I started rowing in my third year (year 9) at Lancaster Royal Grammar School. Up until then I had reluctantly been doing a mixture of rugby, running and athletics in games, which I had not exactly relished, not really being a sporty type. So, when, in third year, we were given the opportunity to pick a different sport I leapt at it. Already knowing that the school rowing club was right outside my house and thinking that I would be able to go home at lunchtime beforehand, I picked that, thinking that it would be a bit of a laugh.
From that first session on the river I loved it. As I had thought, the club was but a two minute cycle from my house and so, having had a nice bowl of soup and gotten changed, I arrived for the session early. Being one of the first ready, I had the privilege of being put in an old, heavy, wooden quad instead of our oct. A few weeks later, on a busy afternoon, I was put in our top, coxed quad. Mr. Yates, one of the teachers, was assigned to coach us, although looking back I think that he was just with us to make sure that we did not wreck the boat. And then, somehow, apparently we rowed well together and that became the top quad for the year.
In that first year our quad went to several races, doing well in all of them and even going to the National Schools Regatta, where we did less well. By that point I thoroughly enjoyed the sport (a new feeling for me) and joined the local club, Lancaster Schools’ Rowing Association, in order to row even more and continue throughout the summer.
Now I am in my lower sixth year, have been to many races with both clubs, won a fair amount of medals in most boat types. Rowing has taken me from Lancaster to Glasgow to Austria with the youth games. Most of my best friends I met through rowing. I row or train almost every day and have been up and down that stretch of river countless times in all weather conditions and don’t think that I could get bored of it. It is easily the nicest stretch of river that I have been on. Hopefully I continue to love it at university and beyond.
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