Today some friends and I went to watch the 156th annual boat race between Oxford and Cambridge, which took place at 4:30 this afternoon on the Thames. We arrived about a half hour before the start of the race, but the viewing areas along the banks of the river were already packed and crowds streamed endlessly down sidewalks and narrow streets.
Fortunately, we managed to find a side street with an open area along a high wall that bordered the Thames. I couldn’t help but notice the atmosphere was fairly passive, as I’ve found is characteristic of other such large events in London (especially thinking back to the Chinese New Year, where it was impossible to get the crowds excited!). It wasn’t until a few preliminary rowers cruised by about 10 minutes before the start of the race that the viewers began to get excited. Most in our little area seemed to be rooting for Cambridge.
Row boats coming under the bridge
We were standing between the 1 and 2 mile markers, so we didn’t actually see the row boats until about 6 minutes after the start. You could tell they were coming though, as the roar of the crowd progressed down the length of the river and eventually the racers crossed under the Hammersmith Bridge and came into our line of sight. They were only within view for a few action-packed minutes, before they cruised out of sight at an impressive 15mph.
Once they were gone, we headed back to the park where the race was being broadcast on a big screen. We stayed long enough to see that Cambridge won (even though Oxford had held the lead for about the first half of the race) and then headed back to the tube station quickly before the masses came -- a great decision, considering there were expected to be a quarter of a million people at the event! It was a fun little excursion though and certainly an interesting exerience!
(You can see the full race here).
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