My 24 Hour Row - Crazy, stupid, and demanding (but so worth it!)
At precisely 9am on Saturday 10th October, I took my first
stroke of many as I entered twenty four hours of rowing.
I set off with a marathon,
supported by a growing crowd of GCBC members (including my rowing coach from
last year who came back especially). Our Club Captain took the first post as
pacemaker - this lasted all of eight minutes before he became afflicted with
boredom. Despite this, there was a good vibe in the hall - watching films and
having people around made a huge difference. The first 3 hours flew by in a
blink of an eye and I finished the marathon piece in 3:13:03.4, just 37 seconds
off my PB. I was so pumped with adrenaline I hardly felt tired!
Following the marathon, I planned
to do a half-marathon, followed by repeated 10k pieces with increasing breaks
between each one. The aim was to finish the 200km in 23 hours so I wouldn’t
have to be sprinting at the end -just in case I didn’t make it!
Having trained by myself for the
whole summer it was really motivational to be joined by eager members of GCBC,
jumping on the erg next to me and rowing alongside me in support. Even if
people weren’t rowing, they still dropped by and I was greeted with “keep
going” or “well done, keep it up!” And so it went on, erg after erg, smashing
through 10km pieces, each one more encouraging than the last. As I was maintaining
splits in the low 2:20s, I was way ahead of schedule. There was a point where
we were seriously considering being able to try and beat the world record but I
kept focus - I didn’t want to tired myself out too early on. Between each 10km
piece I was refuelling on bananas, Soreen and sugar snacks as well as drinking
plenty of water and Science in Sport’s energy powders.
10 hours in I hit the crucial six-figure
milestone of 100,000m (celebratory selfie was a necessity!). It was a fantastic
feeling to get to halfway less than halfway through the time. Despite still
feeling positive there was a feeling of uncertainty in the back of my mind -
going beyond 100,000m was uncharted territory for me.
And so into the night I went. Just
before midnight I met a fresher (now a rower in our IM3 VIII) who had decided
to miss a college event to row alongside me. Only a true rower would decide to
come row 30km that early in the morning, and his dedication gave me great
encouragement to make it through the night.
15 hours in, I had what I’ll call
a ‘sense of humour failure’. My legs were aching and my stomach was feeling rough.
The lowest point was having to endure the sounds of Bo Burnham (whom I never
heard of before) that the Club Captain decided to put on. This massively tested
my mental strength. According to my support crew, I did not look happy.
The hours from 2am onwards were
dark (both mentally and atmospherically) but it was made better by the arrival
of some of the College Freps and their corridor. I powered through that 10km to
a Taylor Swift playlist - it was special. I’d just hit 170,000 m; so close yet
so far!
With 3 hours until the deadline,
the final 10km before the big 200km arrived - dubbed, ‘THE GLORY ERG’! This was
one of the highlights of the entire row. With the length of Durham racecourse
(750 m) left of the piece I started to pick up the pace. I sprinted the last 500m
to one of my favourite songs: ‘Can’t Hold Us’ by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.
It was incredible - even now, I can hardly believe that after 200 km I could
still do that! I was a special moment and there was congratulations and cheers
all round.
***
And so it was over. I could not
have been happier! The journey that had begun so many months ago was finally
done and I was so pleased - with over a million metres in between. I knew there
was one and only one way to celebrate this achievement and that was to go to
Sunday night Klute - despite the fact that I had only 4 hours sleep and at 7:30
pm could not physically move out of my bed! In the end, we didn’t make it into
the club but ended up getting a HUGE margarita pizza which I am pretty sure I
must have set a new record for time taken to eat. I lost a ridiculous 5kg over
the row, so it was pretty necessary.
Since then, everyone has asked, “What’s
next?” I am a highly ambitious, determined (and possible slightly crazy) person
so I do always have the feeling of wanting to achieve something bigger and
better. I have already started training for the next challenge in which Dave
Drury and myself will be attempting to break the world record for the tandem 24
hour row in October 2016. See you there?
***
Post-Script
(including many thank yous)
Over the past few months there have been so many people that
have offered their support to help me achieve this goal without whom I simply
would not have managed. Every sponsor, like, share, retweet and shout-out all
helped me achieve this feat. It was fantastic to have so many members of GCBC
come along throughout the day to come and see me and offer their support. It
makes me feel proud to belong to such a community.
There are so many people I wish to thank for their support
but there are a few who I must give an extra special mention to. Firstly, a
massive shout out to Ellen Lockstone, Lizzie Powell and David Drury who stayed
and rowed alongside me nearly all day and all through the night (Dave rowed
70km and Ellen 62km fuelled only on beer from the night before - arguably a
more impressive achievement) as well as Isla Mackenzie, who isn’t even part of
GCBC, yet stayed all night to encourage me along. Secondly, I am very grateful
for the help from two Grey Alumni, Michael Cannon and Nathan Young whom gave
excellent advice in promoting the challenge, Thirdly to my friend, turned
editor, Lucy Coates for helping me making sure all my posts and letters sounded
amazing. Last but not least, to my parents who from start to finish had 100%
belief in me that I was going to complete it and helped me all the way in
between.
We raised an incredible £7000 toward a new men’s eight boat.
The search for the perfect boat is now on!
