Week 3

Another week completed. 30Km rowed this week. A bit less than i had hoped due to a callout on Monday, but managed three consecutive days of 10Km each making the total rowed 120Km (see my rowing map link down on the righthand side of this page) I beat my persaonal best again yesterday by about 4 seconds for 10000m taking my fastest time to 42m 48.6s.

I have raised 30% of my target. That's £730 which is amazing! I really do have to complete this challenge now! I can't tell you how grateful i am for all the support from so many friends. Thank you also to those who have left me a comment. Please feel free to add your encouragement too!

Oh, I got roped into a photo shoot yesterday, (nothing to do with the rowing) the NHS needed people from the community(firefighter/policeman etc) for some publicity for St Peter's Hospital, so if you live in Surrey then look out for me on some NHS leaflets and posters etc in hopstitals, doctor's waiting rooms etc.

Also check out the Surrey Herald this week, i think i may be in that too for the rowing.

Bye for now, I'll be back!

A Slight Setback

Dissapointing day as far as rowing is concerned. Got called out to a fire at 8:30am and stayed out all day. Kept hoping to get back in time for a quick 10Km but didn't get back till late. Oh well, emergencies do happen! Still on 90Km.

Week 2

The end of the second week has arrived. Yippee, the weekend off! I have rowed 90,000m since the 1st May. This week I have broken my personal best three times for 10,000m. It currently stands at 42m 52.9s. My first press release came out in the Surrey Advertiser and was put on the front page! Obviously nothing interesting happening in Surrey at the moment!

I have updated my map, so you can see how far I've gone in two weeks.(A long way to go!) To view my map follow the link on the right, under useful links.

The sponsors keep coming in so thanks once again to those of you who have shown your support in this way.

I have one more week at work before a week off, so hopefully i'll be back on the rower on Monday.

A few statistics

70Km rowed so far.
5 hours, 8mins, 21.4 seconds on the rower.
7 rowing sessions at 10Km each.
Fastest time - 42 min 56.9s
Slowest time - 44 min 55.1s
121st fastest time this season in the world for my age category (40-49)(ok only 156 people in my category so far!)

£585 donated so far! Thankyou all so much.
£53.59 on top of that for gift aid.

Approx 4200 calories burned off.
Haven't lost much weight but hopefully converted some fat to muscle!

Only 930Km to go!

End of the first week

I have completed one full week and clocked up 50000m so far. I have had some generous support from far and wide; places such as Spain, Hong Kong and Geneva, not to mention the UK and sponsorship currently stands at £310 + gift aid. I have also submitted a press release to the local papers, so if you live in Surrey, then keep you eyes open for the Herald, Esher News, Informer etc.
I am realising that this is going to be more of a challenge than i thought, but i have the weekend off before i get back on the rower on Monday. Some people have asked me what PSP actually is. I will write a bit on it soon, but for more information you can check out http://pspeur.org/ .

The gloves are off!

Day 6 of my 1000km row! I have managed 30Km so far and received some very generous sponsors. When I row the seat is fairly uncomfortable, so i have two pairs of gloves to sit on and give me a bit of cushioning. No more! My new Concept 2 seat cushion arrived today! Not very exciting you might think, but with 970,000 metres left to row, it's exciting to me!
My fundraising page has also been translated into French today by my sister, who has lived in France for years, but now lives in Hong Kong. So hopefully she might be able to encourage some of her friends to sponsor me, aswell as raising awareness of PSP. Mum is still in hospital, but having a home visit next week to see if she is able to go home again, with some support. She continues on without complaining or grumbling, even though her condition must be very frustrating for her.

Hopefully on the rower tomorrow or Friday to try and get ahead of my weekly amount.

Preparation for the rowing challenge

I started rowing about two months ago and have so far rowed about 180KM. All my rowing has been done on a Concept 2 rowing machine. I usually row four times a week, anywhere between 2Km and 10Km and have so far included one half marathon. This challenge started on May 1st, which is the start of the new rowing season. To achieve 1 million metres in a year i'll have to row roughly 20Km a week, which is about 5Km each time i row. Obviously with holidays etc, i'll need to row some longer distances to keep up, so this will really be a challenge for me.

I've also set up an online donation page, created this new blog and created a map to show the progress i would be making if i were really rowing round the UK. I've also rowed my first 10km, so there are only 990,000m to go!