Hannah Seddon gives her experience of the final preparations and race day for the winning crew:
I arrived in Henley on 14th March 2009 exhausted from a term of hard work and harder trialling. In tow I had half a library, a laptop and an unfinished piece of coursework, so I started the run up to the Boat Race slightly on edge, and somewhat teary! A Werther’s Original, administered by Doctor Baines, cheered me up, and I very soon began to enjoy the novelty of living in Henley, in an amazing house that felt very much like home. It was easy to relax, and Oxford felt like a hundred miles away. All the stresses of the previous term dissipated, and as Cambridge grunted and sweated their way up and down the Henley reach, we grew in confidence, knowing that we’d already put in the mileage necessary to make us a fast and formidable crew. But there was no resting on our laurels, as Alex, wary of letting us fall into complacency, encouraged us to aim higher, and exhorted us to greater speeds.
March 22nd dawned, and everything went exactly according to plan. We woke up, and I personally breathed a thankful sigh of relief that I weighed in enough under weight to allow me to tuck into some tea and toast, not least because Charlotte had provided an impressive array of jams, and I was keen to sample them all! We went for a pre-race paddle, and then went to the official weigh-in. We met our opponents in the doorway, and gave them a haughty ignoring – we had other things to think about! Whilst it was never really in doubt that anyone would fail to weigh in, we all collectively exhaled when we were all found to be on weight. No celebrating though, as the real challenge was yet to come.
The moments between walking into the crew-room at Upper Thames Rowing Club, our hosts whilst we were in Henley, and getting attached to the stake-boat were the most surreal moments of my life. We had a briefing much like any other. We did our warm up much like any other. Only this time we had a real and significant purpose, and this time there were countless faces on the bank, cheering as we pushed off. As we waited for the starter, Emily Piggott turned around and said, ‘They’re going down!’ But as my knees trembled, and my heart banged in my chest, and my mouth felt dry, I really wasn’t so sure! But then we took the first stroke, and I was in auto-pilot, going through the same patterns that we’d practiced again and again. From stroke one to the finish I couldn’t feel my legs, so I just concentrated on pushing harder and harder. We did our planned push at Upper Thames, and broke away from the Cambridge boat. In no time at all we were flying past Remenham Barn, and then we started our push for the finish. We were cheering before Cambridge crossed the line.
Then came the tears, the cheers, the cider, the emotions, the thank-yous, some dancing, some drinking, some eating, some partying, a sleepless night in which I relived the moment over and over again, some victory snuggles, and then more tears when I finally realised that it was all over. We won the 2009 Boat Race on March 22nd, but it was won well before then. It was won in Wimbleball in freezing conditions in January, it was won every time we made a crew-effort to train harder, push ourselves further, it was won with the dedication of our coach, the support of our nutritionist, and the help of Jay and Charlotte in the Henley house. People ask me how I can bring myself to train so hard for what essentially comes down to 6 and a half minutes of racing. But the Boat Race, and the winning of it, is a six month process of unforgettable highs and lows, disappointments and achievements, and amazing friendships, and the winners are the crew who recognise and embrace that.