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.

Wednesday 27 March 2013

Spare - The other athlete

Firstly, a huge congratulations to all the British athletes at the first World Cup.  The races were all really exciting to watch and we had some great results.  More info on the racing can be found here: http://www.britishrowing.org/news/2013/march/24/four-golds-upbeat-season-performance

This trip to Australia was one of many firsts for me. My first trip with the Great Britain Rowing Team's senior squad. My first attendance at a World Rowing Cup. My first experience as a 'spare'.

Being a spare on a trip like this was one of the best experiences. I was picked off the back of an under par performance, so I had no expectations about being selected in the first place and felt very grateful when that happened. Secondly, we went to Australia! When the rest of the UK was in snow and minus temperatures we were under the hot Aussie sun. As I knew I wasn't going to race I had no pressure on me, I was able to really enjoy training and make the most of being able to hop in and out of different boat types.

Thanks to Pete Reed for his photo of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra.  
Hot air balloons fly overhead as Alex Gregory carries blades down the landing stage on his birthday


Sunset on Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra

 


The long journey to Sydney took it out of everybody and there was a cold doing the rounds which probably affected almost half the women's team over the first two weeks. Luckily I was unaffected by this, so it worked out well for me as it meant I got a few sessions rowing in the eight in place of one bowsider or another.  This was a great learning experience for me, having not done that much sweep rowing before or recently, and I was starting to feel much more comfortable in the eight by my last session in it!


Polly, Helen, Vicky, Fran, Vicki, Beth, Jess, Me
Canberra


When we got back to Penrith, Sydney after training in Canberra for ten days the vibe in the camp felt different all of a sudden. Racing was upon us and the game faces were on.  That's not to say there wasn't still lots of laughter and fun (Jess Eddie, probably the funniest girl on camp. "And you're stiiilllll single..."), but the focus was on the racing. As a spare, I felt that my job was to be ready to race, in case a last minute disaster occured, but also to make the girls' lives as easy as possible. 


Being a spare is tough because you generally don't get to race and that is all we train to do. It's in our hearts to be competitive, to put our training to the test. The spare has to be right there, watching the racing, in the competition atmosphere, around the athletes 24/7 yet not on the start line. My way of dealing with this was to make myself useful. I was on top of getting 'recovery' to the girls post race, helping out with blades and boat carrying where necessary, moving shoes to the right pontoon so they found them when they came back in, assisting Zoe De Toledo, the W8+ cox when she needed to adjust things in the eight and taking photographs!



Sunrise over the warm up lake, Penrith, Sydney

The Sydney 1st World Cup 2013 was the first time a World Cup had been held in the southern hemisphere.  Due to the fact that the event was earlier in the season than normal, and in the southern hemisphere many smaller nations did not send teams.  Entries were smaller than usual and so it was great that the regatta was run not as a stand alone regatta but as part of the Sydney International Rowing Regatta; a long standing successful Australian event. The SIRR combined the Australian Open Rowing championships, the Australian Open Schools Rowing Championships, the King's and Queen's Cup Interstate Regatta and the World Rowing Cup!  A very busy schedule ran from the 18th to the 24th of March, with the World Cup starting on the 22nd.  World Cup racing typically bookended the other events, starting as early as 8am and finishing as late as 6pm so they were long days for all involved.  The busy schedule also meant that training times were more limited than normal so training paddles were normally done around 06.30-07.30 and 18.00-19.30.


My days during the World Cup generally went like this: go down to the course with the girls in the morning, do a session on the ergo whilst they were prepaddling and then be available to them once they were off the water. I looked after the eight, two doubles and two pairs.  Sorry quad, but I couldn't handle you girls as well!  I collected shakers, recovery drink sachets and food from the girls and determined with them where they wanted to receive their post race recovery. Once I had their recovery in my possession I was not allowed to take my eyes off them until I handed them, drinks made up, back to the girls after their races.  Some boats got recovery on the pontoon next to the finish line, some recieved it on the boating pontoons about 800m away. 


It is vital that athletes know exactly what they are putting in their bodies and I had to be responsible for knowing that the recovery drinks could not be tampered with.  I took this job very seriously, even to the point of showering post ergo with the door open so that I could keep an eye on the bag of recovery stuff! Apart from finals day, the long middle part of the day was spent at the hotel.  This was because we could only do our training paddles either very early or very late in the day, and World Cup racing was also either morning or early evening.  In the evening I would do another ergo whilst the boats were warming up, and then be ready to deliver recovery to the racing crews.  Food throughout our trip was excellent, and I always looked forward to getting back to the hotel for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

I was fortunate to be using Vicki Meyer-Laker's camera for the duration of the World Cup and came away with some stunning photographs, as well as a good feel for the atmosphere of the event and team.  I felt that the team was a really strong little community whilst we were away, everybody was very supportive of each other and as a spare I never felt left out in any way.  Here are a few of my photos from the event...




Crews boating in the morning mist
 
British Rowing - benefiting from all of you who play the National Lottery. Thanks!


Helen and Polly step out of the boat after winning their first World Cup gold medal together
 
Coach Rob Morgan giving the boat a clean
 
 
Still struggling a bit with the jet lag, and the cold weather! However, three and a bit weeks till final GB trials so looking forward to racing there. 





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