As some of you may know, for the past decade I have been partaking in rowathlons, which instead of the swim involves rowing on a Concept 2 ergometer, which you can try in most gyms, and what Steve Redgrave was shown falling off in exhaustion in a BBC Olympic trailer. As the ‘erg’ requires little specialized skill to use, the BTF is currently promoting ‘dry tris’ in gyms based on it plus the stationary bike and treadmill. The trick is to stay within your anaerobic threshold on the row, as the temptation is to push hard in that head-to-head situation instead of investing the same energy more profitably in the bike and run.

Multisport and cross-training event organizer Will Whitmore of www.dbmax.co.uk does a very nice job keeping the coterie of about 40 rowathletes going with a national series sponsored by www.trybike.co.uk and the medical campaign and support group Prostate UK. The events show a good attention to detail, and are held on traffic-free circuits which make for good spectatorship and fewer hazards, with bouncy castles and catering to keep supporters happy. This year’s events were at Mallory Park in Leicestershire in May (which I didn’t attend because I was tapering for the European Tri Champs), Castle Combe in Wiltshire and Palmer Stadium, Reading on August 10^th and 16^th respectively. There is also a large annual rowathlon, the Rower’s Revenge, organized by Marlow Rowing Club on 5^th October this year <http://www.marlowrowingclub.org.uk/information.asp?page=344>, which is no longer part of the series.

This year I did both Castle Combe and Reading, and enjoyed myself. The events are no longer dominated by former world Ultrafit champion and current sub-nine-hour Ironmaner Hywel Davies and top duathlete Dan Staite, but Lee Rankin, certainly in the same class, is still a major presence. For the first of my rowathlons at Castle Combe, Lee opted for the duathlon at the same event instead. This allowed me to dash for the line and win by 8 seconds after equalling the second run time of the GB elite Wayne Smith in the duathlon (though he had just ridden 8% faster than me on the bike!). I also broke last year’s PB for the course, set in much better conditions, by some 6 seconds. There was a nice report in the Wiltshire Times: http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/display.var.2425598.0..php

At the Reading event last weekend, Lee was competing in both the rowathlon and the duathlon, and so was set to win the series, since it was two to count, and he had already won the Mallory Park event in May. We got off the rowers around the same moment, but he shot past me in T1, showing how many valuable seconds can be gained just by being organized, practised and sprinting your way through – those seconds would be more costly anywhere else. The bike was 14 laps around the 460m track: a mere hint of the excitement we’ve been witnessing from the Olympic velodrome. I overtook a few of the athletes, including rowers, who had dismounted the ergs ahead of me, before going into seven laps of the running track, where I passed the ever-sporting James Hart, whom I had pipped the previous week. Having done this event several times, I was pleased to record a PB by some 50 seconds, even though Lee stretched out his T1 lead to win by about the same margin, in a new course record (TBC). The first woman at Reading was Sue Regan-Watts, a veteran who cycles and runs very strongly, in 37:37, while at Castle Combe it was Louise Dobby who was 13th overall in 1.04:19.

Prostate UK Castle Combe Rowathlon 2008:

Prostate UK Reading Rowathlon 2008: