Current Location – South Atlantic
31346 km rowed… 8729 km remaining
Guys firstly hugest apologies for being a scally wag and not blogging in April – consider my hands severly slapped and prepare yourselves for an even bigger account of buttock trauma to make up for it.
Firstly, and most importantly, there has been a massive baby boom in Basinsgtoke and I’m delighted to report on my three favourites. Congratulations to the lovely Danielle on the birth of her beautiful daughter Jessika Mai – I should point out that Jessika was conscious when I held her… the power of a rower’s armpit always possesses the ability to knock someone out.
Huge congratulations too to our very own Craig Killick on the birth of his gorgeous daughter Annabelle and to also to the very lovely Jacqui Sanwell on the birth of a beautiful grandson – I’m still not all convinced that Jax is old enough for one of those!
There’s also been a surge in record attempts over the last few weeks… in a far less exciting way than pretty babies but certainly very nerdy in a rowing geeky sort of way. The end of April saw a new record set for most metres rowed in a season of 17,111,960 m… and lets be honest, it doesn’t get much more nerdy than that! But with world record no. 5 in the bag it was time to have a pop at record no’s 6 and 7.
At 10am on Saturday 8th May at the Reading Hilton, I began an attempt with my very good friend Ollie Trinder (top lad and fellow rowing geekazoid) to set a new world record for longest continual tandem row, raising money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. The previous record, set by Atlantic Rowers Dan Darley and Rich Dewire back in 2005, stood at 72 hours and 17 minutes – we hoped that we could row a further 30 hours and set a new record of 100 hours by 2pm yesterday on Wednesday 12th. At the back of our minds, Ollie and I knew that if we could maintain a steady pace of 10km an hour continuously for just over four days then we could set a new fastest tandem million metre record in the 20-29 age category.
Preparing for the off!
Our timetable was to row in two hour shifts until midnight , at which point Ollie would row from 12am until 4am and I would then continue rowing from 4am until 8am. We would then return to two hour shifts until the following midnight and the double four shifts would begin once more. Our train of thought was that the two hours shifts would help reduce fatigue (and allow us to maintain a steady pace) and the four shifts at night would allow us to try and get at least 2 and a half hours sleep every 24 hours. With neither of us being kings of the power nap, we didn’t really get any sleep during our two hour rest breaks, it was just a chance to stretch, have something to eat and make a call to a loved one.
Ollie driving through the metres
The first day felt good and comfortable – we seemed to be keeping a steady pace, talking happily to people who dropped pennies into the bucket, heads up and backs straight. Even throughout the first night, the excitement of trying to set a new record meant that the two hour sleep had very little impact on our enthusiasm. The second day, whilst we began to feel a little more weary in the afternoon, seemed to fly by so quickly and by midnight on Sunday, 38 hours since the row began, we had 400km on the clock and were 2 hours ahead of target.
Ollie keeping up a great pace in the wee small hours
The second night hit both of us very hard – just trying to keep the split below 3mins/500m felt like we pulling sub 1.40 and the fact that we hadn’t really been able to keep down a decent square meal was really beginning to hit our energy levels. The tiredness meant that we were beginning to feel quite queasy with anything we tried to eat and in turn meant the build up of lactic acid was that much faster. Rowing during the third day gave us a little relief I think quite simply because we were plodding in daylight – giving up was simply never an option for either of us which only served to make the build up to the third night even worse. Rowing for 24 hours is one of the toughest physical challenges I have ever done and for all of us who have made it through it is quite simply one of the sweetest feelings of satisfaction – unfortunately as the hours clocked over I just couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, the whole thing just seemed never ending and our ability to look no further than the end of our two session (and then take great pleasure in a two hour rest break) went rapidly. There was an overwhelming and inevitable sense of dread rowing that third four hour set in the early hours of Tuesday morning. I’d managed just over half an hours worth of sleep during the four hours that Ollie had been on the machine and when my alarm went off at 3.20am, fluid had been building above both knee caps. The change over at 4am was hysterical – Ollie held the seat so I could quickly jump on and take the first stroke (we never tied our feet down during the challenge) but while my left foot went into place above the foot strap, my right leg locked completely causing my entire body to pivot and nearly send me flying off the rower. Ollie laughed so much that he slipped on a puddle of coke he’d sleepily spilt everywhere around the machine and nearly broke his back on a nearby chair arm. Fortunately after three strokes of arms only, I gingerly slid my right foot into position and plodded until the next changeover at 8am.
Early morning plodding!
The last full day on the Tuesday gave us hope and optimism but having had just over 6 hours sleep in the last 72 hours we were so tired it had little impact on our ability to pick up the pace. I think we caught our second wind later that afternoon however and despite picking up 68km in 8 hours from midnight until 8am on Wednesday (our final day), the end was defiantly in sight.
By the time we hit the 100 hour mark at 2pm we were 26km off the million metres – close enough to stay on for a further 2 and a half hours to set a double world record, a tandem endurance record of 103 hours and a tandem million metre record of 102 hours 32 minutes 58.1 seconds. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much physical relief – it was without doubt the toughest sporting challenge of my life. Ollie was simply magnificent throughout and I’m so incredibly proud to know him – a brilliant guy with a huge heart and strong as an ox, I get the feeling that at the age of 23 he has many years of endurance rowing record breaking ahead of him.
Sheer relief… and tired bodies
As wonderful as it was to complete this with Ollie, it came at a bit of a cost physically. Both knees swelled up quite badly and I think I’m beginning to ride my luck in terms of pressure on the body – for the last two years of the round the world row I’ve managed to stay clear of severe niggles on the joints but areas are now starting to play up. I’d dearly love to try and get more records but there comes a point where I have to think that the main challenge is to get to December without letting anyone down. To set my last two tandem records with a wonderful guy like Ollie will stay with me for the rest of my life. I’m prouder still in the knowledge that I am only the third person in the world to have rowed in the foyer of a Hilton hotel – first and second only to Ollie and his brother Ben!!
A huge thank you to Jo, Steve and Iain for donating online via justgiving – we’re now up to £13,163 which is tremendous. Fingers crossed we can have a brilliant push over the remaining months.
As always, I would have fallen to bits without the support of so many fantastic people - thank you x
