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Greatest sporting achievement of my life!

Shimmy

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Me and my team just finished the 11 cities rowing marathon. It's traditionally an ice skating competition that has been adapted for rowing and cycling.

To give you an idea of the toughness of this rowing marathon. We raced it in 5 teams of two people (and 2 teams of 1 coxswain). It's 207 kilometres in total over open water, with lots of sharp bends, narrow bridges, rough lakes etc. It took us as near as makes no difference, 22 hours, with an additional half an hour to row to the start. We had a very old and badly balanced C2x boat which was altered for safety making it even heavier.

In total I had been up for 33 hours by the end of the race, having rowed over 46 kilometres in that period. Luckily, the conditions were absolutely perfect, the weather wasn't too hot or cold (during the night a layer of craft thermowear and a sweater did the job perfectly, during the day shorts and a shirt was more than enough). We didn't have any rain, and the wind was low.

Picks of amongst other things, my blistered hands, will follow.
 

Shimmy

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We finished 41st out of 89 boats. We would've finished a couple places higher if it wasn't for a costly mistake when it turned out one of our maps wasn't the right one.
 

Spamtar

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Intercepting the ball at (American) football and running the wrong way. Tacked in the other sides end zone with them scoring a safety. Would have made it to the All Stars team if not for this brilliant move. Whew close one.
 

Shimmy

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Here's me before the race:
eosjhj1502.jpg


Here's me rowing:
eosjhj1573.jpg


Getting out of the boat:
eosjhj1594.jpg


Here's why I somewhere during the race realized the lamps I had bought were to big to fit under the low bridges:
eosjhj1571.jpg


As promised, my blistered hands (the one with the tape still on is mine):
eosjhj1618.jpg


Proof that we made it through all the checkpoints:
eosjhj1626.jpg
 

Oom

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Damn, that cool dude! I bet you have to be pretty fit to row. What kinds of muscles do you have to train for that?
 

Shimmy

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Damn, that cool dude! I bet you have to be pretty fit to row. What kinds of muscles do you have to train for that?

Yeah, it's a pretty intensive sport. Most power comes from the leg muscles (a little bit comes from the back and arms), but you need your arms, back, chest and abdominal muscles for coordination of each stroke
 

Katsuni

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I kinda like rowing... but am scared of getting in/out of the canoe... probably because I've fallen in more than once XD

Don't think I'd care for it as something to do for speed/competition though, it's nice to relax to, but not to compete with for me.

The fact that yeu put that much effort in is great though =3 Sorry to hear about yeur hands though XD I'd personally suggest wrapping them in electrical tape next time, gives a good grip, and limits the wear and tear ^^

Not sure if that'd help over so many hours of rowing though, might make it worse long term... not sure. Still, I have a feeling this won't be the last time yeu're out there doing something like that =3
 

Kingfisher

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hey shimmy, that is super cool!
i would have thought back and shoulders were the dominant muscles in rowing, and legs just stabilized! crazy. i have never rowed.
i used to kayak, but it was just solo and real slow and meditative, haha.

haha @ the lamp. did you have to lay back, lay flat, to clear those bridges?
 

wolfy

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That is really impressive! You use your legs a ton rowing. I used to like using the concept 2 rowers in the gym when I was at a gym that had one. You really use your legs a lot for drive.
 

Shimmy

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I kinda like rowing... but am scared of getting in/out of the canoe... probably because I've fallen in more than once XD

:steam: Canoe is the derogatory term for the boats of other teams. We row in rowing boats or racing shells. There is actually a technical difference in that in rowing the oars are physically connected to the boat, and in canoeing or kayaking they aren't.

Don't think I'd care for it as something to do for speed/competition though, it's nice to relax to, but not to compete with for me.

The fact that yeu put that much effort in is great though =3 Sorry to hear about yeur hands though XD I'd personally suggest wrapping them in electrical tape next time, gives a good grip, and limits the wear and tear ^^

Not sure if that'd help over so many hours of rowing though, might make it worse long term... not sure. Still, I have a feeling this won't be the last time yeu're out there doing something like that =3

I did wrap my fingers in tape. And the first part also my palm, but that doesn't work with distances this long, after a while the tape peels of and sticks to handles making you get blisters even faster. No worries, my hands hurt... a lot... but it was well worth it.

hey shimmy, that is super cool!
i would have thought back and shoulders were the dominant muscles in rowing, and legs just stabilized! crazy. i have never rowed.
i used to kayak, but it was just solo and real slow and meditative, haha.

haha @ the lamp. did you have to lay back, lay flat, to clear those bridges?

Racing shells have seats that slide back in the boat, so you can push them away, or more precisely, push the boat away underneath you using the water resistance of the oars as counter force (if that makes any sense).

And yeah, we did have to lay back a couple of times. Luckily the place I usually train has 2 low bridges as well, so we practice that every time we train.

Very impressive!

How long did you have to train for this?

I've been rowing overall for about 1,5 years now (last year we weren't allowed to participate because we didn't have enough rowing experience). We had an extremely long and cold winter in Holland though, so I didn't start rowing this year since mid February. And even then, the type of boat we rowed in ( C2x+, two rowers with two oars (skulling) and a cox) isn't a very common type and it wasn't available until a month before the race. By that time we did have plenty of experience in other types of boats (4+, 4 rowers with one oar (sweep) and a cox & 1x, one rower with two oars without cox.)
 

Shimmy

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I'd like to hear how you trained for it. How you built up to it.

We didn't have that strict a schedule, just row whenever you get the chance, when it's raining or the wind is too hard, get on a concept 2. The number of times I rowed in a week varied as well, sometimes it would be 4 times, other weeks only once. It was all about building a fair amount of condition since 3 months isn't a lot to significantly increase your muscle power and I'm not a very muscular person too begin with. I compensate by being able to keep going at a high speed.

My team mate on the other hand is more powerful than I am, but had trouble keeping up with me after a while.
 

chooi

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Wow, that's really impressive, man! Takes some serious dedication and mental toughness. Congratulations!
 
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