Never Quit Until the End of the Finish Line!

It doesn’t matter if you are the last one to cross the finish line, but never stop rowing until the finish line.

Even though all your muscles are in pain, asking you to stop, and your mind just want to give up, the most important thing is that your team will not let you QUIT.

It was Saturday, October 29^th, 2016, the Stirling University Boat Club attended the Scottish Indoor Rowing Championship 2016 (SIRC2016) in Bellahouston Sport Centre in Glasgow, Scotland. It is an annual event that invites all the rowing clubs around United Kingdom and Europe to compete together. In the tournament, many universities and rowing clubs participated, and Stirling University Boat Club was one amongst them.

Different from the outdoor tournament, in which every participant would be rowing on the lake, in the indoor tournament, the rowers need to show their speed and strength on the rowing machine, called Ergometers or ERG. The only task was to finish 1.000 meters (1K) and 2.000 meters (2K) as quickest as we can.

The committee divided all the participants into four groups: Fresher 1K for men and women for all the participants who have just joined the rowing club, and 2K for men and women for those who had already been active members for more than a year. The Stirling University Boat Club took part in all four competitions.

The committee prepared 20 ERGs on the centre of the big sport’s hall. The hall was filled with supporters coming from the universities that joined in the race. The total of the participants from Stirling University Boat Club was 11 people; 5 fresher men who joined the 1K, 8 fresher women for 1K, 2 men and 1 woman for 2K.

 

What is the big thing about the rowing machine? Well, don’t think it is easy to do it. Because you need to keep the same pace of your row and maintain your strength until the finish line, as fastest as you can.

Before the race began, when on your rowing chair you could feel your heart starting to pump in your chest, your hands shaking, and hear your own breath. The time felt like as it was moving very slowly until the race started. When the committee gave the signal for the rowers to begin the race, all of the participants started to row, they gave it all they had on that crucial time.

In those crucial minutes everything seemed to move so fast. You were rowing alone and tried to beat the others. After two minutes on the race, you began to feel pain in all your muscles, hard to maintain your breathe, and your mind was losing focus. However, even though it was my first time rowing in a competition I wasn’t scared, because my team was there for me cheering and motivating until the end of the line. When you heard they were yelling at you, it gave you strength. All you had to do was to focus and keep on rowing, and rowing. When you reached the finish line, all the hard work paid off. All the people were applauding and cheering to all the rowers, even some of them came last to the finish line.

 

 

 

The lesson from this tournament is that winning is not everything. The most important thing was the experience that you had and sharing it with the team. No matter what happens and the result, they will are always be there for you and have your back.

On that day, the Stirling University Boat Club ranked the 3^rd place for 1K for fresher women.  The result can be found in the SIRC2016 website.

To know more about the Stirling University Boat Club and their training schedule click here