On Saturday August the 2nd, I will be rowing 38 miles from Southend Beach, across the Thames Estuary and up the River Thames, with the intent to finish at the Olympic Stadium on the River Lea in Stratford, within about 8 hours.
Now given the distance is the same as 1.5 Marathons, I'll only be using my Arms, lower back and shoulders to do this. I should also point out that I've currently only spent 7 hours training in a boat due to tides/holidays and work commitments, so this is going to no small feat for somebody who passed their 50th Birthday two months ago. I have a great team in our boat, two of whom are also total novices like myself (There are Two Essex Members in our boat!!!). There are five of us in the boat, so we'll be rowing the whole way.
The boat is a coastal rowing gig. A fairly normal rowing boat, and nothing like you see on the Thames at Boatrace day. They are big, and heavy, and the first three hours is going to be against the tide coming down the estuary.
So why am I doing this?
The Thames Ironworks Heritage Trust (
www.tiht.org.uk) is intending to form a charitable trust business to provide training and employment for disadvantaged people in the poorest areas of East London. They will be learning boat building, carpentry and metalworking skills as well as customer service and general life skills.
How is this going to happen? The Trust is raising money to renovate three RNLI motorised lifeboats, built in the 1800's by the Thames Ironworks company, based on the banks of the Thames in East London. Once the money is raised, the renovation can begin and so can the training and employment. Once fully renovated, the Trust will run Pleasure tours for tourists around the Waterways of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. It is hoped that up to 90 jobs can be provided in an area which still has desperately low levels of employment.
How can you Help?
Well my 38 miles of agony is there for you to sponsor if you would be so kind. The Donation site is as follows:
www.mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/EnduranceRow (Ignore the security Certificate warning and continue to the website)
You can also come along and support. There is a fundraising event with bands and DJ's/comedy acts at Number90, Main Yard Hackney Wick From 3pm on Saturday the 2nd August.
http://90mainyard.co.uk/Thanks for your anticipated support
Andy
