We
were all very pleased to reach the finish.  Just knowing we could do it was a
triumph!! We all decided that we deserved a drink at the pub. After all it was
Jack's Birthday.  He deserved a good toast, Birthday or not!   I am sure I am not
alone in wanting to acknowledge the wonderful snack (was it called Stoggie?) from
Naomi.....delicious! Please please please let me have a copy of the recipe. 

There were 2 firsts for me on Sunday.....No.1 - It was the first time I had done
such a long race.  (thanks lads for all the training....especially the 'fat club
members' XX)  
No. 2 - I now drink pints of Guinness!!!  The girls were NOT going to let me off
with some poor excuse for a drink...oh no...Guinness or nothing!  I really enjoyed
it. 

We all walked back to our cars feeling a little haggard but satisfied in our efforts. 

A great day.....a great crew.....a great Club......thanks a million. 

See you next week.
Mandy X