First impressions.

 It was a shame, when we went to Rannoch Adventure, that for understandable reasons, the awning blocked the view of the boat as she sat on her trestles, but you get the idea. Compared to some of the single scull craft that were also in the yard, she is a big boat. It is immediately obvious, however,  that with 12 of us on board, it is going to be 'busy'.

By the time there are 6 of us on the oars with 6 resting, eating or, resting or eating.... it will feel small enough.

Since going to Burnham on Crouch for the open day, I have concentrated on training and not much else. True, I've enjoyed spending money on new toys, - waterproof gear, seat pads, shoes, shades, waterproof socks - , etc, but essentially at the moment there is not much else to do other than train.

A month or so ago, Chris (work colleague), and I took on the Norwich nearly 100. Fair play to Chris, who had completed the Ride London only the weekend before, but if your unwise enough to suggest that you're thinking of taking on the Norwich 100, whilst in the same room as me, you can't be surprised when I offer to do it with you.

x- Royal Airforce and x- Royal Navy, there was going to be no backing down. The challenge was set and taken up and 5 hours and 24 minutes, was a fair crack for the 97 miles we charted around central north Norfolk.

From now on in, this is what an average week might look like. And on that note, I'm off to the gym.

I've also spent a bit of time reading 'Mind over Water' lessons on life from the art of rowing, part of the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance genre and it has helped to clarify a few things for me and is well worth a read whether you are a rower or not. In the end, the vehicle is not improtant, what is, is trying to achieve the best version of yourself. Sometimes you can only do this by trying to find your limits. 

'In the boats, we explore the concepts that underlie creation. The raw elements of the sport are our treachers: the wind and the water, the boat and its oars, our own bodies and minds.' Craig Lambert Mind over Water.

Training and beyond

As Joshua Antcliffe, the Fundraising and Events Co-ordinator at the Benjamin Foundation starts to work on the fund-raising campaign and my part in it, I have had my first Teams meeting with the my new crew mates.

I guess it should have come as no surprise that with few exceptions, they are all either ex-military or retired Police Officers. The boat is going to be shipshape and disciplined if nothing else! 

From the brief mentions of previous adventures, there is also a wealth of experience in there and I find myself confronted by the reality that this challenge is certainly going to be a lot more than just dealing with physical and mental hardship. I am already wondering if I would match up and be able to hold my own. But then that is exactly why I wanted to take this on, right?

Knowing in advance that your crew partners are going to be fit and strong, is a great motivation for driving your own training and I have embarked on a weekly combination of cycling, rowing, swimming and weight training. For interest and by way of a log, I will record each session here as I do them. Sometimes they may appear simply as a diary entry, but if anything accompanies it to make it worthy of a blog, I'll be sure to expand on it.

In early December I determined to join two of my colleagues from the surgery that I work at as a Paramedic Practitioner in Mulbarton, Norwich, who were due to run the Blickling half marathon on the 17th March.  A few months earlier we had suffered the devastating loss of our friend and manager, Hilary Taylor. Her husband, Mark, was doing the half as a warm up to the London marathon that he takes on in her memory in two weeks time and Sarah, (for whom Hilary was both mentor and confidante), agreed to train with him and do the Blickling run as her ultimate goal.

Within a month of this terrible loss, my cycling training partner Dave, someone I flatter myself to know as friend, also passed away. They were both attended by the East of England Air Ambulance to whom we are indebted and for whom Sarah, Mark and I have fund-raising pages still open if you too have been helped by them and wish to help with their life-saving work. 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/hilary-taylor-wife-to-mark-mother-friend 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/dave-collier-a-huge-heart-and-familiar-back-wheel

I used to run often. In truth as a child, I probably ran everywhere and ran x-country at school and endlessly for fun thereafter, but it is easy to forget that age can be unkind to your memory and your knees. So when I went from nothing to two half-marathon distance runs, two weekends in a row in the space of 6 weeks, it should not have surprised me when my left knee blew up and reminded me why I had stopped running 10 years ago. It was a reminder, however, that these things are largely mental and that like any other endurance challenge, once you are determined to finish, if your head says you will, then you will even if your body's not that keen.

