Page 14 - RADC Bulletin 2022

Indoor Rowing
LCpl Nikki Lawson-Kelly
I have been competing on and off for a
few years in indoor rowing and was lucky enough to submit an article with the RADC Bulletin back in 2017 for my efforts in the indoor sport. I competed in the English Championships and a few Concept2 World Records and British Record Races including 100km tandem and 100km sprints. My plan was to compete for the Army as I was at
my fitness peak, however later that year I fell pregnant with my first child Willow so rowing took a back seat for some time. I
fell pregnant with Holly shortly after having Willow so rowing was put on the back burner for another year.
I returned to work in Sep 20 and started to think about indoor rowing again. I had a long way to go so I became part of the Regional Army Indoor League (AIRL) and began to participate in the monthly challenges.
In September 2021 I read on the AIRL Facebook group that they were calling for rowers to be part of the British Army Indoor Rowing Team. At this point I had limited racing experience and I wasn’t sure if I would be suitable. After some convincing from my husband who urged me to apply, I did. I had to submit a 2km best effort time and a 500m sprint time. Once my form was submitted
it was a case of waiting to find out if I had made the cut!
My application was successful, I had made it into the Army Rowing Team and my first official race would be in two weeks’ time in Cardiff for the Welsh Indoor Rowing
Championships competing in the 2km sprint, 500m sprint and the 2km relay.
I arrived in Cardiff and was met by all the other team members and issued with Army Rowing uniforms. It was all becoming real and within a few hours I would be racing alongside other rowers from all over the country. We cheered each other on and soon it was my time to warm up and prepare to race, so my team members and I warmed
up and moved onto our racing Erg where it was wired up to a large screen for the entire crowd to see. It was nerve wracking, no real training and my first race in over 3 years.
It was time, the screen read “STOP ROWING”...”PREPARE TO ROW”...”ROW” my 2km had begun and I could see by my monitor that I was fluttering between first and second place. It was neck and neck between me and my team member (AMS) finally the last 500m approached and I just rowed as hard as I could for as long as I could. I was lucky enough to win silver, my first race back and I won a medal. I couldn’t believe it. I was chuffed and exhausted! Just two more races to go.
After stretching, refuelling and cheering on my teammates it was time to race again, this time the dreaded 500m sprint. I was ready, slightly fatigued from the 2km however ready to go! I just had to hold on, I crossed the finish line with a bronze medal ...my tank was empty.
Relay time - 4 of us would compete over a distance of 2km. This was the hardest
race as we were competing against a lot
of universities and younger rowers. This
was the most exciting race I have been
in for a long time, it was neck and neck between us and a university team. We kept switching from 1st to 2nd place; the crowd were screaming. I was the last on the rowing machine with 375m to go and I knew that I would be ending the race as we would lose precious meters by switching over so I gave everything I had and managed to pull back the 9m lead held by our opposition and take the lead by 1m! We won gold.
Due to the pandemic many competitions were cancelled or made into virtual races, this was the case for our next 3 races of the season (The British Rowing Indoor Champs BRIC, The Scottish Indoor Rowing Champs
SPORT & AT
Pirbright David Goggins
4 x 4 x 48 Challenge
Lt Col Steve Davis
On 29 Jun Army Training Centre Pirbright started their group effort on the David Goggins 4 x 4 x 48 Challenge. The premise is simple; four miles to be run, every four hours for a total consecutive time of 48 hours. This covers 48 miles in total. While the distance per run is not exhaustive and the pace slow (10-11 minute miles) the timeframe and repetitiveness risked being the ‘killer.’
My desire for further Unit integration, facetime with the PAR and a healthy
disregard for sleep made the decision to apply an easy one. The Phase 1 ethos was strong in terms of admin and prep making sure that participants were in date for SCR and RFT and had fulfilled the necessary risk assessments.
Pre-existing work commitments, clinics and RHQ meetings were scheduled around this event but I was encouraged to attend
the runs that I could do, support the group and massively ‘lean in’ so arrangements were made with spare trainers, running kit, food and a chance to see what it’s like to sleep in the Dental Centre office.
The first run was scheduled for 16:00 29 Jun 22. I was able to run legs at midnight 30 Jun 22, 04:00, 07:00 (an 09:00 RHQ meeting meant that this was a lonesome 16 lap effort
12 RADC BULLETIN 2022