In february of this year, from running 40 miles a week in preparation for the London Marathon to no miles at all due to a stress fracture of the femur, I was left feeling a little grief stricken.  Of course I had no right to feel like that, but my instinct was to focus in on other areas of my body which hadn't been through the mill.  

Of all the machines available in any gym, I would always consider the rower last, as I found it the least enjoyable.  All it took was some prompting from a certain Craig Peterson (a 6:02 minutes 2000m rower) who was on my watch at the time and a few enquiries on his phone to come up with the idea of rowing 1,000,000 metres. (625 miles). Mark Gibbs, whose 16 year old son, Matthew joins him in this escapade, went a step further and suggested the record attempt.

When I discovered that the British record for a small team was 65 hours, 52 minutes and 39 esconds, I determined that Children In Need could benefit from having two teams involved.  The record team of 10 would need to sustain a pace of 1:58 minutes per 500m and row 8 sessions of 45 minutes.

Since our training weekend of 13th-14th October at Cabot Circus, when we managed to row 275 miles in 30 hours, I have questioned the wisdom of having two teams involved. Out of neccessity, mainly due to injuries, I have directed my energies into organising one team of 10 to go for the record and another group of 10 buddy rowers, whose main task will be the witnessing and recording of the main team's performance. Several of the team, including myself, are right on the limits of their ability to maintain the pace required, but as a team of firefighters, we will give it a really good go.

  
*The record team will start at 0200 hrs on 14th November and if they break the record, they will finish just before 1952 hrs on 16th November, which is 'Children In Need' night.

Immediately afterwards there may be an opportunity for a fun row-off with members of Bristol Rugby Club to cap what will have been a gruelling performance.

Hopefully we can make all that hard work worthwhile!!