Welcome - To the World Record Row blog

Current (and final) Location – Amazingstoke, England

40075 km rowed… O km remaining – and a new world record of 934 days for fastest row around the earth’s equator on a static rowing machine.

I can’t believe it guys – that’s it, we’re all done. I’m heartbroken, pretty teary, physically relieved and just a few days after the row has been completed, missing it too x It’s been just over two and a half years of tough plodding but I’ve just had the most incredible time - an emotional, physical and virtual journey that’s changed me quite a bit as a chap, I’m not convinced my knees will ever want to work for me in the same way again! I’ve been lucky to row in the best town in the world and completely priviledged to have been a little part of Basingstoke’s wonderful community – I have met, been looked after and carried by incredible people, I can’t thank you enough for putting up with and reading these nutty posts and please accept my apologies for all the buttock related comments… on my life, this is the last one you will have to endure!

As I so desperatley hoped, we had a brilliant flurry of donations for Breakthrough through the last few days of the challenge - I’m thrilled to say that we’ve passed the £20,000 marker for Breakthrough thanks to many incredible gestures of generosity. A huge thank you to Fay for holding the collection bucket on the last rowing day and helping to sell the last 19 copies of The Breakthrough Album – 100 CDs have now been sold raising over £1000 for the charity which is fantastic and a massive testament to all the musically talented guys and girls on the album. A huge thank you to Mark, Alex, Andy, Gem, Toby, Dougie, Darren, Joost, Emily, Andrew, Harry, David, Mary, Anna-Leigh, Jason, Stephen, Emma, George, Matthew, Craig, Dominic, Ben, Chris and Nigel for all donating via the justgiving page. A very special thank you also to Colin and Debs for donating £250.47 (a penny for every mile rowed). The producers of South Today received a phone call during a live interview on the row on the Monday from an incredible chap called Barry who donated an outstanding £1,750 to Breakthrough – just amazing and such a lovely guy to talk to. Kate and Mark very kindly the £60 we needed to take us to the £20,000 marker – brilliant, just bloomin’ brilliant, and for a wonderful cause – thank you everyone for your incredible generosity.

If the grotty weather made it impossible to pop down on the last day (thank you to everyone who did x) – please click on the youtube link to watch arguably the longest thank you speech in the world! Mark thank you so much for doing all the recording on the last day.

So here we are me hearties – a final flurry of snaps taken from the the last rowing day – bless you all for braving the snow!

Having a lovely cuddle with Mary just before the start of the final 15km – Mary lost her beautiful daughter Kelly to breast cancer on Boxing Day last year. I felt very proud to dedicate the challenge to Kel’s son (and Mary’s grandson) Finley who turned 5 just a few days ago. Fin is gorgeous (he has his mum’s good looks) and is the bravest and most courageous person I have ever known.

 

My fiancee Lara very happy in the knowledge that I have run out of excuses to not work on her mum’s utility room!

Having a cuddle with Mia and her big brother Jake – the guys came to see me on the first weekend of the row at the start of June 2008 and have just been so brilliant throughout, I kind of love them both an awful lot!

Just a few minutes in to the longest thank you speech in the world! The lovely Sue from The Malls is just to the right of the picture.

Very proudly holding up my little silver cup (thank you Stu!!)

The Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane kindly holds up a cheque for £17,031. Both he and the Mayoress have been incredible supporters of the challenge and I’ve always felt very proud and priviledged to be in their company. The total on the cheque was the amount raised for Breakthrough up until the start of the final day (18th December) - an additional £3,000 was donated to send the total over £20,000 in the week leading up to Christmas.

Amazing cuddles, amazing support, amazing people, amazing town…. Amazingstoke x

A proper champagne soaking from the Mayor.

…. and unfortunately a very soggy cuddle for the kids! Watching them grow over these last two and a half years has been the loveliest part of the rowing challenge for me.

Preparing to send the pink and white Breakthrough balloons into orbit!

And they begin their ascent above Amazingstoke x

I just have so many people to thank for carrying me through this challenge, so deep breath and here we go!!

Paul and Sue, the wonderful management team in The Malls

Craig, Jax, Ian, Rob and all the brilliant boys and girls at The Escape for designing the challenge website www.WorldRecordRow.com

Simon, Paul, Vince and all the guys at Raycon for their great promotion of the challenge in London and on the corporate front

The brilliant Mark Fitchett and his lovely wife Kate  – Mark’s facebook and twitter campaign in support of the row has help raise hundreds and hundreds of pounds for Breakthrough

The lovely Debbie Collins at the Mayoral Office

Felicity, Nina, Jane, Mike and the tremendous team at Destination Basingstoke – their promotion of the challenge and the town itself is outstanding x

Mark, Simon, Chris and all the guys and girls at The Gazette for their fantastic reporting on the row continuously over the last two and a half years.

Adam and his team at the Basingtoke Observer for exactly the same reason!

