Guernsey Girl

Welcome to my blog! I am Erica Bodman from Guernsey, 25 years old. I started rowing in 2008, retired in 2013.

Life goes on. This is my story.

Saturday 27 November 2010

2k Ergo test

So, today was the day of reckoning...2km ergo tests all round. Lucky us!  We must submit a 2km ergo test to GB Rowing for the December trials so Reading University Boat Club hosted a BUCS ergo event at the University Sports Park.

Cut to the chase, my time came around and I got on the ergo and completed the 2km.  I didn't really feel settled, probably because I was a bit high on the rate (strokes per minute) but I suitably destroyed my legs and lungs to pull a personal best by 0.2 seconds, a time of 6m59.4s.  All going in the right direction!

Aside from ergo tests, it has been getting colder and colder recently.  It has been -3 degrees C some mornings, which makes it pretty chilly on the river. Lots of layers, hats, neck warmers, pogies make it slightly more bearable but I'm certainly not a fan of the cold. Does make for some pretty stunning scenes first thing in the morning though.  Looking forward to a solid three weeks of training now before the December trials in Boston, Lincs the week before Christmas.

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Racing updates

So, Sunday 14th November was the annual Fuller's Head of the River Fours race, held between Chiswick bridge and Putney in London.  This was my first experience racing at Fours Head and I raced over the 7.5km course with a Reading University crew in a quad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_scull).  We had a good race but the results didn't reflect as good a result as we were hoping.  We were the fourth fastest women's crew, out of 500+ total crews, including mens boats, and different classes of boats, including coxless and coxed fours.   It is notoriously difficult to steer the Thames and stay in the fastest section of the stream and during the race we did get warned by a marshall for being out of the stream, so this will have had some effect on our time.

On a more positive note, I raced at Caversham lake today at the GB Rowing Trials Sculling Assessment.  It is held like a regatta, with a 1900m time trial, semi finals and then finals over the course of one day.  This is all done in singles, and is invitation only depending on results from October Trials.

I came third in the time trial, (four seconds off Emily Taylor in first place, 0.35 seconds off Vicky Meyer-Laker in second and 7 seconds ahead of Lindsay Marshall in fourth) but I didn't race it particularly well, so tried to learn lessons from that to take into the semi-final. Always helpful! 

There were only 18 women racing and six lanes, so they would usually hold two A/B semi-finals, two C/D semi finals etc and that would have meant that there would be two A/B semis and a straight C final.  However, GB Rowing wanted to give everyone three races so they ran three semi finals where the top two went into the A final, middle two into the B final and bottom two into the C final.

The top three women were split over the three semi-finals and I won my semi easily.  The final was looking to turn out to be a three horse race, but after the time trial and semi final Emily Taylor, winner of October Trials and the time trial this morning, withdrew from racing.  I was pretty frustrated as I was really looking forward to some side by side 2km lake racing against her.  Still, I had narrowly been beaten by Vicky Meyer-Laker in the time trial and it was time to fight back.  I flew out of the blocks and found a really strong rhythm which I had lacked in the time trial.  By 500m gone I had a solid lead on Vicky and by 750m gone I had clear water.  My lead was maintained throughout the final 1250m of the race, increasing to about two boat lengths at one stage and dipping back to about a length and a half at the finish. 

Thrilled to win, and was very pleased with the way I raced it but wish we could have had the full competitive line-up of athletes.  Half a day off tomorrow, only 90mins to do so I will go for a run for 45 mins and then on the bike for 45mins.  Looking ahead, my next event is our 2k ergo's on sat the 27th of Nov. The FEAR has already set in!

Friday 12 November 2010

The beginning...

So I've been asked to start a blog, but where to begin?!  I will start with the background information;

I grew up in Guernsey, went to Cambridge University 2006-2009 and started rowing in 2008.  Pre rowing I was a high performance high jumper and heptathlete but retired in 2008 due to impact related injury.  Luckily for me I turned out to be more talented in the rowing department :) I left university in June 2009 and made the decision to give my life over to rowing and see where it might take me.  In the early days of my rowing I was very fortunate that several individuals recognised my talent and what I was trying to do, and provided me with the means to buy my own boat, a Filippi single scull, in April 2009.

In October 2009 I found corporate support from top FTSE 100 company Man Group plc in the form of a kit sponsorship deal, which they have continued into my 2011 season.  My first year out of university, training full time, was tough to find work that would fit around training but I saw immediate benefits in my rowing.  At the end of the first year of full time training I was selected to represent Great Britain in my single at the World University Rowing Championships in Szeged, Hungary.

I am now based in Reading and am absolutely thrilled to have just been named a Rising Star, as part of the Guernsey Sports Commission's new initiative to help Guernsey's sporting elite.  The funding and support that I benefit from as a result of the Rising Stars initiative will be instrumental in my future successes.  Rowing is an exhausting and intense sport which demands a full time training schedule.  Becoming a Rising Star will enable me to put my training first, cut down on my working hours and put my financial worries aside.  This is such an exciting, humbling and inspiring prospect!


So, I think that is about it for now.

Erica