Neil Rhodes: It was your average day when I read about the North Pole Marathon and thought, 'that's a wheeze'. So a few months later I was on my way. Of course if one is going to travel all that way, you want to make the most of your trip, so I naturally thought, 'take an erg', as I'm sure any dedicated ergonaut would do. The first stage of the journey is to get to Longyearbyen, on the island of Spitsbergen. This is the most Northerly, full service airport, one can fly to, and the launch point for our trip. Thanks to the excellent services of UPS, my erg was waiting for me when I arrived. From Spitsbergen we flew on a small Antonov cargo plane, to the Pole. It was a delight to see the look on the face of the plane's Russian loadmaster, as I walked across the tarmac to his plane carrying a small coffin (my erg). Even better, the look as he tilted his head sideways at the box to discover it was a rowing machine. I think he is still scratching his head in bewilderment. On landing at the Pole, 4:30 am, my erg and I swiftly headed for a tent and bed. Doesn't everyone sleep with their erg? Cutting this long story short, I ran the marathon the next day, my first marathon, finishing 12th out of 53 runners. The next day I got the erg out in the snow, to set the new world record, 'The Most Northerly Row ever carried out, Outdoors, on an Indoor Rower'. Once the photographer was done, I was taking the erg back inside, when cries of Non, non, un moment. This was fellow runner and good friend, Phillippe Moreau, desperate for the photo opportunity, to show his rower friends at home. There was also another point to the row. I have seen some water rowers, wearing t-shirts that state 'Ergs don't float'. Well, my erg was happily sat on water, with no floatation aids whatsoever. Let's get this right, an erg on top of 12,000ft of water, nothing but water for miles…HELLO, BREAKING NEWS...THE ERG FLOATS. I'll be having t-shirts made shortly. More plans for trips with my erg, so watch this space. Talking of space, does anyone have a number for NASA?