Boston Marathon

Crew:

• Tasha Gordon (Bow)
• Lorraine O’Hare
• Sandy McGilvroy
• Robert Ford (Stroke)
• Jennifer Smith (Cox)

Take one scratch crew, two weeks of training and you can put a crew together that completes the Boston Marathon; see the proof!

We opted to row the event alternating sides every 10-15k. This was to give our muscles a chance to be worked evenly and provide some restbite. Sandy and myself were pretty keen on using the event to practice rowing on the opposite side, something we’d not done since xmas.

We started and maintained a good rate of 24 spm and took breaks regulary. Unfortunately I was so pre-occupied with preventing blisters, by taping my hands at every opportunity, that I didn’t take on enough water. At 35k I started to feel ropey and began to drift off. Thankfully I had a superb crew (Lorraine, Tasha, Jennifer and Sandy) who kefpt me going. Jennifer allow me a couple of extra breaks to take on water, I downed 4 litres in 2k, which perked me up. By the time we hit the 40k mark I was back up to strength and in the stroke seat. Feeling the finishing line get nearer in our minds and after Jennifer read out some words of encouragement from club friends we settled into a strong last 10k. The final 500m we done at sprint pace, taking a double on the line.

It wasn’t as tough on the hands as I thought and I had plenty of energy at the end, just wish it had been all the way through. Deffinately some lessons learnt and I’d sayI enjoyed the experience so much that I was talking about doing it again not long after finishing it!

ps co-codamol allowed me to row on the dodgy shoulder!