HMSGRC held their annual training camp at Dorney Lake, Eton, the Olympic Rowing venue for 2012. Thirty-nine girls from year 9 to 13 took part in what was a physically demanding camp lasting a week.  The sun shone throughout the week and the athletes covered around 130km during the five days.  Everyone rose to the challenge of seat racing and coped admirably with the task.  A very rewarding training camp for all.

We arrived on the Monday, after a rather cramped journey, with time for one session before heading for the Royal Holloway University of London campus. The next day we faced three training sessions; in the first two we rowed roughly 8km each time, followed by a 4km run (around Dorney lake) just to finish us off!

On Tuesday, we had our rowing outings followed by another run. Everyone tried very hard, and we all arrived at the finish, exhausted but proud. Later in the week, the year nines were told that, at some point, we would be standing up in single boats! We were all, understandably, very worried about this, and it was only worsened by the fact that the first couple of days were too windy, so we had to wait until Thursday for our chance to try it.

First, we had to do some simple technical exercises and then the first girl stood up. Or try to, at least. Rachel was the first of three to capsize, and it made everyone else all the more nervous. Each girl who managed it received a round of applause. 

The run was tackled again on Wednesday but this time it was more brutal as we ran in groups, as caterpillars, each sprinting to the front of the line in turn. This made everyone run faster, and it hurt. But, on Thursday, we were given a choice. Those who wanted to run, could, but nobody had to. Needless to say, we all did it.

We met Mr Hamersley, who founded our rowing club twenty years ago this year, which seemed amazing, as it seems such an established part of the school.  It’s hard to believe it has been only been around for twenty years, and that we still row in some of the first boats bought back then.

Dinner was interesting on Thursday, as we had a smurf, a pirate, girls dressed as the coaches, and no designer labels (in theory).

We all really enjoyed our week in Eton, and it went really fast, but everyone agreed at the end of Friday’s session that we were glad to be coming home.

We owe a huge thank you to all of the coaches, Mrs Callaghan, Mr Cheesman and Miss Guha Roy, for organising the trip and being amazing all the way through.

Ruby & Elena (Both Year 9).