Rowing in October

15 Oct 2009 posted by Dave Holby

Current Location – Pacora, Panama

21626 km rowed… 18449 km remaining

Very special time as it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month and my buttocks are on fire! After 227 hours and 43 minutes of absolute horror on a rower, I managed (those goodness knows how!) to set a  new world record for the fastest million metre row in the 20-29 age category. My plan was to try and row 100km a day for ten days straight – an extra 40km per rowing day to what I would normally have to do – starting at 7am each day and hopefully finishing for 5pm. Unfortunately the time on the machine increased as the days went past and by the seventh day I had to row for nearly 13 hours to hit the 100km target. The third day was the hardest by a country mile – I closed my eyes at about 7.45am that morning just to try and relax into a steady rhythm and ended up falling asleep and subsequently falling off the rowing machine! By day eight I was rowing like an absolute zombie – I had hoped that the last couple of days would inject some urgency and excitement into me but the whole thing was just so mentally grinding and horrible that I searched for every possible excuse for just packing up and going home. Fortunately Graham from security was there to shout terrible jokes and abusive comments at me (bless his cottons!) and somehow we bumbled through it together. A huge thank you to Barbara for supplying a tube of arnicare – I applied three applications the day after the row and as horrific as it sounds, my buttocks have never been more grateful!

Now people knock them and say they look like dog biscuits but I think the success of the million metre row was dependent on the power of the fig roll – these biscuity beauties sustained me throughout and when I was particuarly struggling, I found enormous comfort in nibbling the pastry around the fig whilst rowing one handed. My opinion is shared by athletes and rock stars around the world….

Last week we had a visit from the lovely Briony at South Today – she’d previously been in Dorset that morning to follow up a story of a poor deer that had been kicked to death and then she was forced to listen to me wittering on about the benefits of fig rolls for an hour! I promise I talked  so much about Breakthrough but my one contribution in the aired interview was that I was simply terrified of sharks – the shame is unbearable! If you’d like to have a watch, you can do so here - please keep an eye out for Fay (who bless her only stopped by for two minutes and ended up being interviewed and staying for nearly two hours!) – she is my chief supplier of all fig rolls, though I have to mention her sons Harry, Martin and Stuart who do most of the delivering!

A huge thank you to Sandra, Mark, Bells, Tracey & Richard, Joe, Robert, Barbara (she donated her £25 lottery winnings!) and Victor for all donating through the justgiving page - we’ve now raised over £10,550 which is just brilliant – hopefully we’ve got many more pennies to come in over the next few months. Anna from Breakthrough called me last Thursday to say I’d been made their first fundraising champion of the month – such a wonderful honour but absolutely nothing to do with me, all to do with you and the generous donations that everyone has made – I can’t thank you enough x

The next challenge is the longest continual row at the end of this month – I’m hoping to try and break the current record for my age category of 25 hours… sometimes I think I must just really hate myself! All progress can be followed as always on twitter - just general ramblings about fig rolls and the condition of my poor old bum… I promise that is literally all I talk about! Thank you again for all your continued support x