180km. 4 days. PAIN!

    About a year ago I had a crazy idea. That is, crazier than my usual ideas…

         I had been volunteering for Beat for a couple of years but had recently increased my awareness/media work, and so decided it was about time I dabbled in the fundraising aspect to my Young Ambassador role. Simple, right? But the problem with having an anorexic personality is that I’m a perfectionist: I didn’t want to do something easy; I wanted to step outside my comfort zone, push myself to the limits and do something which had never been done before.

        That was when it dawned on me. Rowing had been the main factor in helping me maintain my recovery at uni – due to the need for good nutrition to build physical strength in order to succeed – so it seemed fitting to combine the two. As a small club, we didn’t have the resources to cross the channel or row around the British coast, but I realised we could plausibly row 180km down the Thames from Oxford to London, which no all-female crew has attempted before! I suggested it to the rest of my crew, fully expecting it to be taken as just another of my wild ideas, but was pleasantly surprised when they all immediately replied saying they would love to! I’m still not sure whether that was the start of something great, or bad news because it meant that from that point on there was no turning back.

The squad taking part.

        Rowing is a really good way to meet people in other year groups and also form a really close friendship group – seeing each other at 6am every morning on the river means you inevitably become attached to each other. This close bond and camaraderie has equipped us well for the gruelling training schedule we have had to undergo in preparation for the event because it has enabled everyone to support each other through the pain of icy mornings on the water, hours at a time spent on the rowing machines and murderous circuit sessions. Our closeness is also the thing which we will be relying on most during the journey to keep us motivated and upbeat throughout, despite the inevitable excruciating muscle ache and horrific weeping palm blisters.

        The theme for Eating Disorder Awareness Week this year was ‘Everybody knows somebody’ – a phrase which has really rung true in discussing individual crew members’ reasons for taking part. As I discovered when we were asked to give a crew interview, nearly every one of them has been exposed to eating disorders either personally, or through family and friends! Francesca (20) summed up her motivation, saying:

“Watching my sister fight her ED means I have not been shielded from the real difficulties sufferers face - not just in their minds, but also from the stigma society holds against them. Every painful training session seems worth it if it can help to fight for better treatment for sufferers of EDs.”

        With a matter of days to go before the launch, we are all quickly becoming a complex mixture of excited and terrified, and so would really appreciate any support we can get – be it financial or in cheers from the river bank along the way (get in touch at esther.rich@ccc.ox.ac.uk if you’d like to know the timings).

If you’d like to help make our pain worthwhile, support us at: www.justgiving.com/londonrow

    Anyone in the London area is also very welcome to come to our finish party at ‘The Dove’ on Hammersmith Bridge – 3.30pm on Wednesday 26^th June.