Girl on the River

Patricia Carswell, aka Girl on the River, loves to row and loves to talk, so it makes sense that in her podcast she'll be chatting to guests from all around the rowing and sporting world about anything and everything to do with rowing. Always informal, occasionally silly, sometimes serious, often informative, she delves into questions such as how athletes become champions, how to promote diversity in sport, the secret to staying alive on an ocean, how to improve your erg score and what to do to keep your body and mind in one piece. Her guests include Olympians, health experts, Atlantic rowers, kit companies, indoor rowers, TV presenters - in short, anyone with something to say about rowing and its place in the world. The podcast isn't just about Girl on the River and her guests, though. Community is everything in rowing, so you, the listener, are an important part of the show. There'll be regular Q&As and listener debates, and if you have suggestions for fantastic guests, she's all ears. Patricia can be contacted at girlontheriverpodcast@gmail.com or on social media at @girlontheriver on all channels - come and have a chat .And until then... next stroke, easy oar.

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Girl on the River

Girl on the River bite-sized - WEHoRR special 2021

March 04, 2021 • Patricia Carswell • Season 1

This year is a year like no other, and for the first time in its history, the Women's Head of the River Race, or WEHoRR, is being held over Zoom, on rowing machines, spin bikes and other variations on the theme.

In this bite-sized episode I explain everything you need to know about how it's going to work and how to get involved #NotWehorr2021

If you're inspired to sign up yourself (do!), you can do that here.

Patricia Carswell: 0:08

This is Girl on the River, the Podcast. Whole crew come forward to row. Hello and welcome to Girl on the River bite sized - a mini episode in less than five minutes. This Saturday is the Women's Head of the River Race, also known as WEHORR. And this year being a year like none other before, For the first time in its history, the Women's Head is being held on Zoom via Zoom Ergos on rowing machines and every variation on the theme. Now, I'm sure for a lot of people, this is really disappointing. But to my mind, it has an awful lot to be said for it. For a start, I'm guaranteed a seat in the boat. And that is a big deal for me. I have missed out year after year initially through lack of ability and admittedly terrible erg scores, more recently because of illness. But for the first time, I can say with confidence that I will be lining up with the others this Saturday in the crew without even having had to do one erg test. And that right there is a win. Everyone who signs up is going to be in the same crew. I'm told it's crew number 51. And they're hoping to get as many as 500 people signed up which is absolutely amazing. There are other advantages, too. We're spared that long wait during marshalling when you need the loo and you get cold and wet. There's no long row back at the end, depending on where you boated. You don't need to worry about choppy conditions or getting wet. There's no rigging and derigging and there's no standing in a queue to get an increasingly heavy boat onto the water. And there's not that long journey home on the minibus where we tell ourselves that if only we'd had, oh, another kilometre or two, we definitely have caught Wallingford (by the way we wouldn't). And better still, there's a stellar lineup of Olympians to encourage us along. Gillian Lindsey is leading the warm up. Zoe de Toledo will be coxing us. Jess Eddie and Guin Batten are also involved so it's going to e absolutely brilliant. Now, I haven't been able to persuade anyone to tell me exactly how it's going to work. I don't know whether we're doing a distance or a time, but I do know that you don't actually have to have a rowing machine. We're encouraged to do living room circuits or join in on an exercise bike. Basically anything goes. All you do need to do is sign up in advance at ZoomErgos.com and join in at nine o'clock. So the crew briefing is at nine, it's hands on at 10 past nine and then getting down to race kit at 25 past nine. After that, who knows? What I do know is that it's going to be a lot of fun. If you're on Twitter, look out for the hashtag #NotWEHORR2021. Hopefully I will see you on the water on Saturday morning and may the best crew win. Until then, next stroke, easy oar.