summer eights...

Wednesday-Saturday were the dates of Summer Eights! The eights are the big races of the term, and one of the biggest events in Oxford all year long. Usually the weather is fabulous and thousands of people come out to see all of the colleges race against each other for bumps (much the same format as Torpids- see the february post). I raced again in the second VIII for St. Hilda's, this term as stroke, the person in front whom everyone else has to follow! Woohoo. It was a bit of a rocky term for training, with races in week 5 and we only got crews sorted at the end of week 1... so only three solid weeks to get ramped up.

We raced six races over the four days of summer eights, three times having to race down the entire length of the river. We didn't perform as well as we did in torpids, but it was still great fun anyway. Here are some photos from the several days.