All the boys at MJF – Nige, Graham, Til, Shaun, Andy, Luke, George, Mick, Chris, Jeremy, Tony, Brian, Ian, and Chandra – for guarding the Malls both day and night

Our magnificent fundraisers – The Basingstoke Writer’s Circle, Basingstoke Amateur Operatic Society, The Escape, Raycon, Manorfield Junior School, Farnborough Hill, Aldworth Science College and 1st Lychpit Guides

Anna, Nicy, Viv and all the amazing boys and girls at Breakthrough Breast Cancer – the work  you do is incredible, as are you all and the support you have given me – thank you so much guys x

My wonderful family and my beautiful fiancee Lara – thank you for putting up with all my daft ideas! La, I would be lost without you sweetheart, thank you for holding me up when my legs physically could not x

To all the kids who are such brilliant ambassadors for this town – for your inspiration, incredible and tireless fundraising, wonderful hugs, company and support – to Khalid, Danni, Nate, Faith, Jessika, Hayley, Brooke, Tom, Rach, Ben, Becca, Syd, Natasha, Kallum, Connor, Stu, Phil, Harry, Martin, Rhianna, Sam, Jamie, Hayley, Kirsty, Stacey, Josh, Dan, Ferne, Lottie, Ben, Nikki, Torin, Aston, Mary, James, Harry, Fred, George, Robyn, Mikey, Zoe, Tom, Helen (Molerat), Lauren (Skunk), Jake (of the Normanicii), James (tree kisses), Dave, Dani D, Hannah, Tom, Spence, Graham, Rich, Vicks, Ash, Olly, Mia, Jake, Tom, Geni, Bronwyn - you have made this row for me, watching you grow as babies into toddlers, and young teenagers into the wonderful men and women that you now are – I can’t thank you enough for carrying me x

All the big kids – Mark, Kate, Si, Paul, Craig, Jax, Harv, Carol, Fay, Albert, Sam, Sarah, Sanj, Mick, Sue, Helena, Jan, Christine, Sian, Laura, JC, Kla, Dan, Jenny, James, Mel, Karen, Andy, Keith, Dana, Karl, John, Dougie, Barbara, Mary, Tony - thank you x

To everyone who has said hello, thrown me a smile, dropped pennies in the bucket both online and at home by the rower, bought me a packet of fig rolls (I promise I’ll go cold turkey by new year!), asked me where I was in the world, asked if I’d seen any mermaids or struck any icebergs, grown a beard alongside me, bought me a cup of tea on a cold day, kept me company – even if it was just for a few seconds, it helped so much, laughed at my silly hat or my silly jokes – thank you from the bottom of my heart x This row began as a solo effort and ended as a wonderful community project – I am just so tremendously proud that Basingstoke is my home town, of all the kids and the  wonderful people who live here - thank you for looking after me so brilliantly. It has been an absolute honour and priviledge to have had your incredible support – I don’t deserve you but I’m so very pleased I’ve got you x

For Fin, Kel and Mary, for everyone who has lost a loved one to breast cancer and for every incredible woman who has fought the fight and won – this challenge is dedicated to your strength and courage x

It’s now time for me to sign off and get working on mother-in-law’s fitted cupboards!

Thank you for everything – I don’t think I can ever thank you enough x

Dave x x

Current Location – Edinburgh, Scotland

39279 km rowed… 795 km remaining

Good grief - soooo close! Just a few more days and I’ve got my fingers crossed I’ll be able to hang up my bashed up rowing buttocks for good. It will absolutely break my heart when it’s done but in terms of the body it will just be lovely – the temperature in Basingstoke is really starting to drop and I have a feeling that the remaining days of the row will bring with it quite a bit of snow… trekking from Kempshott here we come!

From chilly climates to cracking fundraising and what a month thanks to Basingstoke Writer’s Circle and the girls from 1st Lychpit Guides. The BWC have been such fantastic supporters of the challenge and during the last 12 months guests and writers have donated money to the pot – last week I was honoured to be invited to their last meeting of the year where they presented Breakthrough with a cheque for a rather stonking £200…. not only that but they made me eat lots of food – I love them. A huge thank you to Joan and the guys for a great evening.

I was also thrilled to be invited to a fundraising night earlier this week by the very lovely Helen and Lauren (aka Molerat and Skunk) as the guides from 1st Lychpit put on a raffle, a cake sale (always a winner with fat boy rowers) and a cracking talent show. A huge thank you to Amy, Charlotte, Katie, Lucy, Elise,  Eleanor, Panda, Alice, Olivia, Anna and the rest of the girls for all their brilliance and hard work – I have to mention in particular Meggie, Amy, Charlotte and Sofia (aka Twitch and Flick), watch out for these fab four in a future Britain’s Got Talent!

I felt very honoured as a chap to be bestowed my own Guide name of Alpaca – effectively I’m a llama… a very hairy llama with a daft haircut… Helen told me the the similarity was purely coincidental.

Both Helen and Lauren were fantastic in compering the evening – thank you guys, it was just brilliant and a magnificent £130 was raised.

The start of the month also marked the Basingstoke Christmas lights switch on and I was chuffed to bits to be part of the parade through Festival Place. Dressed as a pirate I stood on top of a small trailer stradling the front end of the rowing machine (we couldn’t quite fit the end on!) and was pulled around by Stu (also dressed as a pirate). It was a slightly emotional experience for two chief reasons – the first being that the very unsteady trailer caused several rather violent clashes between the upright rowing monitor and my… well… you get the picture… and the second being that wearing green and black striped trousers I looked like a giant mint humbug. Stu, my younger and much better looking fellow pirate, did not look like a humbug in the slightest and I sort of hate him for looking so much cooler but also kind of love him too – thank you mate for dragging a bashed up rower and half a machine all through Festival Place x It was a brilliant night and thank you so much to the lovely Theresa for letting me be a part of it.

A huge thank you to Clive, Adam and Ian for all donating to Breakthrough through our justgiving site – we’re now up to £15,500 and I’m hoping our surge is about to come… fingers crossed.

I leave you now with an action man Dave the rower – complete with felt tip pen beard and silly hat. Thank you to John for his artistic brilliance.