On September 24th in Newquay, Cornwall two DARC members, Hazel and Roger Stainforth were in world record setting indoor rowing activities in their respective age groups.
Organised by the Newquay Indoor Rowing Club, two teams of rowers from across the UK – and one man from France – set world records rowing in relay fashion to complete 100km on Concept 2 rowing machines. Each team member rowed for 200m or 20 strokes at their maximum pace before passing the handle to the next team member, so the action was continuous.
Hazel competed in a 60+ mixed team comprising 6 women and 3 men. They chose to row 200m sessions and, despite having to change rowing machines twice in the course of their 100km which they achieved with Grand Prix style efficiency, still managed to set a creditable record time of 6h 13m 48.0s.
60+ team members: Georgina Price, Denise Puzey, Marjorie Roome, Hazel Stainforth, Jill Underwood, Heather Yule, Joe Keating, Alain Mangin, Andy Osborn
Roger’s 8-man 70+ team had no equipment failure dramas. They chose 20 strokes, and settled into a remarkably consistent pattern of 1320m per rotation in setting a record time of 5h 49m 50.2s.
By the end of the row each team member had rowed for 77 sessions. For the statisticians they on average covered a distance of 162 metres at 35 strokes per minute. The average pace was 1 minute 44.9 seconds for every 500 metres.
After the event Roger commented “We have been competitors for over 10 years so I knew the calibre and determination of my teammates, every man performed to his limit and I was proud to be part of this GB team to set a first time world time record. Our target was 6 hours so we think we have put down a challenging time for next team to beat.”
70+ team members: Tommy Gee, John Gibbins, Peter Jones, Tony Lorrimer, Chris Marrow, Tim Sherriff, Roger Stainforth, Tom Yule.
There was no resting on her laurels for Hazel. After a journey from Cornwall home to Durham it was off to Glasgow to run in the Great Scottish Run half marathon on Sunday, 2 October. Accompanied by son, Richard, a former DARC member, she ran a commendable 2h 09m in her first half marathon. “The conditions were perfect but the last 2km were really hard. Perhaps the 100km relay wasn’t the best preparation but I wouldn’t have missed either”, a tired but very happy Hazel smiled.