As part of the celebration day events at Redwood on Friday 3rd July students across all key stages were challenged to row around the world on our five Concept2 rowing machines. Students could pop in and out of the challenge as and when they liked and as many times as they wanted. It did not matter if they rowed 1 meter or 1000 meters as they were rowing to the same destinations collectively as one team.

Our route saw us pass through, with the help of Google Earth, 18 destinations: Manchester - Paris - Rome - Istanbul - Jerusalem - Dubai - Beijing - Tokyo - Singapore - Melbourne - Auckland - Cook Islands - Hawaii - San Francisco - Las Vegas - Chicago - New York - London.

The distance was set at 49000 meters, we converted every meter rowed into 1km. and left Manchester in search of Paris at 9.30am. The students were phenomenal, constantly aiming for their next destination being able to view on screen where they were in the world. The determination was incredible; there was not an empty rowing machine all day long!

With the help of a programme called RowPro which connects the Concept2 rowing machines to a computer programme, students could see themselves rowing on screen as if they were rowing down rivers, over lakes and across oceans. This added to their desire to reach their goal.

By 11.00am the progress was outstanding; they had already reached Melbourne and were heading for Auckland. The school were well and truly up for the monstrous challenge that had been set for them.

By 12.20pm they reached their goal - they had arrived at London completing 49,000 meters equating to 49,000km. An unbelievable achievement for the school as a whole. But our students were not satisfied, they wanted to do the challenge again after a brief lunch break!

The second voyage commenced at 1pm and it was even more ambitious than the first attempt as we had less than 100 minutes to achieve our goal.

Again the students rose to the challenge as the first 5 rowers ploughed through Paris, Rome, Istanbul and Jerusalem and were already on their way to Dubai with only 13 minutes gone. The pace did not slow down either as all 5 rowing machines headed for London via a number of exotic locations.

We did not see much of the destinations we passed through as we were travelling so fast. We arrived in London only 94 minutes after setting off from Manchester, visiting 16 different destinations on the way!

Throughout the day the students collectively rowed 98,000m - a staggering achievement. A truly amazing day had by all and learning a vital message - never underestimate Redwood students!!!!!

David Butterworth
Sports Development Co-ordinator
Redwood Secondary School
Rochdale
Greater Manchester