Postscript

The boat is being ordered! Thanks to the fantastic support recorded in these pages from friends, family and colleagues, both within the rowing community and outside of it, topped up with a brilliant £500 award from Scottish Rowing. 

We hope to take ownership of the boat early in the New Year and plan g a spring launch event for para-rowing activity at Castle Semple Loch. If you are interested, want to take part, or know someone who would like to take part watch the CSRC website on http://www.castlesemplerc.co.uk or email me via captain@castlesemplerc.co.uk.

Caroline

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I want to raise enough money to buy an adaptive rowing boat.

Rowing is a wonderful sport. It’s fun, challenging, gets you outside and helps you get fit without really noticing how. I personally owe a lot to rowing: my mental health, a waistline I didn’t have even in my teens, and a lot of good friends.

I am not your typical sporty person. In fact I had no interest in any sporting activity until someone persuaded me into a boat, and now, 7 years later and with the zeal of the converted, I’d like the whole world to try it. I want others to have access to the benefits I’ve found and I’m lucky enough to be a member of a club, Castle Semple, which feels the same way.

Castle Semple Rowing Club is family friendly, open doors kind of a place – run by volunteers. We’ve put a lot of energy into getting people into our sport and in the past 5 years have put ten people through Level 2 coach training, almost doubled our active membership, and have thriving junior and novice adult sections.

The one thing we can’t currently offer is dedicated facilities for those who don’t have full use of their legs. We’re almost there - the clubhouse is wheelchair friendly, two of our members have undertaken special training with Scottish and GB rowing but we lack a dedicated boat.  We can modify one of our training boats with a fixed seat but the operation requires an hour to set up and another to re-rig. We’ve managed for over a year now, with a lot of effort and one patient club-member, but we realize that we can’t encourage any more people to take up para-rowing unless we buy a dedicated boat.

We need £2500 for a Swift adaptive single* (pics above) and anything I can raise towards this sum will help.

The challenge.

The Boston Rowing Marathon (Boston UK not USA, yes its confusing) is an annual 50k (31 mile) race between Lincoln and Boston in the East of England, taking place this year on Sunday 15 September.

It’s a tough race. I know, I’ve completed it twice before but in a double. With the power of my doubles partner, Lesley, off-setting my totally atypical rowing build (short, with shorter legs), we made it in 4 hours 30 mins. I’m hoping to do it alone this time, in 5.  

This won’t be easy. Training is hard enough, I’ve already got blisters on parts of my anatomy the sun never sees. Five hours (or more) of continuous effort, will place a great strain on my body and especially on my brain. The body will carry on as long as it’s told to but after about 30k I will need to persuade myself that it’s worth pushing on, that I can overcome the pain in legs, arms, hands and derriere.

That’s where you come in. If you sponsor me, help me raise funds towards the adaptive boat, I will have an obligation to continue. I will feel I owe it to you, and to everyone who contributes to my Just Giving page, to carry on, at speed, to the very end.

So please, donate anything you can: help me to make it to the end, to complete in time, and most of all, to help my club spread the joys of rowing a little further.

 

Caroline

*http://www.rowingcentre.co.uk/sfb_adaptive.htm

Thanks to Rowing Centre for use of images