The Novice women, our beloved Eaglets had another great day on the river! 
The weather might have gotten colder but that did not stop these little eaglets from flying! While the sun was out, temperatures on the Cam last Saturday hovered just above zero degrees Celsius which made for a chilling marshalling for Clare Novice Regatta, our second novice race of the term.
Learning from Emma Sprints, our genius eaglets found the best way keep that rate 26 feeling: warming up to Uptown Girl. (Seriously, check out the Reel, it is too good to miss!) And their efforts paid off! In their first race against Kings the eaglets were able to maintain a strong rhythm pushing long and strong throughout the 800m course down the Reach. While the race was neck-and-neck for the first half, the eaglets were able to pull away to win by over a boat length! A stunning start to the day.
While deservingly tired, the eaglets marshalled to race again, this time against Caius. The eaglets knew Caius was a hard draw but put their all into their second heat. After a slight blade clash off the start, the eaglets couldn’t quite keep up with Caius down the reach but gave them a good fight—the best we could have asked for. After a race well rowed, the eaglets returned to roost at the 99s singing their reprise of Uptown Girl and getting in the festive mood with an off-key version of Last Christmas. Nothing can kill the vibes of this boat!
A big congratulations to all our novice rowers, be it their first or second race, and to our novice cox on her successful first race! While two 800m sprints felt like a lot, the pressure is on for the 2,700m marathon of novice Fairbairns this coming Thursday!

The Eddies Eaglets have officially fledged from the nest! Our novice women soared in their first race on Sunday at Emma Sprints dressed in their finest (hand-crafted!) eagle masks. With Eddie the Eagle tapped to their bow, the Eaglets braved through yellow-flag-worthy winds—they truly learned to fly in a storm. In their first race against Fitz they built up to an astonishing rate 38(!) off the start. When Fitz caught a crab early on, the Eaglets were able to soar past them to a quick victory (settling to a far more reasonable rate 28). 

Another first in recent memory, the Eddies Eagles went on a field trip! And by that we mean the women’s senior crew took our boat off Cam to race in the Isle of Ely Head on Sunday. While de-rigging the boat the day before was done in a torrential downpour, the race itself was a beautiful, sunny day although the strong stream and headwind were certainly leftover from Storm Ciaran a few days prior. The Eagles arrived in Ely with plenty of time to rig the boat (no supervision from coach Matt needed....insert wry smile...!) Coach Abbie was once again doubling as our trusty cox, lead us from the boat launch and downstream 6km to the start line. The race was a total of 5km long—the longest sustained rowing this crew had ever done—upstream against the wind. The crew found their rhythm right off the start line settling at a competitive pace. So competitive that, at the 1.5km mark, the Eagles were able to soar past the City 8+ crew and overtake in approximately 30 strokes! By the 2km mark, City was fading into the distance, and the Eagles pushed through to the finish with a respectable time of 24:10 (just 7s behind Churchill W1!). After de-rigging the boat, the Eagles were momentarily lost—where do we go when Fort St. George is not just on the other side of the river? And so, the Eagles ended up at Maccies for their post-race crew chew. While certainly tired, the Eddies’ senior women are feeling strong for the upcoming Fairbairns race at the end of the month which—while a long race—won’t be quite as long as the Isle of Ely Head and certainly another milestone they can conquer! Yeah Eddies!! 

The novice men were in the first division of the day and after their first two competitors held a HUGE lead. Sadly they couldn't hold onto this lead all the way through but ended up coming a very respectable 5th in their division with an average split of 1:44.0.