I have read various accounts of 100,000m events. What does it mean when the participants say they pull at 1:10? How long are they supposed to keep this going?-----------------------------------1:10 refers to the 500m split time (that is, the time it would take to row 500m if you carried on rowing at that pace). In terms of how long people keep this going, well firstly you need to be built like a brick outhouse to even do this at all and secondly, it all depends on the team's tactics. Many teams have a system where they rotate rowers every 10-20 strokes, which helps to prevent the build-up of lactic acid and allows people to pull flat-out.