Latest and first long Row:

Ok guys, it's competition time... As you know we are now branded as the Oar Raisers and have T-shirts for sale, If you buy a T-shirt from us we want you to take a photo of yourselves wearing it at a location of your choice... So far we have one picture from the lovely British seaside town of Wells-next-the-sea but there are photos to come from Ireland, Scotland, India, Thialand and Afghanistan!... There is a great priz for the best picture (judged by us) and there is also a boobie prize for the most boring or mundane...

So please please please send us your pics which we upload here and to a flikr stream - by doing this you are helping to promote us and our cause and help the charity, it's global social network advertising campaign with you guys driving it!... so as I always say "Get it Done!...

Ok that bit done, I also have to tell you that we survived our first long row on Sunday, We arrived at the gym at 7:30 am and set ourselves up for the day - side by side we waited patiently for the first shift to begin. At 8:00 am I began the first 2 hour slog, the longest either of has rowed continuosly. It was clear to me that I would have to keep a steady but realistic pace, concentrating on technique and making sure I wasn't exerting any unnecessary energy, with this in mind I manged to keep my thoughts active and push through the first few barries of pain, only to look up and realise I had another 1hour 40 minutes ahead!... as I kept my movement smooth and constant Tom and I talked and made sure of how we felt about this next 12 hours... A real help actually is talking to each other, no matter the subject even if at times we both had to talk drivel. Had we not I'm not sure i could have completed the row without dying from an overpowering sense of boredom.

Rowing on water is a gloriously exhilerating feeling and conjures all manner of thought trains but sitting in front of a mirror on an Ergo is quite the antithesis... So much so that we summoned a laptop and DVD's to get us through, delivered by the dutiful Abigail who also sat for sometime boosting our morale and making sure we had enough food. On a row that long we were burning in the region of 5000 calories and we are still supposed to be gaining weight, so as not to be eating at a defecit we literally devoured a whole chicken, one loaf of bread, one pack of cookies, four chicken breats wrapped in bacon, some chicken skeweres and two bowls of pasta with four fish cakes oh and a pack of beef jerky!... I was also lucky enough to come home to a massive roast beef dinner (thank you Abi).

This was a particularly hard training session both physically and mentally, post game I think we both felt quite drained and somewhat subdued. There was no nicer feeling than getting into a bath that evening, except of course the problem with getting into a bath is you adopt a certain mode of entry (I am sure this is standard for much of the bathing world) - using both arms on the sides of the bath you lower yourself feet first then legs fully submerged your rump slowly takes the strain and pressure from the arms as you lie back and drift off into warm comforting serenity. This is not as simple as all that for us, any amount of pressure on the backside, no matter how small, is just not an option. Sitting on the floor is no good, sitting up in bed in the middle of the night and yelping like a smacked puppy is a shameful occurance I think we will both have to learn to live with... walking is also not that easy. Surprisingly though cycling is a good option on the way to work Monday morning as I can stand up and just coast down the path with no real effort...

We have no sent out the invtes for our November black tie do, so if you have one please respond by the 8th of October as per your invitation. This week sees The Oar Raisers back on the river, doing their weight lifting session and ever so slightly sore...

Mega Busy, Massive Excitement, Hard Work...

Hello everyone and sorry for the delay in our latest update, the last few weeks have been hectic to say the very least...
Firstly the apology is necessary due a technical problem with my Macbook which annoying took far longer to sort than originally anticipated. As a result of the uncharacteristic bad customer service displayed by the Apple store I have been incommunicado, I must say, however, that after a talk with the store manager and an apple Genius my irritation has been quelled. I now have a brand new Macbook with a full 1 year warranty and half a year more to transfer from my old cover, further to this the new model is far more advance and the processor of a much higher spec... At no charge to myself!... That is customer service!

So thank you very much Miss V. and Mr D. at the GA Apple store, you have been truly wonderful today.

Now down to Oar Raiser business, firstly I have had the most fortuitous conversation with a man that owns HeaterMeals - I contacted him with the objective of getting some kinda of product/services sponsorship for our trip - I had not realised at the time that he himself suffers from Parkinson's. He called to ask if we were genuine and if we would like to meet as he has a particular interest in us as we are doing this in aid of Parkinson's UK... The thing that is really amazing is that he actually sponsored the food supplies for the Ben Fogel and James Cracknell team a few years ago - further to which he wants to help us and has set up a meeting for the end of September in London the day after our first Woodvale seminar. Actually quite a moving and very motivational conversation was had between us and I am more proud to be involved in this everyday ...

We now have two official corporate sponsors, although we are still ten's of thousand's of pounds from our target it is at least looking more realistic and it has instilled in us a new thirst - knowing that people have faith in us drives us harder, better, faster and stronger each day (not to quote DaftPunk)...

So a heartfelt thank you goes out to Deritend Industries this week on behalf of the Oar Raisers.

Several new fundraisers to be announced in the coming weeks, our new Fundraising Manager (Abigail Smith) has removed some of the pressure from us by organising things and getting stuck into some of the admin side of the Oar Raisers glamourous world... It is a hard job for anyone especially someone who has never taken up a challenge on this scale, she has taken to it very well and seems to be making good headway so far - So a thank you from both of us to Abigail.

A new training program this week has been drawn up for the next three months, tomorrow is our first 10k Row on the Concept 2 machines... The program was devised off the cuff and completely out of the goodness of his heart by a PT Instructor (Ben Simons from DW Fitness) massive massive thanks and respect to him for all his help and support.

We will endeavour, now, to keep the updates more regular, especially seeing as I have this new Mac I have no excuse... So please keep reading and following us and if you do have any suggestions, advice or queries please just drop us a line by phone or email. Thank you all and good night.