I had a very quiet (child free) day and headed for Cambridge for a day out. Looking at HDTVs, drinking coffee without worrying about the kids, a nice Wagamama meal, lots of reading, the Fitzwilliam. Lovely.
Then a manic two hours of kids and cooking followed by the warm up for the race. The RowPro race was supposed to be fancy dress but I had decided to make my avatar row naked. I took a disproportionate amount of time getting the t-shirt and shorts to match the skin tone...
Anyway. The race. There was a good turn out, with five of us on the river. John was aiming for a 1:30 piece so I knew I would have something to chase. I also knew he might blow up (he'd warned me). My old rival Petr Oliva was there too as well as Bill and Plummy.
I had felt pretty odd warming up. With hindsight that might have been "lack of fatigue". The race started and I shot out of the blocks pulling 1:24s. The first 250m was a dream with me having to consciously back off to avoid burning out. I shot past John at around 300m - he'd obviously given up the ghost. He went backwards so fast I had a fleeting thought that his RowPro had crashed but the pain was kicking in and I gave it no further thought.
As I approached 500m I began to struggle, but my split was something amazing like 1:33.5 at this point. I knew that I could finish from 300m out so I dug in for the next 200m, aiming not to slip below 1:34 for any stroke. I was in severe pain through this but was amazed to see the average split hanging on to the high 1:33s throughout.
With 250m to go I knew I could hang on. I have now done enough races that I know you can pull it out for the finish, that it hurts like hell but can be borne. Sometimes I wonder whether the elite athletes feel throughout the race how I felt in the last 250m! I was fairly stunned to see that the split did not slip below 1:35 through this. I was not looking at the average split but the projected finish which was something stupid like 3:07.
I was really struggling as I hit the last 100m but raised the rate and went for it. It was gutbusting effort, increasing with every stroke, but all I managed was to keep the split at 1:35! I suspect that I was truly all out at this point. The effort was so great, I was working so hard but the split just did not change.
I felt nauseous for a fair while after the race. Now, two hours later my legs, particularly my calves ache, and my lungs are odd. But it was a monster personal best - 2.1 seconds inside my old best. I have no idea if I can beat that time, it was a massive row. Here are the results.
| Name | Time | Split | |
| 1 | Thomas William-Powlett | 3:07.8 | 1:33.9 |
| 2 | Petr Oliva | 3:13.7 | 1:36.9 |
| 3 | John Glynn | 3:19.3 | 1:39.7 |
| 4 | William Docter | 3:21.6 | 1:40.8 |
| 5 | David Plumb | 3:32.1 | 1:46.1 |
The last metre of the race was the last metre of my 5 millionth recorded with Concept 2. I think I get a certificate for that. Yay.
Metres today: 4,000
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