It was with a lot of excitement (particularly from a rather hyper women’s captain) that W1 arrived at Henley ready to race on such an historic course. After rigging the boat in record time we navigated the mud and fences to boat on a part of the Thames new to everyone. While marshalling we cheered on some pretty speedy crews as they went past, and then it was our turn. We started to wind it up with trusty cox Thornton firing us up and Lucy at stroke setting us off with a strong rhythm. Building on our strong IWL performances this term we maintained good composure throughout the 3000m course. Passing the end of Temple Island Elliot called for us to ‘fly not die’ and our Lincoln spirit took us all the way to the end as a crew. Marking our first external regatta for the 2015 LCBC women’s squad, fun was had by all and it was a great chance to put all our hard training to the test on a longer course, off the Isis. Placing well within our category, we also came second out of the four Oxford colleges sending women’s 8s; coming behind Wadham and beating Univ and Balliol. And a post-race treat in the form of delicious baked goods from Leah and Johanna made the rain downpour after finishing seem less important! Most importantly, Bostrom, women’s coach, had fun because he got to drive a fast car and share his love of Barbara with the world.