After my afternoon-and-a-bit earlier this year of watching Lent Bumps, I committed and got to most of the May Bumps this year.
Wednesday evening I joined the 99s city boat club picnic for a couple of hours between work and preparing for Kodiaks 2 trials. I finally twigged that the colleague S I see in a weekly Teams meeting is also the friend-of-a-friend S that I keep meeting at parties and rowing events, :facepalm: she was very forgiving.
Thursday and Friday mornings were unforgiving at work, but my colleague insisted I keep my leave and he'd cover the issue at hand, so I went off to the Plough both days and thoroughly enjoyed sitting around by the river, watching people work hard, being joined by assorted friends, and getting increasingly invested in the student radio coverage. Towards the end of Friday I was finding the Plough garden too busy for comfort, and left early (which turned out to be a good thing, because my hockey practice that evening got moved earlier and I would not have had time to get home for my kit and get back to the rink if I'd stayed until the last race).
Yesterday I got fed breakfast by my old college with Steph and Keith, and had some lovely conversation with fellow alumnae. The boat club captain and coach each gave a short talk about how this year is going and plans for the future. From there I went directly to the river and found staked myself a nice spot on the bank between the towpath and the river opposite the Plough. The garden there was already busy at 11:30 while I had a picnic, a book, and an excellent view.
My two teammates rowed-over, one of them in an epic grinding race where I thought they were getting bumped as they passed me. But the student radio covered how they didn't concede, took advantage of a mistake by their pursuers, and had the grit to keep going all the way to the finish line. Absolutely nailbiting experience.
My college's second boat got bumped right in front of me (and sadly got spoons). Some of the alumnae from the morning found me to watch the first boat on their campaign to get blades - they were very close to bumping as they passed us but didn't quite manage it until they were further down the river (again, massive gratitude to the radio coverage). For the last two races of the day - of the week - I tagged along with my teammate C and his girlfriend to join his boat crew further up the course. C's girlfriend's college boat bumped right in front of us, and I ended up taking their triumphal photograph
The Bumps are a typically weird Cambridge thing. I learned a lot from https://www.cucbc.org/bumps and people being willing to explain things, and I am charmed by the visual display of information that is the Bumps Chart. And years after the fact, I finally appreciate my brother J's achievement in getting blades for his college.
I took a number of photos over the week, but I'm particularly fond of this one from Friday: the Murray Edwards first boat with the foliage in their hair indicating they'd bumped that day, silhouetted against the still-bright evening sun.
A number of people asked if my new-found keenness meant I'd start rowing myself. I don't think so: I don't think it fits my temperament and besides I have enough struggles with my sleep cycle and my existing all-consuming intensely physical sport. But I've very much enjoyed watching it, and hope to catch at least some of the Town Bumps next month.
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