Nov 28   Indoor Rowing    1 hour 9 mins

Nov 29   Indoor Rowing    32 mins

Dec 3     Indoor Rowing    44 mins

Dec 3     Indoor Rowing    1 Hour 10 mins

Dec 4     Running               56 mins

Dec 9    Indoor Rowing     2 Hours 10 mins

Dec 11    Running              44 mins

Dec 13    Indoor Rowing     1 hour 8 mins

Dec 14     Indoor Cycle       20 mins

Dec 14     Cycle                 1 Hour 37

Dec 17    Indoor Rowing    33 mins

Dec 23    Indoor Rowing    33 mins

Dec 23    Indoor Rowing    35 mins

Dec 25    Indoor Rowing    30 mins

Dec 25    Running               53 mins

Dec 26    Cycling                1 hour 58 mins

Dec 31    Running                1 Hour 38 mins   

The Benjamin Foundation Trans-Atlantic Row 2024

In the next chapter of the Johnny Giant adventure series, I head to La Gomera in the Canaries. Starting on the 1st December this year (2024), I finally get to realise a long-held dream of rowing across the Atlantic Ocean. 

Since this is a blog that started way back in 2010 and has had a number of long breaks, it's worth a brief summary to bring you all up to speed and hopefully draw in some new and interested followers.

My library, as I like to call it, for it is a room largely filled with wall to wall book shelves, has a section almost entirely given to adventure stories. They are the classics, Ernest Shackleton's, 'South', Kurt Diemburger's 'The White Spider',  and Sir Ranolf Feinnes' 'Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know', but there are so many more from the early days of mountaineering, polar adventures and circumnavigations of the globe, either by sea or north and south via the poles. I devoured them all when I was younger and wondered what it was that made these men and women the pioneers that they certainly were. The world has changed immeasurably in the intervening years and whilst you still have to be driven, accessability it really can be said is determined by money and the willingness of someone far more experienced to lead whoever can pay. I have no doubt that it is a first world luxury, but I'm equally sure it's what you do with this opportunity that determines at least an element of its acceptability, for in the end, we all make choices about how we spend our spare time.

So I'm not a Sir Ranulph Feinnes or Sir Chris Bonnington, in fact I'm as far from that as I can imagine it's possible to be, but I still want to stretch myself, to learn and share, and hope that in some small way, my little adventures will encourage some, help others and even enthrall a group of followers who take something from the bloke next door, who just pushes the boundaries of every day, just a little bit further than most.

I'm not doing anything new, but as Margaret Dye, -the late wife of the ocean sailing maverick Frank Dye, who sailed his Wayfarer dinghy to Spitzburgen and beyond-, said to me when I ventured that rowing the Atlantic wasn't something that hadn't been done before, 'No', she said, 'but you haven't done it!' (Margaret Dye was then in her 90s, and she absolutely 'got it!').

Since 2010, when I cycled from Lands' End to John O'Groats via the 3 peaks, (see previous blog posts https://johnnygiant-lejog4samaritans.blogspot.com/), there have been three attempts at the trans-continental bike race, a completion of the trans-Atlantic way race down the west coast of Ireland, (1100 miles in 7 days), a ride from Aberystwyth to Lowestoft in a fraction over 25 hours and countless miles of walking, running and cycling in between. In each case, I have tried to raise awareness and money for numerous charities. The NSPCC, The Samaritans, Breast Cancer UK, The East of England Air Ambulance and now I start a new partnership with the Benjamin Foundation.

 Back in 2010, I set out to ride my brother's old Giant mountain bike from Lands End to John O'Groats. If you cast your eye over the old blog posts here, you will see that I took a somewhat circuitous route via, Snowdon, Sca Fell and Ben Nevis. A journey that took me 3 weeks through some of the most beautiful countryside the west coast of the UK has to offer.

At the time, I was riding to raise money for the Samaritans in memory of my cousin William, who tragically took his own life a few months previously. We still hold you in our hearts.

In the intervening 11 years my cycling has taken on a slightly different bent, riding longer distances on an altogether different bike and in a completely different style. Having met the late inspirational Mike Hall, through the Transcontinental Race, rides of late have been light weight and long. The record to date, 304 miles non stop from Aberystwyth to Lowestoft.

This summer though I am pulling the old workhorse from her stable. She is as strong and reliable as ever and oh so much more comfortable to ride and I am being joined by my eldest son George, now 13 and my daughter Anna, as we head to Arran for a week of touring, walking, wildlife watching and wild camping. I cannot wait! 

Incidentally George and his mum met up with me in Snowdonia all the years ago, along with my old old friend Caber, then 10 whom you can see looking a little unsure about being placed on the trig point atop Snowdon all those years ago.

So, I hope that you will join me again for a new adventure and tales with johnnygiant here at johnnygiant.blogspot.com. Let's go.