I set off at 7.50am with an empty long wheelbase transit van. The drive up was very pleasant - quiet roads, lovely sunshine, great scenery including Stonehenge. I arrived at the venue at around 10.45, so a little under 3 hours.
I was greeted by Dougie Lawson, the event organiser, an old friend Joe Keating and a few others I know from previous competitions. The nerves were kicking in now - not long until crunch time!
Before my race, there were some 2500m races. This takes competitors between 8 and 11 mins approximately depending on age and standard. They all did really well and I was glad not to be joining them this time round for that distance!
I started warming up just after midday, race was at 12:20. Just did some easy rowing and some power bursts, not max efforts but enough to get the muscles going.
Before I went to my race machine, I asked the biggest bloke in there (Rich Cheeseman) to hold the machine down at the front so it didn't bounce or slide, like it did last year. He did a good job, it didn't move at all.
I was very focused before the start, visualising the first few strokes and the power cruise through the main part of the race. When I set off I hit about 5-6 hard strokes, getting the pace down to 1:09 briefly and then sitting on 1:10 and 1:11's until the gradual fade started. I remember the average pace dropping below 1:13 shortly after 100m and then back out to 1:13 at 200m and then the lactic acid started to take effect and it got really hard to keep the power coming! I faded quite badly in the last 50m but still managed my fastest ever time on race software (there is a 0.5s delay usually) so not too bad a result in the end - 44.8s an average pace of 1:14.7.
Focusing at the start Gurning whilst in full flow!
I was totally out of breath, legs felt like jelly and pretty much whacked! I had about 15 mins to recover before the next race which I was also in - the bleep test. This is similar to the standard bleep test, but on a rower obviously. The pace starts off nice and comfortable and gets quicker each time until you can't go any more - you do 1 minute and then rest for 1 minute before starting the next. I tried to get through them as efficiently as possible but I found I was going too fast on each one, so wasting energy. I stopped midway through rep 8 I think. The winner finished rep 10 I think. If I was fresh, I could have probably made him have to go again but he was still fairly comfortable after everyone else dropped out!
Next was a chance to see an international competitor doing the 300m. Dirk Moeller had come over from Norway (although German national). He's done 1:15 for 500m before, which is in the top 10 times of all time! It was great to meet him. I told him his target was to beat me, which he did by 0.5s - 44.3s for 300m. I still won my race as he is in a different age category to me. He was so strong, it was great to watch, but of course I want to beat his time next time!
For the 100m, Dirk and I went head to head. On my second stroke I came off the seat slightly and so didn't get full power down. He did 14.7 to my 14.9. We were offered another race afterwards so of course I made him. This time I hit it right and got down to 1:08 for a few strokes, ending up on 14.6s, same as Dirk. We stopped there as we were both shattered from racing.
At the end, we had the machines to load into the transit van for me to take back for our competition next week. It took me about 3 hours to get back, I had a quick bite to eat and a coffee before going to unload the machines and store them away - which took ages on my own, and was like a bloomin hard workout! Then, I had to drive half an hour to dro pthe van off and collect our vehicle back.
Finally got home to sit down around 10.30pm...shattered but a great day!
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