In the last weekend of August, three medical students from Nottingham are planning to complete one of the great endurance challenges and row 1,000,000 metres in the fastest time possible. They aim to do this by rowing around the clock in aid of SPARKS, a charity which funds pioneering research to improve the lives of children. They will be setting off on the 25th of August at David Lloyd Health & Fitness Centre at Aspley Lane, in Nottingham, and hopefully finishing sometime before September.If you're not quite sure how far a million metres is, it's further than the distance from London to Paris and back, which works out at approximately 24 marathons or 9,942 football pitches. This will take about 150,000 strokes of the rowing machine and will take them a minimum of four days. They will each use up to 9,838 kcal per day – more than Lance Armstrong used on the toughest stage of the Tour de France. In one day they'll use up the same amount of fat as there is in 19 doner kebabs, the same protein as 1.9kg of chicken (that's 16 chicken breasts), and as much carbohydrate as you'd find in 23 regular bowls of pasta. The boys are not finely tuned, adrenaline craving, athletic machines, but rather they are a group of students who have given up the beers and kebabs in order to fit their training in around their hectic 9-5 schedule. They were recently uplifted by Sir Steve Redgrave who sent the boys a personal message of support for the challenge and told them to enjoy the pain you will go through. SPARKS is a wonderful charity and I wish you the best of luck. For more information, make sure you check out their website at http://www.millionmetrerow.com to see how their training is going. They also need to raise as much money as possible in aid of SPARKS, which you can do so via their online donations page at http://www.justgiving.com/themillionmetrerowchallenge.