13 Mar 2005, Yorkshire
Or shouldn't I ask? Maybe on your way home, maybe still partying? Me, I was rowing...
I'd woken up at 4am thinking about the 5-hour ergo scheduled for today. It had been looming over me all week, my eyes drawn irresitibly to Sunday's entry in my training programme.
This morning I decided to let it loom no more. Deciding that the anticipation is usually worse than just getting on and doing it, I communed with my pillow for a final blissful moment, then flung back the covers and hopped out of bed.
By 9am I'd rowed over 42km, watched the sun rise, and listened to all four new CD's my WOMAD friend Stevie had burned for me.
Virtuous, me? It's not often said, but maybe this morning, if you'd looked in the direction of Leeds shortly before dawn, you might have seen a glow in the sky - the reflected glow of my halo shining.
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03 Mar 2005, Yorkshire
A surprise delivery 5 minutes ago - a huge, HUGE box full of 9 Bars, from those nice people at Wholebake.
The last consignment got mis-delivered to the Blockbuster video shop up the road, and by the time the mistake was discovered the staff there had made a significant dent in my snack bar supply.
So Jenni Gibson has very kindly dispatched emergency replacements from the wilds of Wales, all the way to Yorkshire. I wonder if their delivery service extends to mid-Atlantic?
Blimey - I just worked out how many calories there are in this box - 80,640. Theoretically, if I ate them all in one go, I'd put on 23lb overnight - talk about Super Size Me. But even I would be hard-pushed to chomp my way through them all in one go - these should turbo-charge my workouts for quite some time - oh, at least a week.
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01 Mar 2005, Yorkshire
'Hello, I'm enquiring about keeping my boat in the marina over the summer.'
'What sort of boat is it?'
'An ocean rowing boat.'
(expecting usual response of hilarity and/or admiration).
'Sorry, but we don't allow rowing in the marina. The rules say all boats have to have a motor.'
(Hang on, this isn't the way the conversation is meant to go.)
'But it's an ocean rowing boat. The motor is me. That's the whole point. Even having anything that could be used as a sail is totally against the race rules.'
'But OUR rules say you have to have a motor, for safety reasons. Can't you fit an outboard to it?'
'So you want me - let me make sure I've got this right - you want me to fit an outboard engine to my ocean rowing boat? Don't you think that might strike my sponsors as being a little bit suspicious?'
'Those are our rules.'
'Well, there's my plan for the summer up in smoke. I'll have to find another boatbuilder and another place to live then.'
'Well have a think about it, and let me know if you change your mind about the outboard.'
!!!!!!!!
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23 Feb 2005, Hampton Court
An oxymoron, you may think - an ocean rowers' social. Surely ocean rowing has to be one of the most antisocial sports ever invented - three months of mid-Atlantic solitude. But believe me, ocean rowers make up for it the rest of the time.
Last Wednesday's get-together was organised by Chris Martin, one of the other solo entries in this year's race, former Hampton boy, and a mere stripling of 24 years old. Also present were assorted rowers (including another Hampton old boy - Jonny Searle, who won Olympic gold with his brother in the coxed pairs in Barcelona), Ken Crutchlow (president of the Ocean Rowing Society) and Iain MacAulay, a veteran of the Ray Mears survival course I did last year.
I was vaguely hoping for an early night, as I'd been up since 4am that day in order to do my training at home in Leeds, meet with Concept II in Nottingham at 7.30am, undergo sports testing at Hatfield at 10.30am, and meet a sponsor at South Mimms in the afternoon.... but inevitably the party moved from the pub to the curry house, and I ended up tottering off to bed at 1am, 21 hours after I got up. So my sleep deprivation training is already underway.
For the rest of the photos of the get-together, see http://www.oceanrowing.com/Hampton_Court_Feb2005/index.htm.
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