2022 marked the 50th edition of the Pairs Head, a 4.5 km head race running from Chiswick Bridge to Harrods Wall. A good number of Poplar crews were keen to participate but sadly entries were suspended quite early and thus the Poplar contingent was reduced to only two crews: Ed Benson + Charles Parker on the Op 2x Club and Bev Reid + Bernarda Elizondo (me) on the W MasD 2x.
The race would take place on October 2nd, the same day as the London Marathon with its extensive road closures all over the city. Ed saved the day by driving the trailer the Saturday prior to the race and demonstrating superior trailer driving skills while negotiating the very narrow roads at Putney (thanks Ed!!). The next hurdle was the weather. By Thursday the forecast was predicting 14.7 mm of rain on Sunday morning and had me quite frankly secretly hoping for thunderstorms so that the race would be cancelled. Thankfully that rain never materialised and we raced under an overcast but dry sky, low wind and mild temperatures. Really good conditions.
To celebrate the 50th edition of this race all Open and Masters women’s crews entered in Masters Category D and above would make the first section of the race and be placed first in the start order. Masters Women categories are normally left at the very end of head races, or at least that has been my experience so far and therefore this turn of events came as a very nice surprise. By the time Bev and I had finished marshalling and taken our warmer tops off we waited 10 minutes at most before we were asked to turn and paddle to the start line. The joy!
As usual pre-race nerves the days and minutes prior to the start were not easy to handle, but once we got going, reached race pace and felt how the boat was moving the worries vanished, the mind focused and all that mattered was working on consistency, length and a solid drive for every stroke. Bev steered us brilliantly and clear off the first two boats in our category (we were the third) as well as a couple of mens pairs without a single incident. By the time we reached Hammersmith bridge everything hurt and as we emptied the locker we kept desperately looking for the end of Harrods Wall. Those were some very long 200 meters! But the effort was worth it as we both felt we raced as best as we could and ended up winning our category.
We paddled/drifted back to Vesta Rowing Club where we had boated and by the time we were tying our boat to the trailer we saw Ed and Charles coming back. The way categories were lined up had them racing before a number of very competitive crews, Henley winners, Team GB and the like. This unfortunately resulted in them having to give way to these crews and get out of the stream a lot more often than they would have liked to. Steering and staying on the stream as long as possible is a crucial element of head races such as this one so the lining up that favoured us did not help them. Regardless they put in their best effort and added another sculling head race to their experience bank. Never a bad thing in my opinion.
A very efficiently organised race and another good day for Poplar with lovely company of teammates and supporters. A big thank you to Gary, Ron, Bob for all their advice, coaching and support as well as to all our teammates who helped us train hard and push ourselves every single outing.
