So, obviously this month kicked off with the Olympic regatta at Eton Dorney. So great to watch all the fantastic rowers competing and so pleased we did so well.

It was very handy for me for two reasons - Firstly I was able to just sit on the ergo for ages watching rowing but also it helped me gain a gold medal in the concept2 'Rowlympics'. I managed to row for 15hrs 15mins 19secs throughout the Olympics, really quite chuffed with that as I was one of only 49 Brits to gain a gold medal out of 1735 competitors. And GB did really well again coming 2nd to the USA.

The biggest news/event this month was my 100km row for The Meningitis Trust at the Decathlon sports store at Lakeside near Dartford in Kent.

In the run up to this event I was doing longer distance pieces as opposed to my normal 10km a day. So I was building up distances to 20-30-40km at a time and on consecutive days, to hopefully help me through the 100km.

So the day of my 100km, I had a hearty breakfast of a small bowl of porridge, then a small fry up of sausages, egg and black pudding, which was very nice and kept me going for ages.

When we arrived at Decathlon I was hoping to be in store which is air conditioned but no, I was put in the exit area, between 2 sets of sliding doors during what turned out to be the hottest day of the year. I did have one fan though!

I started rowing quite nicely and in less than 3 hours had completed a marathon (42,195 meters), so I was feeling good, if not a little hot. After that the sun came out instead of the slightly over cast day it had been and it started to get really hot.

It was at this time I decided to have a drink break every 2500 metres because I was sweating so much. By the end of the day I had drunk about 10 litres of water, all with only one loo break.

I had read somewhere before this challenge about someone doing a 24hr row and that they had stretched off every hour, so this was a strategy that I thought I would incorporate. The sports masseur I saw a couple of days later said that because I had done that I was in a much better condition than he was expecting and why within 5-6 days of completing the challenge I was pretty much fully recovered.

Everything was fine up to 80,000 metres but after this it started to get a bit tougher. I think the rowing equivalent of hitting the wall when running a marathon is about 83,000 metres & at that point it was just like rowing through treacle, every stroke was really hard work and co-ordination was really not good. I'm not sure how much of this was down to the after effects of Meningitis or if this is normal as I've never spoken to anyone else that has completed a 100km row. I had the support of my wife, Miriam, as well as a few friends. throughout the day but it was the help from my rowing partner Neil that kept me focused on what I was doing and made me break things down into smaller chunks.

After all that time there was no way that I was not going to finish, it was just a matter of how long. I had originally wanted to get in under 8hrs but with the heat there was no way to achieve that. After 8hrs 26mins 45secs it was all over and I stepped off the ergo and collapsed on the floor for a bit. We worked out later that it's like doing 10,200 sit ups...lol

But it was all worth it in the end when we added up all the money from the collection tins and discovered that I had raised £293.00 for the Meningitis Trust.

Lessons learnt for next time are I wish I had know in advance that if I had used Row Pro for the whole challenge, then it would have given me an endless count up and it also waits if you stop rowing for any reason. Unfortunately the Concept2 monitor I was using stopped at 50,000 meters & didn't pause long enough for me to have a toilet break but I took a picture of the screen so that was fine.

I am really glad I have done this as you never know what you can achieve until you have a go and I'm already thinking of doing another one.

As always, this is all in aid of The Meningitis Trust. You can sponsor me here http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/DarrenSimmons

Cheers

Darren