The Club's Results

Excellent lines from Pedro, lots of solid spacking, some tidy stretches, and even some powerful strokes were promising signs; the lady's single gaining on us down Plough Reach wasn't. Fortunately our crew pasta weight-gain program paid off as we cruised through the headwind down the Reach, leaving leaner crews for dead. Passing Peter's Posts we bee-lined to the finish, but were twice foiled by the bendy bank. oops (Jacob)

Well hardly an impressive result. By the gut the rhythm started to feel pretty good, but then we failed to take Grassy altogether. There was no boat damage but it took what felt like an age to get off the bank again. This disrupted us quite a lot and the rowing down Plough Reach was rubbish. Ditton was a stunning corner, James judging it to perfection with the bank only inches from his blade. Our rating wind after Ditton had the desired effect, but after about a minute it started to sag a little. We continued this mediocre rowing up to Peter's Posts which for some reason I thought was the finish and so stopped rowing. We were then told by a marshall that the finish was infact Top Finish, which we then wove our way towards in spactacular fashion. In hindsight its probably a good thing that we incorrectly stopped rowing when we did as we were heading towards the bank.

Our bank party clocked us at about 11:20 to Peter's Posts, which means we spent approx 1:16 sitting about and then crawling towards Top Finish. Not Good. (Phil)

Most importantly we secured the pots. My nasty cold kept the rate down, hence the fairly mediocre time. But we got good boat speed for our work and we didn't hit anything, so we can smile. And we did. (Tom C)

An excellent day out, easily the most enjoyable trip I've made to the tideway. Marshalling was more like sunbathing, none of the usual freezing cold and needing to piss so badly it hurts.

Less enjoyable was a powerful headwind in the first third of the course. We rowed ok in it, but I think it was blowing us away from the stream a bit, also it was really knackering. Crew 184, two places behind, were looking like overtaking soon after Barnes Bridge, and they went on to win S3.

We must've had a decent second half, losing only two lengths to them, but it didn't feel so great. The arms and backs were feeling very tired, and the rate was flagging a bit. The water was very choppy in the last couple of minutes, so we had a couple of shipwrecks before a decent push for the line.

The final reckoning? We were 30 seconds off the S3 winner, and an irritating 6 seconds behind Jacob and Colin. If Dan hadn't been on holiday in France the week before the race, and we'd ever practised on the tideway, I reckon we could've been quite competitive. Perhaps we can have a good run in the IVs... (Tom C)

There was a thick fog over Cambridge when we set off that morning and I have to admit I was expecting the worst. Instead it was almost tropical (almost, as in 'not at all') and we had a relaxed marshalling sat in the sun, watching a novice VIII caught in the stream taking out a few of the pairs below us.

The start was good, but it was difficult to hold a line in the stream with the wind - the lack of knowledge about where the stream was didn't help either.

Thanks to Simon Blackburn, the training we'd done a week earlier set us up fairly well and the rhythm came easily. The lack of other training on top of a rather scary wind made the forearms burn coming into the second third: We didn't make the most of the calm conditions here as the final push was again blown all over the place.

It was actually pretty fun - watch this space for more FaT/ composite sparring at the next one. (Dan)

The Great Day out started at a reasonable hour with Jacob and I cycling to the Leys boathouse to get the bus.

When we arrived it was sunny with a light but building head wind. We would soon learn all about it, but marshalling in the lee of the shore we lay back and enjoyed the sun and discussed the finer points of tideway tactics.

We went off close to the crew in front, closer than intended but some wayward steering after Barnes didn't stop us from charging past. As we left the stream Wolfson Oxford slipped past to 2nd in S3.

As we glided to the eyot we had good rhythm and and a dynamic backs call lifted us past another crew. We went to take it up for the finish as we hit the headwind at Hammersmith. Choppy water and lack of experience meant that we struggled a bit but solid work carried us through to victory over FaT 1.

I agree with Tom that a bit of Tideway practice would have helped. It is really annoying to have lost 95% of the time on the winners by shoddy steering.

A challenge has been issued from FaT/ Pem to FaT 1 for a side by side race down the reach for the glory of a couple of pints. Tom and Dan have been training.

On a slightly more serious note, thanks for all those at FaT who made me so welcome and also to Ian the boatman for helping us to sort the boat etc etc.

C (Colin)

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)