Boat Race: I don’t cry very often but after this dream day I couldn’t help it

I have just finished watching the race back on iPlayer and I’m so chuffed. It is fair to say that I’ve had an okay couple of days, definitely. Looking back on Sunday’s race, I have to hand it to Cambridge, they really fought for it but we stuck to our plan and came away with the win we set out for.

There’s an acute difference between waking up and knowing that the race is tomorrow and waking up knowing the race is today, you can definitely feel the atmosphere.

On Sunday morning, we had our last row out on the river at 9.15am and then everyone went back to their rooms to just try to relax — lunch was a very quiet affair.

Everything went to plan in the race in the sense that we won and that’s all I care about. However, there was a moment coming around our last Surrey bend when I thought if we don’t put this away now then we’re in for a seriously tough race.

In fact, I didn’t believe we would do it until our cox, Oskar, was counting down the last 10 strokes to the line and I only realised we’d done it when we had three to go and I saw his hands go up in the air. I was so relieved and so happy, I’ll remember that moment forever.

It was an incredible feeling when we crossed the line. Until Sunday my only experience of the Boat Race was losing, so winning it was just the best emotion. The first thing we learned when we came in was that our reserve boat, Isis, had also beaten Cambridge — that was a pretty special moment. The dream presidency is that both crews win.

There were a lot of celebrations with friends and family and it was pretty special to see the guys who had come back from last year’s boat as well.

My parents just said, “Well done, we’re really proud of you,” and that sort of thing but it was very different to last year where there were tears and it was just very muted, silent and comforting.

This year everyone was shouting and screaming and so happy, it was a completely opposite experience. I had a few tears later in the evening, there was a lot of emotion. Tears of joy are not something that happen to me very often but I was just so proud of the guys.

Matthew Pinsent was up in the boathouse after the race, we shook hands and he said well done but I was a bit scatterbrained at that point. I think he was just quite happy, as umpire, that it was a much more straightforward affair than last year.

A few hours later that evening, we went to a ball with friends, family and old blues in the Hurlingham Club. It was a black tie and blue blazer do with a few drinks for good measure. It went on until the early hours but I couldn’t tell you exactly what time I got into bed — I only have hazy memories.

Now we’re back in Oxford and I’m going to return to the lab as soon as I’ve sorted everything out. I’ve been neglecting my work for a few weeks and I still have two more years left on my Phd. Doing the Boat Race is pretty draining so I need a bit of a break now but I’ve not ruled out giving it another go in the future, so watch this space.

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