100k 30-39H World Record

Well - where to start - I suppose the idea of breaking the WR first came to me when I attempted my first 100k in 2012 (6h46m) I did this very last minute without any huge prep and with a support team who I hadn't had chance to talk to before the day - still it went well and apart from one stop to clean the rail I rowed all the way through it. After that I attempted row24 during which I failed an attempt at a WR which I felt sure I could attain - after 15 hours various physical issues took over and I had to stop - that took a lot out of me on a physical and mental aspect. In December my daughter was born 7 weeks early and again things got thrown up in the air.

I then started up training again seriously in March once I heard the Irish Indoor champs was on - I didn't attend in the end as in a 2k TT I was only able to pull 7min (my PB is 6:06) after that I started focussing on the training which was reduced in time from what I was used to due to the new family - this in turn led me to look at gains elsewhere - the most obvious place was weight loss and I managed to drop about 18kg in the last 6 months - this meant gains on my rowing and PB's in a lot of mid distance rows as well as the HM and more recently the FM (Full Marathon - 2:34:34) and again my mind turned to the 100k Two weeks ago I stated my intent to Q (my coach) and with that in mind I set myself a date to do the row - my birthday 22nd Aug - and over the last two weeks I focused solely on the 100k - during which I rowed a 50k piece and two 25k's - physically I was set ready - but the set up for the row was not and so it was postponed until the 24th - with my partner Pamela as my support crew - my mother-in-law Liz to babysit Lilly and the kitchen to row in I was finally ready.

So 12 o'clock on the 24th August and finally ready to roll - music on and off we go - focus on the 5k and split - fluids on the 5k and food every 2500m between - after about 10k I stopped - put the handle down unstrapped my feet and looked at Pamela "no sod it, I can't do it" she replied "you can't do it?" I then strapped back in and picked the handle up and set off again "your doing really well" Pamela commented. So why did I stop - well the guilt of taking up the entire day for rowing and the fact my right knee had started playing it's games (pain and locking up) after another few k I was back on track and I asked Pamela to give the knee some freeze spray for the knee - two applications and after a few k it seemed to be OK - thank god. At about 30k I again turned round to Pamela and said I couldn't do it - she gave me the look - that one that says "you better bloody not" and I kept going - trying to concentrate on every 5k hitting the split my spread sheet told me I needed to get in order to hit the WR.

Somehow I made it to halfway - back was stiffening and knee still hurting - but halfway done and with the split showing at 1:55 to hit the WR I kept going and focussed on getting to the FM distance left to go - it's a weird point of view - looking forward to only having a marathon to row - but I was - because then I was in known territory - about 30k to go I started feeling sick in my stomach - too much sweet stuff and "sports drink" I was thinking about asking Pamela to bring a bucket down for me - but decided if I needed to the floor was OK as it was tiled lol - after that I broke it down - looking at hitting the HM to go - then the hour - then the 10k - still on target and then the final 5k split came up - the predicted finish was still bouncing either side of the WR but I knew I had a little bit of wulf finish for the last few hundred meters.

So with 200m to go I let him have a play - got the split down to the low 1:30's and it was done and so was I - felt like I needed to be sick - but kept it down - photo's of the monitor took I stumbled up from the machine - took a while to stand up straight and then in a hot bath - weight before the row was 107kg after it was 104.4kg. 147 Ave HR 170 Max HR TE 2.8 EPOC 75.00 ml/kg 5690 kcal