All at once...

Well now, what a brilliant last weeks the Oar Raisers have had...

Firstly a thank you to Cambridgeshire County Council Pensions, HR and
Legal departments for their efforts at a fundraising raffle on behalf of
Parkinson's UK - you've all been incredibly supportive thus far and it
is greatly appreciated.

On Sunday 26th of October both the Oar Raisers went down to Richmond to
attend the Woodvale seminar, arriving some four hours later than
intended (traffic was appalling) we were hacked off, tired, hungry and
somewhat disheartened. However, finding that the other competitors had
left and the remaining faces were all the event organisers from Woodvale
we took the opportunity to go over every concern we had. It actually
ended up working in our favour as we had valuable time with people we're
going to be dealing with over the next 14 months. They proved to be a
fantastic source of information and were very friendly and welcoming,
they even showed us a Hungarian designed ocean rowing boat that they
were moving to a harbour. It is difficult to convey any understanding of
just how exciting it is to see a boat similar to one which you are going
to live on for up to three months but she was a beautiful and aggressive
looking boat as though built to spear through steal - I ran my had along
the surface, tentative and electric.

On Monday 27th of October Rower 2 closed the HeaterMeals deal and
secured food supplies from the company with the potential for some
financial support later. A big thank you to Mr Jeffry Fox at HeaterMeals
we both look forward to working closely with him on our campaign.


The Saturday 2nd of October arrived and at 8 am we began our second
twelve hour row at Dw Fitness, I was not looking forward to this session
as I felt under prepared physically but setting up and watching Tom
glide through his first shift put me at ease a little. By the end of the
day we were both coaching each other through and motivating one another.
Tom sustained major glute spasms and a few heal blisters - the pain was
obvious from the discolouration in his face let alone the look of a man
about to break... But he pushed through and completed and that is what
this challenge is really about, it's a battle against yourself as much
as anything else, the metal aspect begins to grind you and convince you
that you have no more to give, that everything you had wasn't good
enough and that you just have to stop... but if you're an Oar Raiser you
will not be beaten, and he wasn't. Pushing yourself beyond your physical
capability is essential training and conquering your own will to give up
is vital in surviving. Rower 1 I applaud you!...


Please also note that the deadline for tickets to our Black tie dinner event
is this Friday (08/10/10) we are still looking to fill a fair number of places
so if you have friends family or colleagues that would be interested then
please invite them and confirm with us...

Also visit www.oarraisers.co.uk