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Yes, it’s done. I’ve rowed an indoor marathon!

42195 meters: 2hrs 49mins and 53 seconds.

Which ranks me currently 18 in the world rankings for my age group! I’m pretty happy with that although I don’t think I’ll be doing too many of them in the future. Here’s what I can remember about the row (over 24 hrs after the event):

Started at 6pm – linking with RowPro to attend a scheduled race. Ended up being starter which I could have done without as I didn’t warm up as much as I wanted to – never mind. Quickly bandaged my fingers up – nearly ran out of tape! Started 5 minutes late. False start (my fault!) – then we’re off!

42195 – 30k: Started well enough with the first 10k going to plan – drinking at every 2k (no food yet), HR about 158 by 10k, average 1.58.5. Next 2k down to 30k was good. Already looking forward to seeing 20 something on the clock.

30k – 20k: Not as good as I’d hoped. Especially as I had trained through this distance many times in the past few months. Probably the knowledge that there was much more still to come. Started to eat sweets every 2kish. Drinking alternate 2ks. Not sure if I stuck to it rigidly. By the end of this period things were starting to hurt and getting a bit blurry. Looking forward to seeing Andy who would be there for the second half. Passed through halfway, feeling depressed that I was only half way. Tried to think about the marathon runners crossing Tower Bridge and how they must have felt at a similar point in their race. Made me feel slightly better. Finding it difficult to concentrate.

20k – 10k: Andy turned up at just under 20k to go (I was beginning to think he would be really late and miss the whole thing). This helped as I knew he would do his best to get me through the rest, one way or another. Strangely though I found the next 4k really tough – even with him there. Couldn’t stick to a rythme, drinking and eating were getting quite random. Concentration was seriously wavering. Wanted to complain but thought I’d save that ’til later on! Fingers and buttocks were beginning to ache. Andy fetched another 500ml of isotonic sports drink – thank god you were there Andy – 500ml for the whole race would never have been enough. Gulping every 1k or so. By the end of this phase I was lurching between good stroke rate at a steady 2.01 pace and drifting off to 2.03 – 2.04. Getting really hard.

10k – 5k: Probably the worst time in the whole race. Hands on fire. Back and buttocks numb with pain. Concentration nil. No drink or eating strategy. I couldn’t work out if the sweets were helping or hindering my effort. Sometimes I ate a sweet and felt really bad – stopped eating with 5k to go. Felt grim. Now I was complaining. Gave up on sub 2min pace. Had drifted to 2.04 – 2.07 by this time. Still looking good for sub 3hrs so I wasn’t really concerned. Actually I couldn’t care at that time! Technique non-existent, started to look away from the screen hoping it would magically countdown some meters without me trying too hard – unfortunately it didn’t work. Meters seemed to slow down if anything.

5k – finish: A growing glimmer of light at the end of a very long tunnel. Pain was extruciating. Fingers were numb, arms were beginning to hurt (a good indication that my technique had long since disappeared). My mind was hazy, Andy was brilliant though – encouraging every minute. He didn’t know what to say. I was delirious! Another drink bottle appeared – did I ask for it? I think it was about now, may have been earlier. Just wanted it all to be over – I didn’t care that I was about to be overtaken by another competitor with about 1k to go. I wasn’t in the mood for a race. I felt like crying. Maybe I did on the inside. The last 1k was weirdly pleasurable – maybe I had gone through the pain and was feeling what it’s like on the other side. Probably just thankful it was soon to be a memory. Wanted to feel strong stronger than I had done throughout the previous few thousand meters before that.

It was over – handle down.

Post race: Slumped to the floor. Very weak. Lying in a pond of my own sweat – thankfully a photo opportunity missed. Waited for the pain to subside – it didn’t. Gradually crawled up to rest on the seat, kneeling. Drinking, gasping, snippets of conversation with Andy. Tried to stand – felt faint. Still blurry. Starting to get cold. Pulling on any garment I could find. Zoe and Becky look in – shocked by the amount of sweat on the floor! Zoe fetched me a thick sweatshirt. 10 mins later I hobble through to the kitchen and try to eat a flapjack – stomach not in the mood for eating. Have to shower, try to ease the pain in my buttocks. Stomach muscles cramping when I lift my leg to get in to the shower – wished I had a walk in shower instead of one in a bath! Can’t get the plasters of my fingers without feeling like the skin is coming off too. Prefer to wait and see if they fall off in the shower – they don’t. 15 mins in the shower, one of my nipples has been rubbing – a painful discovery.

Try to eat pasta but struggling – shame because it’s delicious! Begin to feel human again after about an hour and a half. Pleased with time. I think I’ve put Andy off too – maybe I’ll change his mind?

Happy it’s all over. Decide not to do a rowing marathon again. Been there, got the T-shirt (it might be sweaty) but I got the T-shirt!

Phew!