Having someone pass away in front of your eyes is enough to blow away the confidence of any person. With so much cancelled last year there was little part of me that was starting to wonder whether anything would go right. The came the Southern Indoor rowing championships and while it wasn’t perfect it was enough to give me the first step on the ladder to achieve my aims this year. It was consume my week from Wednesday 13th February to Sunday the 17th February when I finally dropped the van off. I can honestly say I was responsible for over six hundred people racing.

The Thursday saw us set up the machines with the first group of children arriving in the afternoon. The schools from around Hampshire arrived to compete in the after school competition. Friday featured every single year from Bellemoor school in Southampton compete against each other. The Saturday featured the most diverse age range out of the three days. It started with Katie Metalli and finished with Charles Morely. Katie beat the boys in her age group and won the first gold medal of the day. Charles Morely was the oldest competitor of the race at seventy six. The manic team races follow and 500m followed. There were gremlins but the day worked out and I was grateful to everyone that competed. We got the machines back to Nottingham and had to turn around on a penny then come back to Southampton at 1am on Sunday morning.

I however had to get the van back to Dorchester. Leaving at 5am I drove back to Dorchester leaving the van at U Drive. Any ordinary person at this point would have stopped and rested. I however had a commitment to row on the ferry. I grabbed my car, drove back to Southampton and got to the Red Funnel ferry in time for the first sailing at 9.20. Where I summed up the energy to row 40km on the ferry I don’t know.

If I can master the determination and skills I will make all the targets I’m aiming at. I of course caught up with my rest, my heads not just a hat rack my friend!