The Club's Results

Here's the full collection of emails from Dan, now updated with a full account - outlining the attempt and also with the updates they were able to send out during the row.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 17:40:11 -0000
From: "Darley, Dan" <Dan.Darley@drkw.com>
To: "soc-rowing-trinity@lists.cam.ac.uk"
<soc-rowing-trinity@lists.cam.ac.uk>,
"bpbc@yahoogroups.com" <bpbc@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [bpbc] Dan/Rich world record indoor rowing attempt - help needed

Hi,

As our final bit of training for the Atlantic row we're having a crack at the 2 man 1 million meter erg record which currently stands at just under 3 days 5 hours set by the winners of the 2003 atlantic row (that's a 2:18.6 avg split).

The record isn't recognised by Guinness but is by Concept - but they require that at all times we have someone present with the rower - they don't need to be independent and they can swap over any number of times. So, this is an appeal for anyone who can help us out with that - you just need to turn up and watch us row, if possible you could also shake a tin as we'll be trying to raise some cash for charity too.

We're starting this Sunday (6th Nov) at about 10am and aim to break 3 days for the event (i.e. finishing on Wednesday at about 10am). We'll be doing the event outdoors at St Kaths docks (Wapping) - it's very near Tower Bridge and Rich/Kate's place so fairly convenient to get to with amenities close by too.

If you're up for this please let us know when would suit. In particular if you could make a night time slot (it's not that bad!) that would be great. If any of the alumni in waiting on the list could make a weekday that would also be great as I'm guessing that'll be trickier for the rest of us to do. I know it'll be a pain for you to fit in but if you can make the effort that would be really appreciated.

As no-one has sent it out yet, here's the monthly reminder that tomorrow is another First Tuesday - hopefully see some of you there.

And finally good luck to the FaT Uni IV crews...

Cheers

Dan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2005 12:16:47 -0000
From: "Darley, Dan" <Dan.Darley@drkw.com>
To: "'bpbc@yahoogroups.com'" <bpbc@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [bpbc] Million meter erg

A quick update on progress

First third completed in 22:58 - ahead of schedule but we're both quite tired now so will fade a bit.

Hoping to pass thru halfway around 9 or 10 tonight.

Thanks to everyone who has supported - if you can make it do come along too

Cheers

Dan and Rich

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 8 Nov 2005 10:17:48 -0000
From: "Darley, Dan" <Dan.Darley@drkw.com>
To: "'bpbc@yahoogroups.com'" <bpbc@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [bpbc] MM row update

Went thru 667k after 47.5 hours this morning. Unfortunately we're both pretty rubber ducked now so we'll have to see how it goes but are aiming to finish around midday tomorrow

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 03:42:04 -0000
From: "Darley, Dan" <Dan.Darley@drkw.com>
To: "'bpbc@yahoogroups.com'" <bpbc@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [bpbc] Still rowing....

Another update on the erg that never ends

we went go through the 900k mark at 3:15 this morning, 65 hours after setting off. We hope to finish around 11am this morning (about 4 hours inside the record) - will update again with better eta ina few hours

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 06:34:26 -0000
From: "Darley, Dan" <Dan.Darley@drkw.com>
To: "'bpbc@yahoogroups.com'" <bpbc@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [bpbc] Nearly there!

Thanks very much to everyone who has supported. We're now in the home straight and expect to finish around 11am this morning in c. 73 hrs

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 10:54:18 -0000
From: "Darley, Dan" <Dan.Darley@drkw.com>
To: "'bpbc@yahoogroups.com'" <bpbc@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [bpbc] Finished. Hooray!

A longer email will follow but scores on the doors are:

Finished in 3 days 0 hours 17 mins and 12 seconds, 4 hours and 31 seconds ahead of the (previous) record

Just a quick reminder that we're having our leaving drinks this Friday in the Theodore Bullfrog off the Strand - hope to see lots of you there

Cheers

Rich and Dan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 11:54:08 -0000
From: "Darley, Dan" <Dan.Darley@drkw.com>
To: "'bpbc@yahoogroups.com'" <bpbc@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [bpbc] Million Meter Row and Leaving Drinks

Hi,

After catching up on some sleep here's a bit more on our erg.

When we first saw the record for this we figured the target split of 2:18 looked pretty slow, admittedly neither of us had done more than 3 hours on an erg at that point which perhaps led to a degree of unwarranted complacency. We figured we'd go off aiming to break 3 days (2:09-ish) and see how it went.

The first 12 hours were fine, well inside the target at around a 2:01 split, but once we switched from one hour shifts to two hour shifts during the night things started to get messy. The first problem was that neither of us could sleep during the 2 hours off, mainly because everything hurt too much and I suppose our bodies weren't in sleep mode at that point. You then had the grief of slogging through a 2 hour erg on the back of no sleep which was miserable to say the least, especially after 6+ hours rowing each. Still, we made it through the first night "ok" but fully aware that finishing was going to be a good result and breaking 3 days would be a miracle. The record still looked good though.

The second day went well as we picked up at dawn, a surprisingly effective psychological boost, so we marched on at that point pretty well. We went through 1/3rd after 23 hours, a good milestone but a little depressing to know how much longer we had left to row. At around 8pm that evening we hit the halfway mark averaging 2:06.

At around 10pm we tried another switch to two hour shifts, but after one each, during which we each got our only sleep of the entire row, we agreed that two hours was too much - one hour was difficult enough. So from about 2am on Tuesday we rowed in one hour shifts only. This definitely helped although to say it was anything other than awful would be a lie - life pretty much revolved around rowing, then eating/drinking for 5 mins, then lying down for 50min before getting up to do it all again. It was amusing to see how our approach had changed - at the start our change overs had been slick affairs with minimal faff, now they were lethargic at best with no real urgency at all. Anything to delay getting back on to the machine.

We went through the 2/3 mark a little inside two days but still slowing down, and having over 300k still to go was hardly an encouraging sight. By the evening we'd continued to hang in there and knew that the record was pretty much ours. At 2am we switched to rowing 30min shifts with 115k to go and not long after had the very gratifying sight of seeing the distance to go drop below 100k to a 5 digit number. The end finally seemed in sight - just. Not surprisingly the last 100k dragged on a lot but we were now counting down the number of rowing shifts we each had left which helped, and again at day break we felt a lot better after a torrid few hours before so the last few hours were perhaps marginally less horrendous than those before!

With around 2k to go Rich took over for his final shift and finished at around 10:32am. To be honest finishing was something of an anticlimax, the last couple days having been more of a survival exercise rather than an aggressive row to the record. Still, the relief at not having to sit on one of those machines again (at least for a while!) was wonderful.

We had pictures taken of the display throughout etc... so have now gone through those to accurately put together our time:

Finish time: 3 days 0 hours 17 minutes 5 seconds (2:10.1)
Previous record: 3 days 4 hours 48 minutes 34 seconds (2:18.2)
Beat previous record by 4 hours 31 minutes 29 seconds - 5.9% faster

For the stato's and interested parties I've attached the complete breakdown of the row in 10k steps

A super big thank you to everyone who came along to watch and support us - we were both amazed at how many of you showed up - especially at some very anti-social hours. And thanks also to everyone who emailed in support - we know you don't all live close but it was still great to have the moral support from afar. Naturally if any of you have a go at this record we'll happily return the favour and help out (watching, not rowing) :-)

And one final reminder that we'll be in the Theodore Bullfrog off The Strand (v near Embankment/Charing X) from 6pm this evening. Hope to see you all there.

Cheers

Dan and Rich (Martin)