I woke up early with something of a hangover, but the worst thing was that the festivities were not over. Most of our crew was meeting up in Putney to have lunch and then watch the real boat race.
I resolved not to drink.
Well maybe just a Bloody Mary for hair of the dogs purposes. After all the exertions of yesterday I felt it was unlikely that I would still be standing by 7pm, whether I'd been drinking or not.
Emma came to pick me up. Seeing her at my door made me feel like I should be putting on my running shoes and be about to go on a stupidly long race; but thankfully today was a day off from training.
We were dining at the swanky Putney Bridge Restaurant, where the portions were trendily tiny and the bill was trendily large. I wished I had a tiny credit card to pay with at the end, so the illusion of being a giant would be complete, but alas I did not.
We had the rare privelege of dining with Olympic rower and car salesman, the lovely-faced Matthew Pinsent. Of course everyone else in the place was to captivated by having some of the people from the Other Boat Race sitting so closely to them, so they didn't even notice Matthew. I felt embarrassed to hear people whispering, "Look, it's that famous rower." Just because I've been on TV rowing people think I'm the main guy in the sport, but what they hadn't realised was that Matthew's achievements are almost as good as my own. Matthew told us that he'd been doing a 2K erg test, but had stopped after 5:42.3. It is a hard test, so you can imagine why it was difficult for him to keep going. But really, to not even last 6 minutes on the thing is a bit pathetic. I didn't brag about my own 7 minute 35 triumph, only mentioning it four or five times (I'd stayed on for nearly two minutes more than him), for fear than someone from the official race might overhear and insist that I get in the stroke seat for the real Oxford boat. I'd had two Bloody Marys and half a bottle of wine by this point (just to settle my stomach) so I could do without the hassle of winning another race for my University.
The race itself was a slight disappointment, though eerily reminiscent of our own experience. After a great start from Oxford, the crews clashed rather badly twice and Cambridge came off much better of the two boats and steamed off towards victory. For the first time in my life I was actually feeling rather involved in the Boat Race and was rather saddened to see our side getting so soundly thrashed. But there was plenty of time for the inevitable defeat to sink in, despite Pippin's insistence that it wasn't over until the finish line.
We went in search of more drink in the boathouses along the river and although I just meant to have one pint of Guinness I was feeling surprisingly perky and started to enjoy myself.
Of course, many of the rowers had seen the TV show and were all surprisingly complimentary about our efforts and achievements. We were suddenly mini-celebrities (in both senses of the word) in the boating world.
One of the guys who talked to us got a bit drunk and over-excited and after initially gushing a bit, did that typical bloke in the street thing of suddenly starting to be quite rude to me. He asked me if my career was going through a bit of a bad patch and I explained that I was probably doing better than ever, though admittedly not if you judged success by being on TV. He was a relative novice rower, having been involved in the sport for only about five months and he asked me my 2K time. I told him it was 7.35 and he scoffed at me, saying that that was a bit pathetic. No matter that I had only rowed for six weeks, or that I was a foot shorter than him (and probably 10 years older), he was derisory and informed me that his own time was 6.50ish.
Beautifully at this moment, my crew member Wheelie joined the conversation and hearing the bloke tell me that my time was shit, he revealed that his own PB was 5.52 and then reeled off a raft of statistics of what he could achieve on the ergo. Wheelie is the most modest of men and only did this to make a point, but it was wonderful to see his astonished face.
We could all do with a Wheelie to have ready to unleash at moments like this.
Everything is relative isn't it. I hadn't taken the piss out of Pinsent for his poor showing on the ergo this week, as easy at it would have been to do do.
It was another fun day in another world that I had known nothing about a year ago. It was very nice to get such a warm reception from the proper rowers (even including the 2K erg guy), who appreciated the fact that we had trained so hard and got to love a sport that they love themselves.
I had another late night drinking with the hobbits and then, when they had flaked out, with the Wheelman.
It is good that on top of everything else I have gained some great new friends from this crazy competition.
