Oi, what you lookin’ at?
When I was lucky enough to be given a GoPro earlier this year, I was massively excited by the possibilities for rowing. My technique broken down, frame by frame, for analysis. Beautiful, wide angle footage from the cox’s seat. Fabulous, glossy images for Instagram.
But what I hadn’t counted on was my race face. When I go through the footage from a session with the GoPro on board, the main distraction – more than the Thing I do with my wrist; more, even than the peculiar little finger wiggle I do at the catch – is the ridiculous faces I pull when I’m rowing.
There’s no getting around it. I am an out and out drama queen. Take this weekend’s session, where we did a 2K piece. Not side by side. Not actually racing. Just a regular, training, race-pace piece. Yet to look at my face you’d think I was rowing at the Olympics. It’s truly ridiculous.
We’re doing WHAT?
Errrrrgggghhh!
Yeeooooooaaaaawwwww!
Last… five… strokes… bleeuuurrrrrggghhh!
And if you think that’s bad (and it is), wait till you see the fuss I make after the piece is over…
Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!
It’s just too….
I can’t even…
And that was just a training piece. Imagine what my face is like during an actual race.
So look, I’m pretty embarrassed here, so help me out here. Tell me you have a terrible race face, too. Lie if you have to, but pictures would be better.
